For anyone who was never told Santa was real, but grew up in a place where children believing in Santa was common… were you warned in any way about discussing this topic with other children?
Just the basics: they pretend Santa brings presents to good children, and it's a common enough thing people don't think of it as lying to children, but we do, so we don't play the game.
I once threatened to tell my sisters, and my parents pointed out that once no one was left to believe in Santa, they wouldn't have to provide presents from him any more.
When I was younger, my father would also threaten to call 1 (800) SANTA NO.
My mom says she got really sad when she found out that Santa wasn’t real, because she thought she wouldn’t get presents on Christmas and would have to watch her younger brother open his presents in front of her 😭
Not Santa and I was told to believe in our equivalent as a child, but our primary school teacher spilled the beans on our first year by saying something about "Those who still believe in Baby Jesus," which would obviously lead those who haven't been told about the Lie yet to figure it out.
I feel like that would have caused quite an incident in some places. Especially with an authority figure suggesting to young children that religious belief is something to grow out of. But obviously it’s very dependent on the religious climate of the area.
Out of curiosity, can you expand more on how the story/tradition links Baby Jesus to receiving presents? Is a baby dropping off gifts like Santa Claus?
Dropping a bomb like, "Those who still believe in Baby Jesus," to a class of young children is the kind of shit that gets teachers fired in more conservative areas of America. So, I'm curious to learn how your culture treats the tradition.
OP is in a Scandinavian country. They treat Santa and Baby Jesus as obvious myths, unreal to everyone over the age of 10, and most figure it out sooner than that.
There isn't really a myth to it, barring the New Testament. In Germany, many children believe "das Christkind" is bringing everyone their presents. It's depicted like a curly blond angel. Imagine a very whitewashed and also kind of genderless version of infant Jesus. There's less specific lore around it, compared to Santa with his reindeer and elves and his wife... Das Christkind is more abstract and their powers are divine, not necessarily magical.
The illusion isn't as deep here - German children grow up with lots of American media and know other people believe in Santa Claus ("der Weihnachtsmann" - the christmas man). For example, The Secret World of Santa Claus, a Canadian French children's animated tv show, has been broadcasted yearly (in December) since its release in 1997(!) and is beloved by multiple generations.
My parents believed (as I also kind of do) that lying to children for fun is wrong, so I never believed, in Santa or anything else. Weirdly I don’t remember being given any warnings not to tell other kids, but nor do I remember it coming up as an issue
Weirdly what did come up was my parents taught me about sex at a pretty young age, and then I taught my whole primary school class. They maybe should have warned me to have some discretion on that one
My friend is Jewish and got in big trouble at school for telling other kids that Santa is made up story by parents just for fun. Her parents didn't bother telling her to not share that with goyim kids lmao.
Yes. I was only told by a Jewish kid. My nephew got spoiled relatively early i think, one of his school friends told him. Hes 7 and was briefly reconvinced by seeing a mall Santa. I suspect the internet circulates it a lot faster.
I once posted something about this on twitter, forgetting it was linked to facebook, so the younger siblings of a friend of mine read it 🫠 god i felt so bad
I don't know if I was ever explained it this way, but I thought Santa visiting every house was logistically impossible, and I kind of just assumed everyone else knew that too. I thought other kids were just playing along for fun
This was probably influenced by all the holiday specials I saw about "believing in Santa".
I was told very young because we were too poor to get any presents and they didn't want me thinking that santa skipped us. They said something along the lines of christmas being a magical time for those fortunate enough, and that it would be rude to spoil it for others.
Of course there were kids from older grades who tried to ruin it for everyone anyway.
I did believe in our equivalent of Santa but I had a classmate who didn't. She told me he wasn't real when I was 6. I rolled my eyes and said she was a liar. Of course he was real. I met him.
Also, what makes more sense? That billions of parents conspire to sneakily buy presents and wrap them in the one night where we all just happen to be asleep because if we aren’t then Santa won’t visit? Or that a magical man delivers them all? It’s ridiculous.
Seriously, ever been in a group project before? It's difficult enough to get 5 people to each do what they're supposed to without messing up in some way. Billions? Yea, right.
To be fair, Santa also kept giving me the wrong gifts when I was a kid. I didn't want clothes, I wanted a game console! So Santa clearly needs some help, though maybe the elves have unionized? That would explain why he couldn't afford giving me a Playstation.
Of course if you're gonna use a strawman like the debunked parent theory you can ignore the real stuff and say Santa's real. Doesn't make sense for billions of parents to be in on it.
Santa's a government psyop. It only takes a few thousand people to keep a secret like that, and even then if you know where to look you'll find documents like the Protocols of Nicholas that clearly show how the so-called "Santa Claus" came to be.
