By Santa Claus on Dec 19, 2008

Hi, Tony:
Happy Birthday!
Regarding your WSJ Opinion Journal piece on Santa Claus, please be advised that my legal name is Santa Claus, and I’m a Christian Monk, as St. Nicholas was many centuries ago. I’m also a full-time volunteer advocate for the 2 million children in the U.S. annually who are abused, neglected, exploited, abandoned, homeless, and institutionalized through no fault of their own. I believe that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ, not the crass, commercial, secular spectacle it has become in many places, and that the greatest gift one can give is love, not presents. Regarding your inability to explain how Santa accomplishes his Christmas Eve journey, for a scientific explanation, please visit http://www.reliableplant.com/article.aspx?articleid=14967&pagetitle=Yes%2C+Virginia%2C+there+is+science+to+help+Santa+Claus.
There is a Santa Claus; and, there is God.
Merry Christmas!
Blessings, Santa Claus :-)}

By Mary Eckstein on Dec 19, 2008

I loved your article. We here, in my house, also encourage the belief in the mystical. One of the questions I ask my kids is, “Can you see love?”-The answer, of course, is no. “Then how do you know it exists?”, I ask. Their reply is “Because I KNOW it exists, I feel it!”. no one, not even atheists, can deny that love exists, yet it cannot be seen.
Mary E

By Glenn locke on Dec 19, 2008

Great idea…lie to your kids. At least you are admitting the similarity between Santa and God…..they both exist only as myths.

By John Ramsey on Dec 19, 2008

I think you would be wise to examine the issue from the view point of the ten commandments. In pushing a fantasy of Santa Claus, you are lying to your son. Why is it that the first thing parents do is lie to their children by pushing Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny etc? When you then tell them something that is true, why should they believe you?

By Jeannemarie Conley on Dec 19, 2008

Tony,

Your article was fantastic! So well timed with less than a week before Christmas. What would the world be without all the things we can’t ’see’…hope, belief, faith, magic,and to Mary E’s point, LOVE….

Santa, I’m with you. Forget the presents. Merry Christmas! JMC

By David Andersen on Dec 19, 2008

Well done. Merry Christmas.

By Andy on Dec 19, 2008

Sir, you have with your words demonstrated that you are both a fine writer and a fine father. I look forward to sharing your elegantly rendered piece with my friends and family. Thank you for such a warm consideration of these big ideas: You have blessed us with your wisdom.

By Jennifer (Conversion Diary) on Dec 19, 2008

Wow, that was a great article. My favorite line: “As a parent, I believe (with the older apologists) that it’s essential to preserve a small, inviolate space in the heart of a child, a space where he is free to believe impossibilities.” I’ll be linking to it. Thanks and merry Christmas!

By Steve Blake on Dec 19, 2008

Who, really, does not acknowledge the mystery of the birth of a child, or the death of a loved one? Certainly we can agree that this mystery is almost universally acknowledged.

Some of us yearn to commune with the mystery and worship it. And to commune with and worship the mystery, we must first describe it, since its description provides the tools needed to commune and worship.

Yet by describing the mystery we create a paradox since a mystery by definition is indescribable.

And most importantly, our chosen description of the mystery can divide us from others, and even create strife when we expound our description too strongly.

Thus in any discussion about the mystery, what is of utmost importance is humility - holding our chosen description of the mystery tenderly and quietly, but not so dearly that it divides us from others.

By Mark Barrett on Dec 19, 2008

I believe there is more to the world than can be observed and proven in the four dimensional space time continuum. I believe there is mystery, and it requires an open mind, sometimes, to see the beauty and awe that herald the mystery. But, and here is where I need help, I am bothered when someone believes pure non-sense, and especially when they think their faith in their non-sense makes them superior or saved or chosen, and worst when they want to foist their non-sense on me or others.
So I do not think every thought or idea or belief ought to be vetted by science, but thoughts and ideas and beliefs that are non-sense offend me. I don’t know how to reconcile these fairly and honestly…with integrity and with charity. Ideas?

