Who here believes in Santa Claus?

[cindybubbles]

I'm 35 years old, and although his existence seems unlikely to me, I would like to keep an open mind about the idea of Santa Claus. Since I'm also Catholic, I believe in St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children.

I think my parents believe in Santa Claus; I dare not bring up the subject and risk a firey debate about it. My nephews also believe, but that's because they are children, and therefore, raised to believe in him.

So, do you still believe in Santa Claus? If never, why not? And if you once believed but stopped, what made you stop and when? This also applies to anyone you know.

I think I sort of stopped when I asked him for world peace and stuff like 9/11 kept happening. I also didn't get things that I wanted, like a mansion.

Thanks,

cindybubbles

[Andara Bledin]

Well, Santa as we know him today, is the bastardization of about half a dozen different elements, including St. Nicholas, Father Christmas (who was sort of a knockoff of St. Nicholas from when England split with the church), and Odin, among others.

Santa as we know him now (in most English-speaking locales, at least) would never have existed.

Of course, that doesn't mean that, say, one of the myriad parts used to cobble together the current Frankenstein's monster version couldn't be real. There's at least one fae element in there, and while most will refuse to admit it, lots of people do believe in fairies of some stripe or other.

[Aethian]

Anyone remember Benji's Christmas Tale? That had the best explanation to me. In other countries he is known under different names and in different costumes. I think it was in the 70's when he started become all commercial over here. But I was always told the old tale of Christmas....and in that tale I still believe.

[Kheldarson]

I believe! It's part of the overall magic for me

[siead_lietrathua]

we have a regular customer that does the santa job, so we refer to him by character while he's in it for the kid's sake (thou i totally wanna call him Woden). while i may not believe in the mythology, i can respect it as a tradition.

[Andara Bledin]

I totally believe in the traditions and what they mean. And I believe in the holiday spirit, as such.

Lest people think I'm a Grinch or something. :P

[anakhouri]

I believe in the power of storytelling. I believe Santa Claus is a manifestation of love and generosity. At some point people stop needing to see those things as needing a physical body, but the spirit is always there.

My son believes wholeheartedly in Santa, who not only eats his cookies and drinks his milk but leaves handwritten notes for him as well (since my husband writes down Santa's words, Santa seems to have terrible handwriting ).

Some people think the whole Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy thing is a pack of lies and you shouldn't lie to kids. I am a writer and I think there's a difference between telling lies and telling stories. We need stories; it's what makes humans different from animals.

[SongsOfDragons]

Milk and cookies? Pfau. We in the UK generally leave mince pies and sherry. Yup we get Father Christmas drunk in charge of a flying vehicle :P

My mum and dad still try (jokingly) to get some excitement going; 'has he been? ' and the like.

[s_stabeler]

Santa Claus isn't real, but he is inspired by a real person, Saint Nicolas. Saint Nicolas was a saint from the 4th century AD, who gave considerable amounts to the poor. In memory of him, children received gifts on the 6th of December, and in the Reformation, the date was moved to Christmas because the Protestanrts wanted to focus on Christ, instead of the numerous Saints.

Interestingly enough, the part about one guy visiting everywhere to give gifts to kids? comes from Odin. Before Christianity, it was Odin who supposedly visited kids.

[Pixilated]

I believe! It's part of the overall magic for me

I second this.

[DGoddess]

I believe! It's part of the overall magic for me

Same here. Except in my house, it's Santa Mama

And that's because all of our packages from Santa looked identical to Mom's handwriting and I pointed it out to her. Ever since then, our presents always were from Santa Mama.

This year, looks like I get to be Santa Mama . . still trying to figure out how to smuggle a PS3 inside without my brother catching me.

[Kelmon]

In my country, it's Jesus that supposedly brings the gifts on the 24th, and Saint Nicholas and his not-so-jolly servant (Krampus, Pelznickel, Ruprecht,... depending on region) bring gifts or a birch rod for naughty kids on the 6th. Nowadays most parents tell their kids right away that the gifts are from them, and not some religious/mythological figure, and in any case no one makes a fuss about kids finding out (which they do around age 3 to 4 anyway).

So, no, no belief in Santa here. It would be like believing in Batman to me.


I'm not actually sure anymore how I found out there was no Saint Nicholas coming, I guess my parents stopped pretending when I was too young to still have memories of it.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm not actually sure anymore how I found out there was no Saint Nicholas coming, I guess my parents stopped pretending when I was too young to still have memories of it.

My brother and I were both a bit precocious, so we conspired first to learn about the Easter Bunny, and that pretty much sealed it for Santa as well. I think I was maybe 4 or 5 at the latest. I wasn't as interested in knowing as my brother.

[Gravekeeper]

As Andara mentioned, Santa Claus is a horrific gestalt of a wide variety of historical and mythological bits from several different countries and religions. He's not based on any one figure or folklore.

But much like many things people think are traditional or religious, the modern image of him was created quite recently. Not passed down as any sort of tradition. The modern image of Santa Claus was created by an angry German political cartoonist that hated the Irish and Catholics especially. >.>

Fun fact: He also created the Elephant / Donkey thing the Republicans and Democrats have going on.

My only problem with Santa Claus is that over here in North America was don't have a Krampus as well. I'm totally raising my children to fear the Krampus. So much more effective than the thought of coal in your stocking. ;p

[Kelmon]

Heh...funny, that cartoonist was born just 100km from where I live.

My only problem with Santa Claus is that over here in North America was don't have a Krampus as well. I'm totally raising my children to fear the Krampus. So much more effective than the thought of coal in your stocking. ;p

Well, I hope you're not disappointed to find out that the tradition of having Krampus and his pals is basically just a good bit of fun now, and not *really* used to frighten children into behaving anymore. Although...I was put into his bag once when I was 3 or so, because my parents though it would be funny. I'm sure my deep fear of being in the dark and surrounded by jute to be eaten alive later is completely unrelated.