Had fun this Christmas....

[Joe 1320]

After a long Christmas eve, after finally getting all the remaining shopping done, wrapping gifts, etc..... I put on a Santa Suit and went noisily through the house. I intentionally woke up my 6 year old son by banging against his door and the look on his face was priceless. I let him see a brief glipse of all the gifts, asked if he had been good and got him back to bed and said " Don't let your dad see you out of bed, better get back to sleep." The next morning he told me all about how Santa visited him last night and told the whole story. He kept telling all the family that was visiting, it was one of the best moments I can remember.

On the flip side, this "some assembly required" stuff has got to stop. I swear by my stack of service manuals that:

"some assembly required" really means "Major Fabrication required".

[briantech]

I never understood the appeal of lying blatantly to your children. Some day they are going to have to realize santa isn't real, and that their parents were lying to them the entire time. Why not just explain at the beginning that Santa isn't real, but its fun to play along anyway just for the spirit of things. Thats what my family did, and let me tell you, I got just as much enjoyment and fun out of the whole Santa idea, except of course for that fatefull morning in 1st grade that everyone else had to go through when one of the older kids slipped and says "What? Don't you know, fools, santa isn't real, he's just made up to make little kids act nice around christmas".

Talk about betrayal and a sudden vaccuum of trust. Have you given any thought as to how you're going to explain it to him when he comes running home one day in tears, begging to know why all the kids at school told him santa isn't real? what will you say?

"yeah, sorry kid, I was lying to you the whole time, what a jolly good joke, eh?"

[Joe 1320]

Sounds to me like someone had a distasterous explaination as a child........

Brian, Santa Claus is real. He exists in each and every one of us. He is the spirit of giving, without expecting anything in return, the spirit of giving even with anonimity. Santa is a creation for us to view the wonderous events of childhood, the joy in their eye as they receive a gift, the gleam in their eye as they see someone good before the synocism of adulthood sets in. Explained properly to children when the time comes, the spirit isn't lost, it is carried on for the next generation. I am sorry that you didn't make the transition. Have a Merry Christmas anyway.

[Performin Norman]

Originally posted by Joe 1320
Sounds to me like someone had a distasterous explaination as a child........

Brian, Santa Claus is real. He exists in each and every one of us. He is the spirit of giving, without expecting anything in return, the spirit of giving even with anonimity. Santa is a creation for us to view the wonderous events of childhood, the joy in their eye as they receive a gift, the gleam in their eye as they see someone good before the synocism of adulthood sets in. Explained properly to children when the time comes, the spirit isn't lost, it is carried on for the next generation. I am sorry that you didn't make the transition. Have a Merry Christmas anyway.

AMEN! Preach brother Joe.

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

Originally posted by briantech
I never understood the appeal of lying blatantly to your children...Talk about betrayal and a sudden vaccuum of trust. Have you given any thought as to how you're going to explain it to him when he comes running home one day in tears, begging to know why all the kids at school told him santa isn't real? what will you say?

"Every man that goes around with merry Christmas on his mind should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Bah Humbug" --- Ebenezer Scrooge

[Jeff02GAGT]

I agree

with you Joe... I think what you did was really cool...I don't know how you'd exactly explain to a 6 year old the whole thing about Santa... Can't you just see everyones parents at school wanting to kill you when your son goes and tells every kid in his class that Santa doesn't exist? Anyways, I like what you did Joe... hope everyone had a merry x-mas!

[wolfdogs]

i dont mean to laugh......but d@hmn..you brought back so many memories for me with this post.....

thanks Joe.....

and good job broh!

[Joe 1320]

Thanks guys..... I couldn't image Christmas fading into oblivion by the demise of Santa. I had a great time and my son had an even greater one.

Still though, what gets me is I can build a motor, do bodywork and paint. Yet a simple chest of drawers that should have taken 45 minutes to assemble, ended up a 5 hour ordeal with major fabrication required because of crappy generic instructions and missing parts. Of course you don't figure this out until 8 pm on Christmas eve when you first open the box to start your assembly. Ironicall the bike took only 30 minutes even without looking at the instructions.

[Injuneer]

Originally posted by briantech
I never understood the appeal of lying blatantly to your children. ..............
Talk about betrayal and a sudden vaccuum of trust. Have you given any thought as to how you're going to explain it to him when he comes running home one day in tears, begging to know why all the kids at school told him santa isn't real? what will you say?