By Ruth Baum on Dec 19, 2008

I enjoyed your article on Santa in the Wall Street Journal. I would like to recommend a wonderful book: “The Saint Nicholas Secret” by Dennis E. Engleman. I found it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Nicholas-Secret-Dennis-Engleman/dp/1888212152 I think you would enjoy reading this — about how an adult found his faith in Santa, aka St. Nicholas, restored.

By Judy Jettie on Dec 19, 2008

Thank you for a wonderful article. One wouldn’t expect to read it in WSJ. I’m not a religious person and have too long failed to see the magic around me, only accepting what I can see with my empirical eye. The importance of your article is that it causes me to stop and think and to appreciate the mysteries I can’t see or explain.

By Andrew on Dec 19, 2008

Yes, St. Nicholas is the boy who became Santa Claus. Santa = Saint, Claus = Nickolas.

It is too bad we have mis-placed where we came from …

Andrew

By Steve Marshall on Dec 19, 2008

Amen.

By RabbiDFEukel on Dec 19, 2008

Mr. Woodlief, Shalom ~ Your writing had not crossed my lighted path before. It seems to me that your juxtaposition of Santa Claus and GOD was appropriate for the festival season we are in, given your own culture cornerstone. However, I wonder if the wisdom and wit you wonderfully write could not carefully consider the miracles of this festival season. Our home celebrates Hannukah, the miracles of Light & Might. The mystery of those miracles are still told throughout the generations. Those who hold to miracles with all their heart, head and hands are able to marvelously motivate others to embrace GOD’s mysterious invisible and visible Presence. Our Shabbat table is almost complete. We bless you in The Name of GOD’s Only and Uniquely begotten Son, our Messiah, YESHUA! Love and Prayers, Rabbi DF Eukel, host of “Ask the Rabbi” on Blog Talk Radio each Sabbath and Tuesday at 8PM CST.

By Kristina Harrigan on Dec 19, 2008

Wow! That was great! You hit all three of my favorites: GKC, CSL and George MacDonald. What a fool, despite his education and intelligence, Mr. Dawkins must be. I wonder whether his hatred for God doesn’t conceal a fear that He does exist. I think Screwtape addresses this somewhere.

Keep all of this up, Mr. Woodlief. My husband and I love your column.

Sincerely, and a Merry Christmas and Happy Channukah to you.

Kristina Harrigan

By Lo on Dec 19, 2008

Santa Claus is real. St. Nicholas, who gave his gifts in the darkness of night, passed his spirit of giving on to all of us who believe in loving one another. The chimneys are our hearts through which he arrives and which fuel our love and joy in one another. The reindeer and elves are his community which supports his giving spirit and without whom, he could not succeed.

Children continue to believe in God because they realize that Santa held the spirit of God which is Love.

On the topic of Fairy tales - they are colorful abstracts to teach a lesson or provide an interpretation of the past, and they are inspirations for future reality. Who ever thought one day we could fly across oceans, travel to the moon, or that Dick Tracy’s watch would one day become everyone’s cell phone?

By Elaine T on Dec 19, 2008

Your article in today’s WSJ reminded me of a non-(overtly)- religious book: James Thurber’s Thirteen Clocks. In there one character tells another who is having doubts:

I can see a thing I cannot touch and touch a thing I cannot see. The one is your heart, the other, a spot before my eyes.”

It makes a useful point to those who claim there is nothing than cannot be measured, or otherwise physically sensed.

By Joseff Farrah on Dec 20, 2008

Thanks for your WSJ piece, Tony!

You might also be interested in the apologetics creative fiction of Craig Hazen, titled, FIVE SACRED CROSSINGS.

Hazen, the director of Biola University’s Christian apologetics program, manages to present a creative and winsome story that has apologetics value without it being reduced to preachy, didactic lecturing.

By Dale on Dec 20, 2008

Tony, I am the oldest of three boys, I parented two boys, and now I have two grandsons and none of us ever actually believed in Santa Clause or “embraced the extrarational.” Whatever that means.

