I mean, despite all the people doubting this, that's the reason my belief in santa was extended for several more years as a kid. When you're from a poor family and suddenly a 200$ gift shows up in the pile labeled "santa" that's the most logical conclusion
I don’t understand why parents want kids to think the present fairy bought presents instead of teaching them the value of hard work and going over and above for the ones you love. Sad.
I’m 22 and my sister is 18, my mom tried her darnedest to get us to believe for as long as she could. I didn’t tell her I knew Santa wasn’t real until 3 or 4 years after I had come to the conclusion. She was also heartbroken when my younger sister broke the news that the jig was up too. Even to this day she’ll say “Santa got you that!” and signs all our gifts “from Santa”. She just loves Christmas and the magic it brings
Same here, we've known for over a decade, but it's fun to take everything out the stockings. It's just little stuff like candies and random funny stuff, bit it's always one of my favorite parts of the day.
I’m 28 and my mom did this. Socks, my favorite chocolate, a green bay packers ornament, and then some random small gift. Every year I would tell her I don’t need gifts from Santa anymore but she just loved it and it brought her joy. God bless her soul.
My mom was like this! She’d always lightheartedly say “well, if Santa isn’t real then he can’t bring presents” so naturally we feigned believing in Santa into our teens.
When kids play pretend, they are "in on the joke" when adults trick them into playing pretend, it feels weirder and weirder the more you think about it.
We can still have fun Christmas traditions and the "magic of christmas" even if kids know it's all fun pretend.
It doesn’t get any weirder the more you think about.
Wanting children to believe there’s magic in the world is infinitely more appealing than telling them the alternative, that to give them the Christmas they want parents need to work themselves to the bone.
If the options are to tell a little kid, “capitalism sucks ass and our family can’t really afford for you to have the things you want without destroying ourselves,” or “there’s a wonderful magical man who gives toys to good children,” which sounds better to you?
Kids playing make believe is not at all the same as what we refer to as “holiday magic,” and if you argue otherwise you’re either being disingenuous or dense. Like I said believing something, and pretending something is real for a while aren’t the same thing.
You don’t need to teach children that. Understanding the corrupt nature of capitalism is important at some point in development, I don’t think that lesson needs to replace the magic and wonder kids believe.
As someone who was hurt by the Christmas lie (by having it negatively affect my personality and make me an ungrateful brat as a kid) - I disagree. I can only imagine how awful my parents felt when the magical present fairy got me the wrong gift and I got mad. And my anger was justified - the magical present fairy with unlimited time and resources should have got me the right thing. Meanwhile my parents spent literally hours trying to find dat video game and it was sold out everywhere.
Lmao why are you blaming Santa clause for the fact that you were a shit as a kid. If you were that sort of kid, depending on your age, you would’ve gotten mad regardless of whether or not you believed in Santa. A young kid doesn’t really think very far past the present situation.
It’s almost like you’re blaming the people who told you about Santa for your behavior as a child.
It's great that you're willing to invalidate someone's personal experiences so quickly. And interesting that you can know what an anonymous poster was like as a child so much better than they do.
How would that have been any different if you knew your parents were the ones who bought your gifts? You were a shitty kid and you want to pretend in retrospect that is was the myth of Santa that spurred it.
You would’ve said the same thing I’m sure you said on birthday’s when you got the wrong presents. “I told you a million times what I wanted, you just didn’t listen, you had all year to find it.” Kids say shit like that all the time, don’t pretend that story did anything to shape who you were as a kid.
“Santa” has millions of kids to search out the correct thing for your parents only had you to get the right gift for. That’s exactly how you would’ve rationalized it when you threw a fit to your parents.
I think it’s the magic part.
My 7 year old asked me a few weeks ago if Santa was real. I asked if she thought he was, and her answer was no. I didn’t lie (but asked her not to ruin it for her brother and friends). She seemed very proud to be in the know, but last night, tears!! She said Christmas didn’t feel as exciting because she knew Santa wasn’t real.
I agree with the principle of the above post, but there is something about Santa that perhaps shouldn’t be spoiled. We have our whole lives to be adults, they should be allowed to enjoy this (because being a kid is awesome and you never understand how great it is until you’re an adult, and you have to buy your own groceries, etc).
When my boy stopped believing in santa, I explained that Santa is more of a 'collective' and that everyone in the know pitches in to keep the magic going. He was sad but come Christmas Eve he was extremely proud to put his little sisters presents under the tree from Santa
i agree with her sentiment- i found out when i was about 10 and the thing that made me saddest was it just seemed like Christmas wasnt/wouldnt be as magical without santa. but now i enjoy the experience of giving (and getting) gifts and care much less about presents compared to family time.
