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Santa Claus and other childhood legends
Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the boogie monster, and the Easter bunny. A few famous characters from common childhood lore. Dreams that fill the heads of children, and keep them looking forward to holidays and signs of growing up. Or are they hinderances that stall a child's awareness of reality?
My question to you Menewsha is quite simple. I ask it not only out of curiousity, but I'm trying to figure out how I will answer when I have little ones of my own. Do you think that children should be encouraged or discouraged to believe in fantasies? Why? Were you brought up with these legends? |
I am in support of anything that encourages imagination and creativity. How can we expect children to reach for the stars if we tell them they're just dots painted on the ceiling? :lol:
You look at other countries, like China and Japan, and see that they're doing better as a nation than western countries are. But ninety-nine percent of their childhood is focused on school, doing better, getting the best grades. While forcing children to face reality at a young age may yield more productive results, I can't imagine that they're nearly as happy as children who are allowed to make their own fantasies, believe in legends, and grow up knowing that magic does exist, even if it's just the entity we call "freedom". Good grief, I sound like a hippie. xP |
No way should people stop encouraging this stuff. Fantasy, fairy tales, make believe etc. are all fantastic. If you don't teach a child any of that, are you going to not let them read any fiction either? Never let them see a movie, or watch anything other than documentaries on TV? Do you see where I'm going here?
I know these fantasy people such as Father Christmas don't exist. Or do I? The rational part of me does, but the part of me that still knows how to dream still wonders and hopes...finding out that Santa isn't real when you get to about the age of 8, doesn't stop him from being real in our hearts :ninja: |
I believe in keeping the imagination alive. My siblings and I were raised on Santa Claus and all of those other fairy tales. We kept believing until we hit an age, where we started thinking things through logically. I'm almost 20 and under my Christmas tree I still get 'Santa' presents. I know that my parents bought them, but I love the fact that they're not killing a beloved legend for us. Our presents from Santa are usually the most expensive out of all our gifts and the most impractical. Like when my older sister moved out, she got house good and stuff like that from the family, but from Santa she got a huge collection of books about fairies ( my sister loves fairies).
Same thing when my brother moved out, except he got a new computer. Two years ago I got a Wii. My sister is 26, my brother 24, I'm turning 20. We all know Santa is just the name our parents put on the most wanted presents, but it still seems special to us. Wake up early Christmas morning, rush to make coffee, put on Christmas music, the three of us sitting in the living room shaking presents. It's just the way it's always been. IF, (huge if) I ever have kids, I'll raise them on every legend I can find. Encourage them to believe in fairies, and Santa, and the Sandman. Because if you don't, they miss out on some of the greatest of childhood experiences. |
I think children should be exposed to the tales... But when it comes to facing reality, I think that should be something they discover on their own. If they're too young, things may get sugar coded, but I think letting them explore and learn on their own is important.
I don't think having these fairy tales really affects their grip on reality, as long as they're still exposed to real life situations as well. :] |
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I have a little dream of when my child stops believing in Santa that I will let them tell me what they want and I will get it or let them once choose their presents, but to also find out something they want but didn't tell me, and leave it as a surprise, simply addressed to them and no 'from: ___' tag/label under the tree or in their room and pretend to not know about it. I think it would inspire hope and dreams as well :) |
I am completely for these stories.
Shoot I took it a step farther. When my sister was little she was scared of going upstairs alone. So I started telling her stories of faeries. They kept away nasty dark monsters and protected little girls. Now it probably would have stopped there like any little story like that. But every night before she would sleep she wanted to hear about the faeries. They grew until they were their own people and she was leaving gifts for them. A few years later she had forgotten about them but for those few years she completely believed in them and never had any problems going upstairs by herself again. |
Sure, I think so. It gives them a chance to be creative, to dream and imagine about something. There's a little time until logic takes place of everything in childhood, you should take avantage of it. It also can help teach basic morals (although you shouldn't lean too close into that all the time...)
Who knows, those very stories might be twisted into an amazing artistic achievement of the time by your kids. Or something like that. Shoot, a lot of the stuff I create I can at least remotely contribute to something I was told as a kid. |
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I think that part of being a child is bringing magic into life. You're never too old for stories like that. Heck, I'm 27 and my mom still tells me Santa is coming to visit even though I no longer believe in Santa. It's something that's part of childhood and encourages imagination. Also, What fun is it to just give a kid a present when a jolly fat man can leave it for them to find in the morning? =P
I do see the other side where it's pretty much lying to the kid but it's not causing harm so I'm for lying to the kids in this case. |
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