Maybe it means the VLF signals, Cosmic Rays, Ionosphere, and Radio Noise I measured for a couple years in Antarctica 50 years ago, or the lightning currents that redistributed(time and frequency domains)on my computer and in my brain(all night long) as I was designing the shielding from the Induced Lightning threat to the fly-by-wire 777. All of these phenomena I assume would seem “magical” to non-electromagnetic engineers.

Tony, your ideas remind me of something one of my favorite idea persons wrote:

Ayn Rand’s The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, 1968, last chapter titled The Comprachicos.

Last few paragraphs:

In conclusion, I should like to quote–for one of the guiltiest groups, the parents–a passage from Atlas Shrugged which deals with Rearden’s thoughts after the death of the Wet Nurse:

“He thought of all the living species that train their young in the art of survival. The cats who teach their kittens to hunt, the birds who spend such strident effort on teaching their fledglings to fly–yet man, whose tool of survival is the mind, does not merely fail to teach a child to think, but devotes the child’s education to the purpose of destroying his brain, of convincing him that thought is futile and evil, before he has started to think…

“Men would shudder, he thought, if they saw a mother bird plucking the feathers from the wings of her young, then pushing him out of the nest to struggle for survival–yet that was what they did to their children.

“Armed with nothing but meaningless phrases, this boy had been thrown to fight for existence, he had hobbled and groped through a brief, doomed effort, he had screamed his indignant, bewildered protest–and had perished in his first attempt to soar on his mangled wings.”

By N. Plume on Dec 20, 2008

Gods are the man-made cogs in the wheels of mythology and superstition, faith is the grease that turns them. Faith itself is a fairytale, a desperate, ego-driven hope in the afterworld. Religion, and the belief in any of the various gods and personal saviors, is more about wanting to live forever than anything else.

It’s so funny to see intelligent and talented writers, the sort of people who know about the history and development of the myths of mankind, write about faith as if they’ve discovered and understand some hidden secret to eternal life.

Reality check: as much as you want to believe that your soul and the souls of your loved ones are going to live on after death, it’s just not true.

Of course, the egos of billions of human beings before and after those of us alive today will continue to fall for the same fantasy of forevermore.

So, take heart in the fact that you’re not alone.

By Brenda on Dec 20, 2008

Beautiful article that made me cry because my children do not experience that same “mystery” as I did as a child and the one you talk about in your article. Perhaps my fault and/or just the product of today’s society. I loved the article and it will help me focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Bravo,Thank you, Merry Christmas and keep on keeping on!! God Bless.

By llanasn on Dec 20, 2008

This is your best post ever!!!!!!

By Therese on Dec 20, 2008

Found you by back-tracking from the WSJ site where I read your lovely article. It is nothing short of a Christmas gift! Thank you, Tony.

By Nancy Brown on Dec 20, 2008

Tony,
Great article, thanks. I invite you to join and be a part of the American Chesterton Society at http://www.chesterton.org if you aren’t already, because you have a great Chestertonian way of thinking.

By Idler on Dec 20, 2008

Tony,

As a fan of GKC I was very pleased to see your article in the Wall Street Journal. However, even if you happened to have left GKC out, I’m sure it would have been an equally delightfully written piece.

Reason is not exhaustively defined by rationalism. Far from it. Rationalism is only a narrow style of thinking useful for some pursuits and not for others. Rational inquiry is by no means limited to the rationalist style. In fact, when it comes to the big questions, rationalists are hamstrung and limit the admissable phenomena arbitrarily. In this respect, rationalists show their fear of the uncertain, afraid to tread water in “10,000 fathoms,” as Kierkegaard might put it…

By Laurie on Dec 20, 2008

Never seen your blog before, but I enjoyed and share the parental sentiments in your WSJ essay. I raise my children immersed in books to inspire their sense of wonder, awe, and love of goodness. Their spiritual lives at this point are diverse, but I am glad they were given a window into and appreciative heart for things that cannot all be explained and that remnind us that we are not, in the end, what it is all about.