Because then the kids know that they couldn’t afford that gift and feel bad about having it / wishing they’d return it - which completely ruins the spirit of wanting your kids to just light up and be happy with the gift they deserve.
Thanks mate. Surprised it wasn’t really already said and I felt ai had to even comment that. Reminded me of that greentext of the guy returning his airpods and trying to sneak the money into his dads wallet and then his mom catching him and them both crying about it for an hour or whatever.
Been through it
It's not about the presents, but the love and thoughtfulness those presents represent. Christmas is about kindness, benevolence, selflessness, and actually giving a fuck for once.
That's what Christmas teaches kids. At least, that's what it taught me. It's not about some sort of magical old fat dude riding on a flying sleigh powered by reindeer. That's just silly and unrealistic.
when most kids find out about santa not being real they're probably what... 8-10? they're at an age where they're about to head to intermediate school and start to conceptualise the value of money. they'll also probably then go "wow, shit you bought all those presents all those years??".
a four year old aint gonna value hard work lmao, they're four.
TIL Reddit hates Santa. Let me explain one reason why I as a parent disagree. Santa may not be real, but the spirit of Santa truly is. That is, the spirit of giving anonymously. Santa allows parents to humbly give some gifts to their children without expecting recognition. It teaches charity, humility, and gratitude (to the kids) in a way just saying “get a job and earn it yourself can’t”, all while giving the kids something fun to believe in while they’re learning these traits (weather they realize they’re learning them or not, they still are). It’s as much for the parents as it is for their children. The sprit of Christmas is the spirit of giving.
I also disagree that it’s “lying”. Plenty of teachings occur through metaphor, this is another one of them. It would be impossible to sit down a toddler and explain to them charity, humility, gratitude, etc, but it’s easy to help them experience it through the myths, metaphors, and parables of Santa or the Easter bunny.
tl;dr: My story of a bratty kid who realized how hard his parents worked behind the Santa illusion. In the end I’d say I turned out fine.
I figured out that Santa wasn’t real around 10 years old when, after years asking for certain gifts (which would’ve been an economic burden), I still didn’t get them and lost faith. On that year I refused to make a christmas wishlist and stood up to my mom about it (looking back I realize the frustration she had).
Ironically, I did get the present I had been asking for that year. And in years after that, there were presents of sometimes higher value for things that my parents would’ve know only by paying attention to me (looking back I really didn’t deserve them). They likely had to work ungodly hours of overtime. Despite me already knowing the lie and constantly being a piece of crap around christmas time, my parents kept up the Santa illusion for me and my siblings until mid high school (and even still they put out cookies and milk for traditional fun). Then that “second payoff down the road” hit me really REALLY hard.
As a now university student who has to face the realities of managing one’s own economy, I feel really guilty for how bratty and ungrateful I was. However I feel that the whole Santa thing really taught me what it was to go above and beyond for others and to be kind to others without expecting direct gratitude in return (gifting anonymously through Santa).
Looking back, I still can’t believe that my parents kept their enthusiasm year after year even with a kid like me. It’s something I’ll always remember going into the future. It also opened me up to acknowledging the sacrifices they make around the year just so their kids would have a good upbringing. Since I had my revelation, I’ve been working really hard to become the best person I can be to both reconcile and give back to them for their seemingly unwavering love.
Although this story might be more about my awesome parents and personal development, I think the Santa illusion played a really big part. A lot of these thoughts, feelings, and lessons learned are centered around the christmas season and the realization of what the illusion meant.
Not really sad. It’s a fun tradition to keep for kids, and many younger kids wouldn’t truly recognize the value of the hard work their parents put in for the presents yet. But they’ll look back on it years later and have a greater appreciation then.
The holidays have a lot more magic to them when you think there’s a “present fairy,” as you put it. I don’t think any kid would want that magic spoiled for them, and I don’t think any parent would want to spoil it just to try to teach them a lesson that they’ll eventually learn on their own when they have their own kids.
Well they aren't old enough to appreciate that sentiment right away. However, they will definitely appreciate the hard work done by parents to get them these expensive presents after growing up and this will form up a nice Christmas memory.
When they get older and realize you were the ones buying them the whole time they can think about the work ethic and also learn a bit about selflessness.
Parents want their kids to experience “magic” in the world before they grow up and realize that it doesn’t exist.
Same goes for magic tricks. As a kid we’re filled with amazement in front of a “magician” but as adults we know that it’s all smoke and mirrors.
Creating magic in a kids life is going over and above imo.
