Re: is father christmas dead?
 

not really,when they are older n a bit more mature, thats when they learn the differance. or at least my family did.

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

This has been dicussed on another forum
Why do parents lie to their children about father Christmas/Easter bunny etc, etc? - Yahoo! Answers

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Well it looks like a lot of you did not come to an accyweb christmas meet:D

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

:unsure8: WHAT !!! Father Christmas isn't real ?? .......... Next you'll be saying neither is the tooth fairy :sad8: ....


........ DAMN !! :surprise:

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Blimey look who the cats dragged in :p

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

I can see Margaret's point but I've always done the Father Christmas thing with my kids and will be quite sad when they are too old to believe it. There's nothing like the magic and excitement it creates for a small child. Fair play to those that don't pretend there is a Father Christmas though, that's their choice.

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Of course it is Lilly, just as bringing them up in any sort of religion, etc., however, it's the accusation that we may be doing our children long term damage by this wonderful fantasy that is the question here.

OK .. on the flip side, Cashman thought is was a disgrace of this woman to tell the child the truth, however, in the world we live here in the U.K. just such a shame not to let them into this magic.

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Eeew yes, however, I know where she has been .. Land of Never Never, fighting pirates, killing crocodiles and teaching children to fly .. shame on you Tinks ;):D

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Don't worry tinks,

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

No. I don't think we're damaging them by letting them believe in Father Christmas. Millions of people have turned out to be perfectly well adjusted adults despite being allowed to believe in a fantasy figure when they were younger.

If people don't want to let their children believe in Father Christmas then that's up to them but I do wish they would tell their children, especially when they're very young, not to mouth off and spoil it for the others.

Having said that, has anybody else had the Father Christmas questions that we never had to ask our parents flung at them? Questions that have sprung up in recent years and are getting harder and harder to field. Examples of the questions I've been asked are

1) How does Father Christmas get in? (As we live in a new-ish build with no chimney)

2) Why doesn't the burglar alarm go off when Father Christmas comes in?

3) How does he know the number to turn the burglar alarm off?

4) What does Father Christmas do for the rest of the year? (Kids used to be told that he spent the rest of the year making the toys, which was fine when the gifts were toy soldiers and spinning tops but how do you pretend that Father Christmas has made this DS or this Wii ?)

There wouldn't have been these questions years ago. Sign of the times I suppose.

Despite all this though, they've never come straight out and said ' Is he real?' Not yet. I'll be honest about it when they're older. I won't let them go to Secondary school still believing in Father Christmas!:D

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

hope that helps lily :D

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Modern day answers to age old questions, I like them;)

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Totally agree, father xmas has never been alive, why lie?, life can still be magical without lying.

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Reece is 11 and still believes (ish) that there is a father christmas, he now knows that i buy the presents and send them off to him ( but i didnt always) and if he isnt good (because santa is watching) he wont get anything, this has only come about over the last year or so, i've NEVER told him there isnt a santa, he just see's it in a more grown up way now, he's only just realised that the tooth fairy stops coming when your 11 too :D

Re: is father christmas dead?
 

Me being the Google Granny here :) I have been reading up the subject of lying and this led me to the works of Immanuel Kant - an eminent philosopher who agrees with me (or more humbly -I with him) that it is never justifiable.


"The philosopher Immanuel Kant said that lying was always morally wrong. He argued that all persons are born with an "intrinsic worth" that he called human dignity. This dignity derives from the fact that humans are uniquely rational agents, capable of freely making their own decisions, setting their own goals, and guiding their conduct by reason. To be human, said Kant, is to have the rational power of free choice; to be ethical, he continued, is to respect that power in oneself and others.
Lies are morally wrong, then, for two reasons. First, lying corrupts the most important quality of my being human: my ability to make free, rational choices. Each lie I tell contradicts the part of me that gives me moral worth. Second, my lies rob others of their freedom to choose rationally. When my lie leads people to decide other than they would had they known the truth, I have harmed their human dignity and autonomy. Kant believed that to value ourselves and others as ends instead of means, we have perfect duties (i.e., no exceptions) to avoid damaging, interfering with, or misusing the ability to make free decisions; in other words - no lying."