By Joan on Dec 20, 2008

Your comments in WSJ essay on Santa and God and the lovely mysteries of the universe need to be read more widely. As an educator, I decry the loss of imaginative literature in the early grades, sometimes sacrificed to testing goals, sometimes omitted because teachers do not value the magic of fairy tales and of the unseen. You have inspired me to re read GK Chesterton
Thank you for this Christmas gift.

By Aaron J on Dec 20, 2008

Tony,
Thank you so much for your article. As a twentysomething admirer of Chesterton, it’s alarming to me that fellow Christians and non-Christians alike want to rid Christmas of Santa (and Jesus too for that matter)….it seems to stem from viewing Santa as just a spawn from the crass commercialism; throwing the baby out with the bathwater as it were.

Your article perfectly sums up what I was attempting to express the other day on my blog (http://withashout.net/post/65500641) - thank you, I’m eager to share this with everyone!

Merry Christmas!

By N. Plume on Dec 20, 2008

Woodlief,

I’ve never presumed to know the real truth about the universe. I believe we glimpse the world through our brains, not our eyes. Our brains are making all of this stuff up as we go along, based on what we learn and what we’ve been taught (and hence what we think we know).

What you’ve written about, this lovely and poetic connection between a father and his son is honest and heartfelt, but it isn’t real. It’s just your brain’s interpretation of reality.

My point wasn’t a put down of your ability as a writer to share the human experience of fatherly love, but rather a statement about the implausible nature of the concept of gods and what I believe is the main reason why people choose to believe in them.

Nine times out of ten, people believe in god because they’re afraid of death. Their egos want to them to live forever. Believing in god, and the magic powers of eternal love (what believers call “faith”), gives people the hope and comfort of eternal life.

I think most fathers want to share a special connection of innocence and imagination with their young sons, the feeling that love and faith and family are all part of some divine plan for the survival of the human soul.

Like believing in Santa, believing in gods and imperishable souls is a lovely thought. Yet, despite my own ego, I must side with the rationalistic philosophers. Not with steely-eyed wisdom, but with realistic humility.

By Robin Mc Mahon on Dec 20, 2008

Atlough it is true that Mr. Dawkins fulminates against all things which cannot be quantified, one must remember that the founding fathers of the western scientific spirit were quite beyond the pale by Mr. Dawkins own standards. Copernicus sought a better explanation of the mechanics of the universe, not on the basis of observations, but to bring things in greater harmony with Plato and Plotinus, Kepler spent much of his time up to his eyebrows in all manner of mystical ruminations which eventually lead eventually to the discovery of his laws, and even Newton had his mystical side. The idea that only atheists can advance the cause of science is simply not true.

By mario e. lombardo on Dec 21, 2008

Mr. Woodlief

In the first para of your WSJ “OK, Virginia, …” article, you ask: “And how does he [Santa] get into houses with no chimneys?” The answer is in my book “Ralph the Star Elf (Santa’s Little Secret)” available on Amazon.com. Or, simply send me an address, and I’ll be happy to send Caleb a copy. Enjoyed reading your article.

Mario E. Lombardo

By John on Dec 21, 2008

I am not sure what sex or my grandmother’s death have to do with the issue. It is possible to discuss sex and a grandmother’s death without going into the details that you mention. Yes looking back I can distinguish the difference between a fantasy and a lie. I do not fault my parents for indulging THEIR fantasy. Because they were “affected” in the same manner by their parents. However, a fantasy is only a fantasy if YOU know it is a fantasy. When people include children in a fantasy, it is not a fantasy for the child. It is a lie which they accept because their parents told the lie. After they find out they have been lied to, what will be their reaction then they are told something else? They will ask themselves if this is another “fantasy lie” of their parents. This is a perfect example of “The sins of the father”. We are born with many capabilities that we suppress as we get older because it is difficult to interact with “older” people that have lost those capabilities. So to “fit in” we deny many things in ourselves. We think that we are at fault because “our parents would never lie to us”. At some point in our lives, we choose to follow the illusions that our parents have created or we choose to search for what we have lost. It is a great comfort to discover that the colors of the human aura that we saw as a child do exist and that we can see them and they can be interpreted as easily as the spoken words of people. Or that you can know what people are thinking and that you are not crazy that you seem to know these things. All you can do is mourn your parent’s loss of their own capabilities and deal with them in a manner that they can understand. Because it was not their fault but the fantasies of their parents which were the fantasies of their parents etc.