Which government? How would one government cover every household in the world? Are all governments secretly collaborating to keep the Santa "Myth" alive? If so, how come they keep arguing about other stuff. This theory has way too much holes to make sense.
I bring you my own Theory: Presents are the fruits of the Christmas Tree
Every kid I knew growing up believed in Santa. I believed in Santa as a toddler because I didn't know who Santa was. Once I reached grade school I was suspicious, skeptical, but I kept quiet.
Then one time in middle school my Dad asked me if I believed and we talked about it. I said that it doesn't make sense. He acknowledged me with a wink and that's when I knew 100% that it was him all along and it made Christmas even better because I'd know my Dad got me the best gifts.
I had this moment as a young kid that I'm a little proud of.
One day I was going through an odd part of our house and in a drawer found the 2 elves on the shelf we had. My parents told me they weren't the real ones. I wasn't sure, so I did an experiment. I put a tiny little sharpie dot on one of them.
Come Christmas time and, sure enough, the "real" elves had that same dot.
I was the one confronting my parents asking if Santa was real.
Wisdom is knowing that yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. We could all stand to be a little more good for goodness' sake even when it seems impossible, especially when it seems impossible.
For anyone who was never told Santa was real, but grew up in a place where children believing in Santa was common… were you warned in any way about discussing this topic with other children?
I know we tell our kid that lots of other families play "the Santa game," and so he shouldn't go around ruining the game for the other kids.
That sounds like a good way of dealing with it, presenting it in a way that even a very small kid can understand
Ooh, interesting! What do you describe the “Santa game” as?
Just the basics: they pretend Santa brings presents to good children, and it's a common enough thing people don't think of it as lying to children, but we do, so we don't play the game.
i was warned not to tell my younger siblings. one day at school lunch i blurted it out and caused a heated argument
I once threatened to tell my sisters, and my parents pointed out that once no one was left to believe in Santa, they wouldn't have to provide presents from him any more.
When I was younger, my father would also threaten to call 1 (800) SANTA NO.
My mom says she got really sad when she found out that Santa wasn’t real, because she thought she wouldn’t get presents on Christmas and would have to watch her younger brother open his presents in front of her 😭
Wow, I didn’t even think about this whole dynamic of older kids knowing and having to maintain the effect for their younger siblings
Not Santa and I was told to believe in our equivalent as a child, but our primary school teacher spilled the beans on our first year by saying something about "Those who still believe in Baby Jesus," which would obviously lead those who haven't been told about the Lie yet to figure it out.
I feel like that would have caused quite an incident in some places. Especially with an authority figure suggesting to young children that religious belief is something to grow out of. But obviously it’s very dependent on the religious climate of the area.
It really helps that my country is pretty atheist and Baby Jesus is a thing only children believe in like Santa is in the states.
Out of curiosity, can you expand more on how the story/tradition links Baby Jesus to receiving presents? Is a baby dropping off gifts like Santa Claus?
Dropping a bomb like, "Those who still believe in Baby Jesus," to a class of young children is the kind of shit that gets teachers fired in more conservative areas of America. So, I'm curious to learn how your culture treats the tradition.
OP is in a Scandinavian country. They treat Santa and Baby Jesus as obvious myths, unreal to everyone over the age of 10, and most figure it out sooner than that.
I understand that. I'm asking what the myth is.
There isn't really a myth to it, barring the New Testament. In Germany, many children believe "das Christkind" is bringing everyone their presents. It's depicted like a curly blond angel. Imagine a very whitewashed and also kind of genderless version of infant Jesus. There's less specific lore around it, compared to Santa with his reindeer and elves and his wife... Das Christkind is more abstract and their powers are divine, not necessarily magical.
The illusion isn't as deep here - German children grow up with lots of American media and know other people believe in Santa Claus ("der Weihnachtsmann" - the christmas man). For example, The Secret World of Santa Claus, a Canadian French children's animated tv show, has been broadcasted yearly (in December) since its release in 1997(!) and is beloved by multiple generations.
I believe that in some places, infant Jesus takes the place of Santa as the person who brings presents on Christmas.
Yep. Often it's paired with Santa coming on Dec 6th instead, for St Nicholas's day.
First year of primary school is 6 years old, it's not like it's kindergarten lol
I guess I don’t draw such a clear line between age 5 and age 6. I’d still consider 6-year-olds to be young children.
Christmas is completely separated from religion where I live
My parents believed (as I also kind of do) that lying to children for fun is wrong, so I never believed, in Santa or anything else. Weirdly I don’t remember being given any warnings not to tell other kids, but nor do I remember it coming up as an issue
Weirdly what did come up was my parents taught me about sex at a pretty young age, and then I taught my whole primary school class. They maybe should have warned me to have some discretion on that one
Yep! I do remember REALLY having to bite my tongue with the neighbor kid who was thirteen, but we had been told to shut up about it.