"yeah, sorry kid, I was lying to you the whole time, what a jolly good joke, eh?"

Dude.... get a life for God's sake.

Merry Christmas....

[Lee'S 1997 Z28]

Amen: Joe Preach on!

Why I'm thirty four years old and SANTA CLUASE came to me. Go lots of goodies. But, What really means more to me than anything is being blessed to see my family members again whom I have not seen in a long time.

I'm not married yet But I have a lttle nice so I play Santa CLause for her. The Joy is seeing kids eyes light up and glow there is no feeling quite like it.

Anyway I will shut up now. Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year to everyone!

My Wish for ya, Lee!

[briantech]

Sounds to me like someone had a distasterous explaination as a child........

Brian, Santa Claus is real. He exists in each and every one of us. He is the spirit of giving, without expecting anything in return, the spirit of giving even with anonimity. Santa is a creation for us to view the wonderous events of childhood, the joy in their eye as they receive a gift, the gleam in their eye as they see someone good before the synocism of adulthood sets in. Explained properly to children when the time comes, the spirit isn't lost, it is carried on for the next generation. I am sorry that you didn't make the transition. Have a Merry Christmas anyway.

Actually, as I said in my original post, I never had to make that transition. From the get go, my parents explained to me your "true" description of what Santa was, the whole spirit of christmas, doing good for you fellow man, sob blah blah blah. She also explained to me that all the other children in the world were being led to believe, to the contrary, that Santa was a real, living, magical being who flys around in a sled and literally delivers billions of presents in a single night.

I mean, to each his own, but I personally am much happier knowing my mother grounded me in reality from the beginning, yet still allowed me to be a child and use my imagination. We still left cookies out christmas eve, I got presents from "santa", and she would use it as a leverage tool to get me to goto bed early. We still partook in the fun, twinkle-in-my-eye traditions, except for the whole lying-in-my-face part of it. Little kids have this amazing ability to, ah, what do they call it... ah yes, pretend. And since at the end of the day we ALL know that Santa ISNT real, he only exists in children's imaginations, period. Whether or not the kid knows in the back of his head it aint real isn't going to change a thing on the tapestry of Santa that the kid paints with his imagination. The colors will be no less dull, the detail will all be there. The only thing you are depriving your child of by telling them the truth is one day having to explain why you lied.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with dressing up like santa and clomping around the house and all that jazz... I just fail to see what the point of diceiving your children accomplishes.

My parents also strictly told me not to go around telling people santa wasn't real -- thats their parents job, when the day comes. I do, however, remember days when other kids would burst the bubble. Watching the believers burst into tears just made me cringe. Sorry little chaps.

I'm not a scrooge, I love christmas and I have nothing against the whole idea of Saint Nick and everything he stands for. However, I was, and am to this day, perplexed as to why it is necessary to actually make kids believe its truely part of reality.

Let me ask you something. Do your kids believe in the tooth fairy, or do they believe she exists? How about the easter bunny? Grandfather Time?

[Joe 1320]

Brian,

I feel bad for you that you have such a harsh view. Pehaps one day when you have children of your own you may actually experience the wonder of it all. Until then, nobody is going to be able to explain it to you. Someone else's kids won't even do that, you my friend will have to go this alone.

[briantech]

*shrug* To me it's not a harsh view at all. It's just the way I grew up. Everyone else in the world does things things the "weird" way from my perspective, so I'm perfectly happy. I didn't mean to come across as being antagonistic : )

[Injuneer]

briantech:

Thank you so much for saving us from this major evil in the world. I feel so free and unencumbered now.

Maybe you ought to think about saving people on some other bulletin board now that you've explained your superior philosophy and standards to all of the unwashed and non-thinking people here at F-Body.com.

'Bye.

[Black97]

Growing up in Europe we had Santa Clause come on the 6 of December. His means of transportation was by foot and a donkey carried the bags with seasonal fruits and nuts for the kids that were good and a bundle of branches tied together ( for a whipping ) if you were bad. He sometimes had some helpers taging along with brown outfits while Santa was wearing the traditional red.

They came in trough the door, so no special effects to come in trough the chimney. The whole family assembled and the old man had a list of who was good and who was bad. You also would have to learn some poems and recite them in front of ST. Nick.

He would even show up at school and of course the teachers had the list ready.

Christmas was usually celebrated on the 24th in the evening. The Christ kind would bring the presents.

So much for Santa Clause on Christmas

A whole different tradition.