I wish you well on YOUR journey.

John

By Travis Prinzi on Dec 21, 2008

Really excellent article. Chesterton and MacDonald are so foundation to the way I think about fairy tales, and the world itself, it was a joy to see them both in this article. “The Ethics of Elfland” (from Orthodoxy) and MacDonald’s, “The Fantastic Imagination,” along with Tolkien’s “On Fairy Stories” are all very important reads on this kind of thinking.

Some additional thoughts on N. Plume’s comments, which have been answered very well already.

N. Plume writes, “Like believing in Santa, believing in gods and imperishable souls is a lovely thought. Yet, despite my own ego, I must side with the rationalistic philosophers. Not with steely-eyed wisdom, but with realistic humility.”

But I don’t see what’s ego-denying about this. One group says, “We need a revelation to understand the mysterious world we live in, because our finite minds comprehend it,” and the other says, “Our rational minds are capable of figuring it out.” Sounds like the latter position has less humility than the former.

Despite my own ego, I’ll stick with the fairy tale philosophers.

By Michale on Dec 22, 2008

When we first moved to Kansas, my children had a difficult time getting used to the wind. Wind in Kansas is a force to be reckoned with.

From the inside of our home one day, our four year old said “Cut down the trees”. As I knelt beside him I gently asked “Why”?
“Because then there would be no wind”.

Wind is an invisible attribute. The trees are only the evidence that it blows.

Haven’t cultures, societies, governments, people like Mr. Dawkins, cut down the trees before? Ridding the world of myths, rewriting dictionaries, burning Bibles, churches, attempting to destroy God’s people, rewriting textbooks, etc. All of these things are just cutting down trees. The wind still blows.

And then, when all of the trees are cut down…what?

The rocks will cry out.

Thanks Tony. May we, as adults, continue to learn much from the “deep magic”. Merry Christmas to your family.

By N. Plume on Dec 22, 2008

I’m all for fairy tales, and do enjoy the wonderful stories and fables from the minds of the world’s talented writers. But, like all magic tricks, I don’t believe in them.

I’m not exactly sure what the argument is, what has been “answered very well already.” We all have egos, don’t we?

I’m an agnostic and my favorite book at the moment is The God Delusion. Does that make my opinions any less equal here?

In regards to Chesterton, I think his artistic talent is undeniable. However, his philosophies also represent his own culture and generation, which is akin to one of Dawkins’ main arguments for atheism.

If Chesterton (and other believers born or converted since) had been born in India or the Middle East, he probably wouldn’t have been a Christian and he certainly wouldn’t have written Orthodoxy.

I think gods and religions are delusional, NOT creative minds and imaginations. We can enjoy and appreciate creative writing in all its fantastical forms without believing, as young childen so often do, that wishes and fairy tales actually do come true.

By Jeff Brokaw on Dec 22, 2008

Tony, I love this sentence: “As a parent, I believe (with the older apologists) that it’s essential to preserve a small, inviolate space in the heart of a child, a space where he is free to believe impossibilities”.

Bingo. There’s plenty of time later to get your heart ripped out later by people and events in your life.

Reality is way, way over-rated.

Our kids teach us things every day, if we let them.

By Pastor Ronald Wean on Dec 22, 2008

Thank you for your fine article in the Wall Street Journal. Your framing of Puritans and atheists unlocks the mystery of the current hostility toward people of faith. I would go one step further and state that it is not just mystery, but joy that causes such a fuss. Personally, if I had a choice between the Puritan/atheist world and the world of “behold I give you good tidings of great joy”, its a no brainer!

By Jim Rataski on Dec 22, 2008

Tony,

This story reminds me of the “fairy tale” you wrote a few years ago “Christmas Armaments” is a true story, but fosters something living into the seasonal task of Christmas shopping.

