Santa Claus?

No, Virginia, in fact, your parents and all the adults are lying to you. We adults believe that your young mind is too innocent and fragile to accept that what you can see, hear, touch or measure in this universe is all there is. We think that telling you about Santa Claus helps fill a need in you for magic – a need that we think all children have. We think it is important for you to learn how to believe in things you can’t see, to trust in things that you don’t understand, and to have faith in the highly improbable. We ask, “Without blind faith, how will our children ever feel hopeful in their lives? How will they become good citizens?” We fool ourselves by fooling you.

We claim that fantasy insulates you from harsh reality but, in actuality, we create these myths for you for our own entertainment and emotional needs. Reciting fairy-tales and performing the Santa charade allows us to re-live our childhoods through our children’s eyes, and it also gives us parents a power over the behavior and psyches of our children that we normally do not have. “Santa is watching!”, we say. This tactic may afford us a few days of family harmony, but whatever the short-term benefits of the Santa myth, the fact is, to get you children to play along we must continually abuse your trust and exploit your naiveté. By doing that, we forever cripple you emotionally and intellectually.

We want you to believe in fairy-tales and Santa Claus because we ourselves want to believe in myths and magic and deities. We believe these things because we were taught to do so by our parents, as they were by theirs, and we continue to believe all sorts of absurd notions because we are afraid to face the world without them. You see, Virginia, at the critical time in our lives when we needed to be told the truth -- at the exact age you are now , when we were beginning to doubt the myths, and we were beginning to become critical thinkers, when we were finally practicing as the little inquisitive scientists we were all born to be -- our parents scoffed at our skepticism, and they assured us that the unreal was real. Our credulity was cemented, and now we still believe these things -- not because doing so adds to our imaginations or creativity but because we were never encouraged to learn how to think. Now, when we are faced with things we can’t explain, we assume -- like we did when we were three years old -- that there is a magic cause. We adults never grew up intellectually and we don’t want you to grow up either.

You see, Virginia, we adults like to believe that children live in a world of fantasy. We want to think that your developing little minds wonder and wander in awe among fairies and dragons and castles. We want to think that if we leave you to your own imaginations, you will play-act as knights, cowboys, pirates and princesses. And that you will see the world in terms of black and white, good and bad, right and wrong, and heroes and villains. But, happily, children don’t ever independently conceive of such things. It is the adults who create these pretend worlds for you Virginia because if we allow you to develop and play-act as you naturally would, you would “play” as doctors, nurses, firefighters, teachers, and – perish the thought – as whatever your parents do. In other words Virginia, if we don’t teach you to pretend to be a princess you may pretend to be your mommy, and we adults are far too aware of our own faults to allow that. Instead of bringing you to our jobs so you can learn how to live and behave in the real world (we would be too embarrassed), we teach you about elves and hobbits and magic, or we sit you in front of a television to watch pretend people in pretend worlds. Instead of teaching you about the wondrous realities of nature – from why the grass is green, to what the stars are made of – we tell you lies. We convince ourselves that myths are best for you because you are too young to understand facts. But the truth is, we tell lies because we don’t know the answers ourselves, and we are afraid to admit that to you.

No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus. Your suspicions are correct. But to remain a welcome part of your community, I advise you to start believing in some other fantasy. Astrology, aromatherapy, crystals, homeopathy, chakras, and especially, a big sky-daddy who watches over you -- all of these are acceptable fairytales to believe in. You may also continue to believe in Santa if you wish, but if you do so after about age ten, we will have to send you to a psychiatrist.