My friend is Jewish and got in big trouble at school for telling other kids that Santa is made up story by parents just for fun. Her parents didn't bother telling her to not share that with goyim kids lmao.
Was it me? Am I your friend?
Two entirely separate questions
Yes. I was only told by a Jewish kid. My nephew got spoiled relatively early i think, one of his school friends told him. Hes 7 and was briefly reconvinced by seeing a mall Santa. I suspect the internet circulates it a lot faster.
I once posted something about this on twitter, forgetting it was linked to facebook, so the younger siblings of a friend of mine read it 🫠 god i felt so bad
My parents told me it was a secret that would upset other kids to know. I felt so special that I knew something so "adult."
I am Jewish and was told not to tell other kids lol. Same for the Easter bunny
I don't know if I was ever explained it this way, but I thought Santa visiting every house was logistically impossible, and I kind of just assumed everyone else knew that too. I thought other kids were just playing along for fun
This was probably influenced by all the holiday specials I saw about "believing in Santa".
I was told very young because we were too poor to get any presents and they didn't want me thinking that santa skipped us. They said something along the lines of christmas being a magical time for those fortunate enough, and that it would be rude to spoil it for others.
Of course there were kids from older grades who tried to ruin it for everyone anyway.
I got in trouble for telling another kid at school he wasn't real
my sister announced that santa was not real to her kindergarten class so… no
I did believe in our equivalent of Santa but I had a classmate who didn't. She told me he wasn't real when I was 6. I rolled my eyes and said she was a liar. Of course he was real. I met him.
Also, what makes more sense? That billions of parents conspire to sneakily buy presents and wrap them in the one night where we all just happen to be asleep because if we aren’t then Santa won’t visit? Or that a magical man delivers them all? It’s ridiculous.
Seriously, ever been in a group project before? It's difficult enough to get 5 people to each do what they're supposed to without messing up in some way. Billions? Yea, right.
To be fair, Santa also kept giving me the wrong gifts when I was a kid. I didn't want clothes, I wanted a game console! So Santa clearly needs some help, though maybe the elves have unionized? That would explain why he couldn't afford giving me a Playstation.
he's not magical he just works out and is athletic
Of course if you're gonna use a strawman like the debunked parent theory you can ignore the real stuff and say Santa's real. Doesn't make sense for billions of parents to be in on it.
Santa's a government psyop. It only takes a few thousand people to keep a secret like that, and even then if you know where to look you'll find documents like the Protocols of Nicholas that clearly show how the so-called "Santa Claus" came to be.
Which government? How would one government cover every household in the world? Are all governments secretly collaborating to keep the Santa "Myth" alive? If so, how come they keep arguing about other stuff. This theory has way too much holes to make sense.
I bring you my own Theory: Presents are the fruits of the Christmas Tree
Wait a min isn’t this the phone battery girl?
Yes.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CuratedTumblr/s/hSbZLphoap
tumblr user toskarin is also the pompeii guy
this person actually knows what trolling means. reading these posts takes me back to early internet being a troll myself lol
no, this is the phone battery girl
Every kid I knew growing up believed in Santa. I believed in Santa as a toddler because I didn't know who Santa was. Once I reached grade school I was suspicious, skeptical, but I kept quiet.
Then one time in middle school my Dad asked me if I believed and we talked about it. I said that it doesn't make sense. He acknowledged me with a wink and that's when I knew 100% that it was him all along and it made Christmas even better because I'd know my Dad got me the best gifts.
https://preview.redd.it/kon6oi4we0bg1.jpeg?width=335&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b12da670cfbc0d1be31042d90f1caeee930dc615
Post that sucker punched me in the face with festive grief because it's the 2nd of January and Christmas is OVER. IT'S OVER :(
Also Santa gives presents to people all around the world but I asked my mom and she said she's never been to Canada so literally how could it be her
I had this moment as a young kid that I'm a little proud of.
One day I was going through an odd part of our house and in a drawer found the 2 elves on the shelf we had. My parents told me they weren't the real ones. I wasn't sure, so I did an experiment. I put a tiny little sharpie dot on one of them.
Come Christmas time and, sure enough, the "real" elves had that same dot.
I was the one confronting my parents asking if Santa was real.
Knowledge is knowing there’s no Santa Claus.
Wisdom is knowing that yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. We could all stand to be a little more good for goodness' sake even when it seems impossible, especially when it seems impossible.
"Now, we are all Saints of Nicholas"
-J. Robert Oppensleighmer, after witnessing the presentation of the first atomic christmas tree
Hey, you can't ask that!
I laughed so hard at the “I don’t know.” at the end the cat ran away
All kids who say that are salty because they didn't get any presents
Santa is also real btw /srs
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
This feels like a far side comic lol