It once again creates within our children the pure joy of life with a fully functioning imagination. These type of moments carry much weight in creating our own mystery in life. And the children love us for it. Santa? Why not?!

We can not out dream God.

By Bill Morris on Dec 22, 2008

Tony,
I,like many others it appears, found your article in the journal the other day to be quite moving. I am an equity trader on an institutional trading desk and I began googling you to find out more about the man behind the piece. I then came upon this site which is just wonderful. Coincidentally, I was recently told that GKC was my grandfather’s favorite writer and I bought a few of his books for my father’s birthday back in September. When he came to visit for Thanksgiving he brought along the copy of Orthodoxy that I had purchased for him and I have just begun to read it. My first GKC. What a small and beautiful world. By the way…I have 3 daughters and just had our fourth child, a son. God Bless and Merry Christmas
ps. love the climbing pictures…amazing

By economist on Dec 22, 2008

It seems that, when it comes to fantasy and myth, people tend to ask, “Are the stories true?” and then reject them as ridiculous because they are not ‘true’. Skillfully written fantasy and myth, however (as opposed to ones that are merely escapist, which are all too common), actually help people see reality. Real life is complex, and its multitude of irrelevant details can actually obscure what is important. The realm of myth and fantasy, however, provides a backdrop that the important elements of reality can stand out against, like black letters on a white page. When you look at a white page, you don’t complain that the white part doesn’t tell you any facts. Instead, you focus on the black letters that stand out against the white background. Similarly, when dealing with myth, the important thing is not to focus on the fantastic elements, but rather on the elements of reality brought glaringly into focus by their juxtaposition with unreality. This the point of fantasy and myth - not escaping reality, but learning to see reality better.

By Gary Hantsbarger on Dec 22, 2008

Dear Mr. Woodlief,

I found your piece in the Wall Street Journal interesting and thought-provoking, though perhaps not in the ways you intended. I thought you might appreciate getting the other side of the Santa Claus ? God connection.

In my case, learning the truth about Santa Claus did set me up for atheism. I was in the first grade when I first noticed that Santa Claus was just an ordinary man with a fake beard. The following year, 1967, in Mrs. Tayloe?s second grade class in Cambridge, Iowa, the existence of Santa Claus was put to a vote. The Santa Claus won twenty-eight votes to two. I and my best friend were the only dissenters. Mrs. Tayloe, who I looked up to because she encouraged my interest in science, voted for the existence of Santa Claus.

From this experience, I learned two things. First, an overwhelming majority of people, including admired authority figures, can believe (or pretend to believe) something that is totally untrue. Second, it felt good to stand up for truth, even if only one other person stood with me.

Those lessons have stayed with me my whole life, and they greatly encouraged me when, in my late teens, creationism and bigotry finally drove me away from Christianity.

As to why so many children allow themselves to be duped about God even after realizing that they were duped about Santa Claus, I offer this explanation. Everyone can learn from experiences involving physical pain, many can learn from experiences involving emotional distress or financial loss, but only a few learn anything from merely being proven wrong about something. But these few are generally the brightest and most creative.

Finally, I want to point out that giving up on one?s belief in gods, ghosts, or fairies does not mean an end to wonder and mystery. We share this earth with millions of other species, each wonderfully fascinating in some unique way. And about the vast majority of these, almost nothing is known. To those who open there eyes, the world has plenty of wonder and mystery, without spirits.

By Bill Morris on Dec 23, 2008

Economist - That is well said and a great analogy. Myths, folk tales, fairy tales and the like are almost always “narrative analogies” if you will. Just one of many ways that we, as humans, can share ideas, thoughts, morals and lessons with eachother. Santa, in this case, is such a wonderful and exciting mystery for children and once this so called “lie” is revealed it shouldn’t cause distrust as some have said, but instead should evolve into the larger lesson of sharing, giving, consequences (gifts vs coal for behaving) etc. It’s up to the parents to help their children understand this during the sometimes painful stage of revelation. Man, I hated my 3rd grade teacher who, during a lesson on fiction vs non-fiction, used Santa as an example of fiction.

