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Santa Claus

SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
edited December 2006 in General Banter
I have heard people telling how they learned that "there is no Santa Claus" and what a shock it was for them.

I remember being taken to see Father Christmas at Harrods and Selfridge's and Whiteleys in London as a child but I cannot remember ever thinking he was 'real'. Perhaps that is why I have so little difficulty in giving credit to the truth hidden within other myths.

Do you remember a time when Santa Claus was more than a story to you?

Comments

  • CelebrinCelebrin
    edited December 2006
    nope... same as u, i never was really bothered.. or thought of him as real..

    i suppose at an early age, you can pick up from the ppl around you that its blatently false.. not to mention how there seems to be movies featuring Santa... movies ain't reel.. and when you see 5 guys dressed as Santa in 1 day.. and they all look different.. lol..

    i dunno.. whens the last time u met someone with 1 pair of clothes, who has lived for hundreds of years and not aged..? who comes down your chimney at night... :P even for a kid thats pretty stupid

    i remember my sister.. trying to shock me telling me he wasn't real.. and i was like "yes.. i know.." My mum still goes on about him being real.. sigh i guess out of habit and 'the xmas spirit'
  • FrizzerFrizzer
    edited December 2006
    What do you mean he's not real?! :eekblue:
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited December 2006
    Frizzer wrote:
    What do you mean he's not real?! :eekblue:


    One of my friends said that there are three stages of belief in Father Christmas: first we believe he's real (I can't remember that bit), then we believe he isn't and, finally, we discover that he is. I could never quite explain what he meant but I agree all the same.

    Roll on the Hogfather!
  • CelebrinCelebrin
    edited December 2006
    if hes real as in an embodiment of the ppl.. and a part of everyone's compassionate gift giving..

    then he must be real!
  • KungaTashiKungaTashi
    edited December 2006
    my wife works at a local TGI Fridays and the man, Kris Kringle, eats there quite frequently. NO LIE! It says so on his identification, credit cards, etc. I swear to you all, he is real.

    Maybe Simons brief hypothesis is right on???
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited December 2006
    Celebrin wrote:
    if hes real as in an embodiment of the ppl.. and a part of everyone's compassionate gift giving..

    then he must be real!

    This is precisely the same process as I have experienced anent compassion itself!
  • MartinofNorwichMartinofNorwich
    edited December 2006
    I like Simon's three stages of belief! I can remember believing in Father Christmas, and being absolutely astonished when I realised that he wasn't real. Mercenary child that I was, what I couldn't get my head round was - why hadn't my parents wanted to take the credit for the presents I got? I had to be a parent myself before understanding that one.

    Martin.
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited December 2006
    The idea of Santa Claus was destroyed for me at a very early age. I don't think it did much harm.

    Not long ago, my son said, "Dad... I believe I have discovered an awful truth."

    He was sitting in a room with some other younger kids (he's 11) and I told him that maybe some awful truths were too awful to be shared with younger children - just so he would shut his yap instead of crushing other little ones.

    But... he's still up in the air about Santa Claus. He asked me if there was a Santa Claus and I said, "When you really want to know the answer, come and ask me again."
    "Does that mean, there isn't one?"
    "No... that just means when you want to know what I think, you should come and ask me again. "
    "Oh... cuz you're going to go on for a half an hour about what you think?"
    "You got it, boy."

    -bf
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited December 2006
    Sounds like here, BF. My kids know that if they want a short answer, there's no use asking me!
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited December 2006
    Simonthepilgrim wrote:
    Sounds like here, BF. My kids know that if they want a short answer, there's no use asking me!


    Ha ha...

    We're two blathering, big-mouthed peas in a pod. :D


    -bf
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited December 2006
    You're both also adorable!
  • RaDmaTistRaDmaTist
    edited December 2006
    But, I read a childs book (not recently, mind you. In my younger days. Hold on, I had younger days? Hmm..) entitled 366 amazing facts and more, arranged according to the days in a calender as in, one fact a day.

    One entry stated that Sanata has his home(crib, hang out,head quarters) in Fin land and included a supposedly postal address of "Santa Claus Land, Rovaniemi, Finland".

    For me, this is no longer an issue of Whether Santa is real but rather whether my parents got ripped off for buying a book entitled "366 amazing facts" when it acutally has 365 facts and not so amazing ones too. (Kidding here :D )

    Anyway, yup, a postal address was included in the excerpt.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited December 2006
    Wait just a minute! Everyone knows that Santa lives in Canada!!

    Doesn't he....?
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited December 2006
    And if he doesn't, who got all my letters???
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited December 2006
    Brigid wrote:
    And if he doesn't, who got all my letters???

    Of course he got them. If you used the right zip code:
    [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Bracebridge, ON P1L 1T7

    or you may emailed him:
    [/FONT]Santa's email
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited December 2006
    No, mine didn't go to Bracebridge. They went to the North Pole, where he really lives, not where his Answering Elves holiday in the summer months. I've been to Bracebridge. But I've never been able to spot an elf. A man there told me once that he sees them regularly. Then he peed his pants, patted me on the head and gave my dog five dollars.
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited December 2006
    Brigid wrote:
    .................. A man there told me once that he sees them regularly. Then he peed his pants, patted me on the head and gave my dog five dollars.
    Probably what the medical profession calls NFB (Normal For Bracebridge) LOL

    I managed to escape the compulsory visit to Santa's Village (tho' I did suffer Marine Land)
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited December 2006
    Omigod! NOT Marineland!! Their adverts on the TV are the most annoying things EVER!!! lol!! I've never been there, though. I'd probably just get mad and start yelling at all the trainers to "FREE WILLY"!!!

    Oh, and I think you're right about the NFB. *giggle*
  • DharmaKittenDharmaKitten
    edited December 2006
    When I was a kid I was taught to believe in Santa Claus, and I did until I told my mom I'd just ask Santa for a (very expensive) item that she wanted. She had to break it to me then. I was apparently always frightened of the dressed up Santas in the mall. I don't remember when I figured out that they weren't the real thing, but I still think it's pretty creepy - sending kids to sit on a perfect stranger's lap to ask for presents. Ick. Ironically, finding out that Santa wasn't real probably was the start of my skepticism. If my mom could lie about that, what else had she lied about? My mom still thinks it's a fun tradition and that not raising kids to believe in Santa and the rest of the holiday myths is somehow cheating them out of childhood or something. My husband and I have decided against that, though. I don't like the idea of lying to my (future) kids like that - and that is a pretty big lie. And I definitely don't want to make my kids sit crying on a stranger's lap like I had to.

    On a related note, I think those old stop-action films about Rudolph and Santa are hilarious because they, more than saying "Happy Holidays", have secularized Christmas to the point where Santa is in no way connected with Christianity in the slightest.
  • CelebrinCelebrin
    edited December 2006
    aparrently im an elf.. a tall elf..

    nyone notice ur parents don't give u pressys? but santa does... lol *wink
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited December 2006
    "I gave up believing in Santa Claus when my mom took me to the department store one Christmas, I sat on his lap, and HE asked ME for my autograph."

    Shirley Temple.




    Quite.
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