The curse of the Santa Claus myth.

Santa Clause story is bad for children!
It is a sad, self gratifying, ego trip for parents and grandparents who delight it conning and deceiving trusting children who are gullible, and unfortunately have no one better to trust than their parents and closest relatives.
Last Up date on: 2003 November 14 This is new as of today.

Children learn a lot from their parents from birth till about 6 years old. They learn their parents' language, with their parents accent; they acquire their religious beliefs most will keep until they die. They also learn what foods they like and which they don't; they learn to be friendly, but be leery of friendly strangers. Indeed they learn much of the logic of the world and social order they live in. And they should be able to learn and trust their parents; they have no other source. But, in the middle of all this, they learn that their parents made them believe a preposterous story about a mythical man who lives at the north pole, who flies a sleigh through the sky, and enters their home while they are asleep. Even worse: Because their parents told these lies they will somehow grow up to believe it is OK and will probably do the same when they have kids.

Is it any wonder that these kids grow up and live the rest of their lives, not being clear about what is real and what is not? We have a society that believes in astrology, demons, flying saucers, extraterrestrials, witches, quack medicine, psychics, fortune tellers, and are gullible prey to the likes of: Jim and Tammy Baker, Oral Roberts, David Kroesch, Jim Jones, and countless other religious leaders. Many are so convinced that they are willing to commit suicide because some pseudo leader tells them to drink cyanide laced Kool-Aid or a comet has come to get them. Don't fault them. These are the same people whose parents had them believing that reindeer can fly.

Our society has so many that have no ability to question and decide what is and what is not real that, the late great science writer: Carl Sagan wrote the book "Demon-Haunted World". Incidentally, that is a great book, which I highly recommend. In 1984 Sagan coauthored, with R.Turco, O. Toon, T. Ackerman and J. Pollock, an influential paper: Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions. The impact of the paper was dramatic. Unfortunately, it appears George W. Bush has never heard of it.

Another even more bizarre story is that of the Easter Bunny. Isn't it strange that both of these revolve around a "Christian belief"? I am not versed enough in the practices of other religions to know wether this deception of children is unique to Christianity or not.

If we want to have children grow up with the ability to think clearly and distinguish fact from fiction, we need to be very careful to clearly let kids know, as best we are able, what is and is not true.

If you have suggestions, comments or ideas e-mail me. I would like to hear from you.

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Santa Clause story is bad for children! It is a sad, self gratifying, ego trip for parents and grandparents who delight it conning and deceiving trusting children who are gullible, and unfortunately have no one better to trust than their parents and closest relatives.

Santa Clause story is bad for children!
It is a sad, self gratifying, ego trip for parents and grandparents who delight it conning and deceiving trusting children who are gullible, and unfortunately have no one better to trust than their parents and closest relatives.