By Margie Gilbert on Dec 23, 2008

Dear Tony – Your article uplifted my spirits. Thank you. I get goosebumps every time I read “Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus too. Our secular world is trying to get rid of everything mystical and holy. I have 5 children, now ages 25 to 38. They were all raised on the belief of Santa Claus. My one daughter has decided to become an Atheist and my other daughter is more into Buddha and the new age religions of the west coast, even though they were raised as Roman Catholics and went through 16 years at Catholic Schools. Every Christmas the one daughter sends us articles on the negative effects on children lying to them about Santa Claus and how it has a devastating effect on them in the area of trust. I was told about Santa as a little girl and I have very loving and warm feelings towards my parents for the unselfish sacrifices they made to make Christmas magical for me. Your article was wonderful. Thank you and have a very Merry and blessed Christmas. Margie Gilbert

By Smilie on Dec 23, 2008

Excellent article. Good to hear there are those out there that still believe! Merry Christmas!

By Marilyn Stevens on Dec 23, 2008

Thanks for making your family’s values shine. Hope more people re-read Lewis’ and Tolkien’s understanding of myth. We surely do not invent mystery! For those who pity us Christians and our joy in revelation from the Creator, we can sympathize with their finite sight. During the times that I have been the center of my world, it is painfully small. This is the perfect season to rejoice that something bigger broke through into our little life.

By Maureen Gilbert on Dec 24, 2008

Tony:
How does promoting a story that ultimately is an untruth “preserve a small, inviolate space in the heart of a child” to believe in the magic and unseen reality of God. I would argue your logic is backwards. If Santa is reduced to Mom and Dad then what prevents God from being reduced to some rational or scientific explanation such as Dawkins and others would promote. It’s the same in my view. I am not of course talking about the Spirit of Santa, Xmas Giving etc - parents don’t take their kids to sit on the “spirit” of Santa’s lap.

If you want to preserve a space of wonder and magic in your child (and I agree wholeheartedly that you should) than do it with the real magic of the world and our lives not with something that falls apart at age 7. I have 2 children and find ways to point out the “magic” of God in real ways that show up in our daily lives.

I find it interesting that its the adults that seem to have the hard time “destroying the magic”. I have a sense Santa is really for the parents who need to preserve / retain that long ago lost magic of their own childhood via their children. I would venture that those people really have lost a daily and real sense of wonder and magic which I’d call connection to God / source.

If a child has asked the question then the veil of magic has already been cracked and I would not want to violate any child’s inner knowing.

In the words of Mr Einstein “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” I fall into the later camp and intend to encourage my children to do so without destroying their inner knowing.

By Spooby Mobutu on Dec 25, 2008

All of this “Santa Claus” nonsense has me baffled. Why people would continue to tell their children such an outdated, impossible story is, to me, beyond comprehension. Almost all children can understand, when it’s explained to them, the real truth behind the presence in the chimney and the presents under the tree. It’s time to stop lying to the children; everyone would be much better off if we could just admit to our kids that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the real reason for the season.

By Mark L. Potter on Dec 26, 2008

The following words are from a parent who used to rest soundly in the “I don’t lie to my children about Santa” crowd. I was full of that arrogance and nonsense until very recently.

I still don’t lie to my children about Santa. I also don’t go out of my to destroy the magic in their imagination about Santa. I also don’t tell them that Aslan isn’t real and I certainly don’t point to my three year old that her “madge friends” aren’t real. I don’t tell them that cartoon characters aren’t really people and so on. They are smart kids. They know the difference between fantasy and reality. They WANT to believe in Santa and I believe full well that they know he isn’t real once they hit a certain point in their reason but they keep believing because they want to do so. If ever confronted with a direct question I answer very simply “Santa is the anthropomorphization of the Christmas spirit”. I haven’t lied to them and by the time they can pronounce anthropomorphization they have figured it our on their own.

