re: In Our House, There Is No Santa Claus

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Nice line of reasoning. Also make sure they read no Harry Potter or watch any Star Wars. For that matter, eliminate ALL fairy tales from their youth...Indeed, ALL fiction, cause you know, it's not real.

1984 out
War and Peace. Out
To Kill a Mockingbird out.

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I was at a holiday party the other night when a friend sighed and declared, “Gotta go home and move the elf.”

I couldn’t help but shake my head a little and sigh to myself, admittedly with an air of righteousness, knowing we’d never say that in my home. My husband didn’t understand the reference, so I explained to him what “Elf on a Shelf” was, to the best of my knowledge.

“So, basically they use scare tactics and bribery to get their kids to behave?” he paraphrased. And I nodded, again with a slight air of disbelief.

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Meanwhile, in our home, my husband and I work very hard to encourage our kids simply to be good for – to quote a popular Christmas song – goodness’ sake. The notion of encouraging my kids to be good in order to make Santa’s “nice” list really troubles me. Not only does it completely undermine my authority, but it’s pure extrinsic motivation.

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But how kids think of Santa Claus represents, for me, all that is not Christmas spirited: receiving instead of giving, greed instead of gratefulness, idle wanting instead of active contributing. And encouraging my children to write letters to him or make Christmas lists or be good because he’s watching encourages all the wrong things for me. I want whatever goodness does come out of my children to be for the right reasons. I want them to be people who are simply good and kind and honest, as I try to be (well, most of the time:).

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This year, now that my daughter is of an age where she could truly believe in Santa and be consumed by the magic and thrill of believing, I wasn’t willing to let him come down our chimney.

My friend with the ever-watching elf thinks I am cruel. She thinks it’s truly sad that I have robbed my children of the magic of the holiday. But I don’t see it. My kids still enjoy reading about Santa – as much as they enjoy reading about Harold and his purple crayon or The Cat in the Hat, magical characters who are not actually real but still capture a child’s imagination. My kids will still wake up on Christmas morning to see a sparkling tree with a modest bounty of presents underneath.

The lights will still twinkle and the decorations still shine. No one needs to sit on a shelf or a keep a list for us. The day will be special simply because it’s Christmas – even if Santa skips our house.

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1) what fun do they miss out on?
2) how is this a sign of laziness on the part of the parents?
3) the parents are the ones buying the gifts, why shouldn't the children be thankful to the parents for the gifts
4) how is this a sign of rebelling? Did you read the article?

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She needs to be bent over and someone PIIHB

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How is it that the tradition isn't that the presents are from Jesus Christ? Wouldn't that make more sense, seeing as it is a Christian holiday, than does the presents having come from some secular Santa?

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Truth be told, the birth of Jesus (if it ever happened at all) was sometime in the Spring-tax season remember.

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there is a general scholarly consensus on the basic outline of Jesus' life in that most scholars agree that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, debated Jewish authorities on the subject of God, performed some healings, taught in parables, gathered followers and was crucified by Roman prefect Pontius Pilate

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