Why do we lie to kids about the existence of Santa Claus?

We lie to kids about things like this because real life is boring and we want kids to have a more exciting childhood.

If there were actually real things to excite kids about, we wouldn't bother.

It's the same with video games; if real life had exciting adventures with cool loot to collect, no one would ever play a video game again.

I meant erase it from your mind.

It's the gateway drug to establishing a belief in God.

No one had to tell me he didn't exist...it just made sense that it was fake. Kids who go til they are 6 or 7 without realizing he's not real are pretty dumb in my opinion. He's an embodiment of culture and seasonal traditions. That being said, anyone who gets seriously aggro about telling kids he exists or doesn't exist needs to take a chill pill.

@secondpersonshooter: My mom felt deeply betrayed as kid when she found out Santa wasn't real. She vowed to never trick her future children and instead make the holidays even more about family and love.

I think most of the Santa thing is parents so often do what their own parents did, they have fond memories and want to share those experiences with their children. I don't think it is necessarily wrong, but the parent should let the kid "in on the secret" at a younger age to avoid the embarrassment and be prepared to explain why it was okay that they believed at all (if need be.)

When I was four or five my older cousin Laura told me that Santa didn't exist. I was the black sheep of the family - the one cousin who celebrated Christmas (although we never went to church and my dad would regularly go "baaaaa" every time we passed a church) in an otherwise Jewish family (at least on my mom's side). I remember thinking "yeah probably" but then saying the 5-year equivalent of "fuck you". The next day "Santa" had brought my cousin a gift and I felt sort of vindicated, but that's the first time I remember having doubt.

I was seven or eight when I got my definitive proof. I went looking for my gifts and found the video game I wanted (Ghouls and Ghosts; I was a badass) in my mom's top dresser drawer. I actually got really mad at myself because I realized that looking for proof had ruined what had been a totally fun tradition (fuck the Law and Order SVU culture we've cultivated that thinks sitting on Santa's lap is creepy, you paranoid losers). My parents had always mixed in "From Mom and Dad" gifts with "Santa" gifts and the "Santa" gifts were always the big ones.

My family, at least, "lied" to me for fun, and it was really fun! My parents are both gone now, and I just got engaged on Christmas Eve in my new home, and it's the first time in over ten years that the feeling of "home" was tied to Christmas. It brought a little bit of that magic from my childhood back to Christmastime, and I couldn't be more glad. Without the "lie" my parents harmlessly perpetrated (we never discussed that I figured it out, it was more fun just to pretend), I probably wouldn't have felt some of that magic, or proposed on a day that meant a lot to my fiancee (first time I've typed that).

As others have pointed out, the world is a brutal place (no parents by age 32 being one way that has been evidenced to me, along with the horrible things that happen every day; also: male pattern baldness) - if we can give our children a little bit of magic in their lives, that will last the rest of their lives, especially with their own future families... what is the harm in that, exactly? Also, Christmas was the one day of the year my dad wasn't a real asshole. He actually smiled.

Besides, kids treat Harry Potter like it's fucking real, someone go burn down J.K. Rowling's house. Santa has pervaded our culture a lot less than that hogwa(rt)sh.

My family is from a country where, even with Christianity being one of many dominant religions, Santa is irrelevant and kids are perfectly content. We celebrate Christmas as a casual, non-religious thing. As I grew up, the process of "finding out" was always mild to nagging disappointment (re: Santa, Disney characters, etc.). I felt lied to (which I was), and my kid self asking "So hey... is this actually real? Can you tell me?" was met with condescending smiles and awkward silences.

Like you, I don't see the point in perpetuating this sort of thing. I felt pretty insulted and sort of jaded, mostly cause I was a naive, all-in sort of kid. Like, why tell me that in the first place when you saw how I 100% believed it? Haha. I would much rather celebrate Christmas (as a specific examples) as a time of fun, gift-giving, food, thoughtfulness (religious or otherwise), and good memories above all. Do I personally believe that Christmas can be just as, if not more, enjoyable without the Santa thing? Absolutely.

I get the "beauty" and "innocence" in telling kids these things, but it also kinda sucks. It gave me the belief that the real world is too dark, emo, etc. that I need to rely on (essentially) lies to get through it. But I also feel there's nothing wrong with using fairy tales, fables, and story times to instill things like good sense, curiosity, imagination, and a sense of play. Perhaps the commenters who are feel contrary feel this way about Santa specifically, but I think there better ways of giving a kid a "good childhood" in many of the discussed aspects. I definitely could have done without it, but that's just my 2 cents.

I don't ever remember truly believing Santa Clause. At best I was agnostic until the year I didn't get a Super Nintendo for Christmas. Maybe my mom was a bad liar, she was always kind of tongue-in-cheek about it. Maybe it was because every other Christmas movie brings up the question and it makes no damn sense that adults don't believe in Santa in a fictional world where there actually is a Santa. Yet I still love Santa as fiction, things haven't changed much since I was a kid. I wonder if people hit hard by the news still appreciate it as a fun thing or if they grow up to be jaded Grinches.

Hmm, I don't believe that kids who are bullied are going to accept your explanation and then explain to the bullies that they should leave them alone for the reasons you outlined. I really can't think of an appropriate response to your comment. It's like you've read what the textbooks say on the issue, but it's completely removed from reality. Trust me when I tell you I've seen it quite a bit and your explanation just comes off as nonsense.

Trust me as someone who was bullied regularly all through elementary and middle school that I have a pretty good idea of what would have and would not have stopped the bullying. Also as someone that works with students on the regular, please don't insult me by insinuating I am simply regurgitating text.

Then we are clearly at an impasse because my family has dealt with many bullies over the years.

I've always believed that the idea of Santa is not only silly, but it's a little insulting to both children and parents. Why should children be teased with this ridiculous idea that a fat man gives them presents? Why should the gratitude go to him and not the hard-working parents who scrounge together their money to get gifts for their children?

My father told me once, thou I forgot his wise words. It had something to do with New Year resolutions!?

Happy New Year folks ! <3