I have come to despise the arrogance in the “Why would you lie to your children” crowd. From a Christian perspective we don’t levy the same judgment on non-believers for the way they raise their children. So who are any of us to break out the accusations of lying. I tell my children tales of knights and dragons and don’t pause for public service announcements that dragons aren’t real and knights and chivalry are dead and buried.

My answer to the critics and nay-sayers is simply that I, in fact, do not lie to my children. I enable the fanciful whilst telling them the strict truth and don’t bother going out my way to destroy their childhood for them before the world around us gets to.

By Dale on Dec 27, 2008

Interesting article in Friday’s WSJ about young Dolphins learning Tool-Using from their parents.

By Maureen Gilbert on Dec 27, 2008

Dear Mr Potter (see Dec 26th entry):
Despite some attempts by the Christians, Santa Claus was most likely based on Odin whose celebration day was the native Germanic holiday of Yule or the Winter Solstice. This is around the 23rd December and the partying lasted for 3 days. On this day he is depicted as leading a great hunting party through the sky. Two books from Iceland, the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, describe Odin as riding an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir that could leap great distances, giving rise to comparisons to Santa Claus’s reindeer.

Further, Odin was referred to by many names in Skaldic poetry, some of which describe his appearance or functions; these include Síðgrani, Síðskeggr, Langbarðr, (all meaning “long beard”) and Jólnir (”Yule figure”).

Children would place their boots, filled with carrots, straw, or sugar, near the chimney for Odin’s flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir’s food with gifts or candy. This practice survived in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands after the adoption of Christianity and became associated with Saint Nicholas as a result of the process of Christianization and can be still seen in the modern practice of the hanging of stockings at the chimney in some homes.

BTW our american Santa Claus derives from the Dutch ’sinterklaas’ that comes out of these germanic pagan legends and was brought to this country via the Dutch in New Amsterdam aka New York.

So it appears that your “Christian perspective” is actually defending a pagan myth.

As for your treatise on “lying vs supporting fantasy see an excellent article on the difference between the two by Jan Hunt of the Natural Child Project: http://www.naturalchild.com/jan_hunt/santa.html

By BAW on Jan 1, 2009

Was tickled to see your first respondent quote Dr. Silverberg’s theories, as it falls to me (in part) to promote them.

Nice article. Long live Santa Claus! All this handwringing is humbug, plain and simple.

By Travis Prinzi on Jan 1, 2009

In regards to Chesterton, I think his artistic talent is undeniable. However, his philosophies also represent his own culture and generation, which is akin to one of Dawkins’ main arguments for atheism.

N. Plume, interesting. Wouldn’t it stand to reason, then, that your agnosticism, and Dawkins’s atheism, are really only a product of our culture and generation?

By Katha Petals on Jan 20, 2009

I had my teenage daughter, who has been raised in a secular home, to read “OK, Virginia, There’s no Santa Clause. But There Is God.” Her comment: “I don’t get it.” Neither did I. You seem to believe only the religious embrace fairy tales and fiction. Our house has been filled with both. It was some of our Christian friends who forbade the reading of “Harry Potter” by their children. Tales of wonder fuel the imagination, not the “groundwork for religious faith.” I look to science to reveal the “magic” behind our beautiful world; doing so doesn’t diminish to awe of the still unknown and unexplained. An earlier essay in Wall Street Journal accused secular people as being more likely to believe in the paranormal. (Conveniently, it wasn’t discussed whether angels, people being brought back from the dead, parting seas and water turned into wine were “paranormal.”) The WSJ prints essays about nonbelievers lacking in imagination or wholly embracing it to the point of silliness. Which is it? I suspect nonbelievers such as myself are an unruly group to pidgeon-hole. Richard Dawkins doesn’t speak for all of us.

By Richard E. Barry on Sep 13, 2009

Tony, I just read this article in the WSJ (Ok, I’m a little behind!). I thought it was beautiful, insightful, a true childlike (not childish) perspective. I have 13 grandchildren in various stages of belief and transition. Magic (probably not the right word) is important - critical to their well-being. So is faith - children’s faith and adult’s faith. It is all a growth.
I also read the comments?? What is wrong with some of these people??