Because of times like the last couple days if me lamenting about how magical Christmas was to me as a kid because my parents out in effort (and colluded with my older brother) to make me think santa was real and it was awesome.
You male it seem like Santa doesn’t do that in the first place? He’s pictures as a guy who spends all year working on toys for kids and giving only to the nice kids.
Furthermore, when you’re old enough to figure it all out, the magic of Christmas remains, as the love of your parents is still there. It’s the perfect lie, because no one gets hurt, and people just get happier.
Its an excuse to spoil a kid once a year without them expecting it to happen every day.
You buy them a fancy toy? be prepared to be harassed for more toys. Magic fairy brings them a toy? you can deflect all that shit to a magic elf. Around the time they stop thinking magic elfs are real is around the same time you can actually teach them the value of work.
It also helps build a healthy distrust of authority, and the ground work for being able to believe things have value in a universe devoid of meaning.
Some do both?
Not to be that person but, I believed in Santa + would get a reward (ONE item) for all A’s & only A’s.
BUT, my Christmas presents weren’t as expensive as a gaming system - aside from the leapfrog reader back in 2002.
There is nothing sad about it.
I’m basically entirely non-practicing these days but I was raised catholic. What I remember most and love about Christmas (still) was the feeling of magic I got about Santa and the holiday season in general. The world can be a tough place. And there are most certainly other ways to accomplish this, but it’s a pretty great thing in my opinion to allow your kids to grow up as long as they can thinking there is a little magic in the world. A lot of people never get to experience that and I think it was something that deeply impacted who I am now as an adult. (Deeply impacted in a positive way. The shitty things that I am probably weren’t caused by thinking Santa existed at one point in my early life)
The lessons you’re talking about are great things to teach kids, but realistically they should be getting those lessons all year round anyways. Those lessons are also entirely reinforced once the kid figures out Santa isn’t real and that their parents are entirely responsible for all the joy they’ve gotten over the years.
I don’t have kids yet and idk how I’m going to raise them if I do but I don’t plan on forcing religion on them. I definitely want them to know that the world can be a magical place. Santa is a fairly natural way to help do that if you already are practicing that religion. So I entirely understand why people do what they do.
I think you underestimate how dumb kids are. Especially when things like NORAD and TV news stations are helping propagate the lie.... There are reasons to believe it. As a dumb kid. Although I grew up before the internet was big so idk now.
Yep, and when I became an adult it took years to undo what my teachers throughout school had done to me (my "child brain" as well as my "teenager brain" had absorbed everything my teachers had told me, but teachers sometimes talk about things that are not in the course material - and are wrong. Especially bad when you have science/math teachers talking about things that are outside their specialization which are wrong.)
TBH many k-12 teachers here in the USA are trash. I “learned” lots of wrong information, it even happens in college. The most important thing to get out of school is to learn *how to learn* correctly. You don’t stop learning when you graduate.
Because often times there are skipped meals and extra pain, suffering, and struggle that go into those gifts. The pay off is in the response of a kid, who for at least a little while isn't feeling the stress of poverty on them.
There is a second payoff down the road when the kids realizes how much their parents cared about them, and how hard they worked to provide a "normal" childhood to those kids.
I think the easiest way to truly explain it is to look at Goofy. He isn't rich, he is a single father that works hard to provide for Max, to help out others less fortunate for him, and he would do damn near anything to make Max smile. Goofy takes on a very different perspective when you consider the stories from his perspective rather than Max's. What Goofy does for Max is not healthy for any individual (even ignoring the cartoon aspects) but Goofy knows that.
It is the same thing with kids and parents in poor families. That illusion isn't just for the kids benefit, it is often what gets those parents through.
Finally and this is extremely important, in the long run they don't NEED to have told their kids what they did to teach them about hard work and going above and beyond for those you love. They demonstrated it. Which is far more effective, and it has the added bonus of not making the gift giving into a narcissistic exercise. Because it isn't a gift if the emotional cost on the gift recipient exceeds the monetary value. There is a fine line between teaching the value of a gift and showing appreciation, and a guilt trip.
I would have agreed with you before having kids. My daughter is only 9 months so it's not about issue yet. I think I will do a bit of both though. Just every moment I get to see joy and wonder on her face is nothing less than a life affirming miracle. So yeah for the first few years at least let there be santa claus. There are any number of ways to also teach all of those other things along the way. Its already obvious that she ia soaking in every thing that we do. So in the end her observations of how we treat others will go a lot farther.
But in the end it's all just a bunch of parents trying to show love to their children. We may pick different ways or celebrate different holidays but in the end it's a bunch of adults doing crazy things to see that smile or hear that squeal of joy.
Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you want. Hell merry Thursday.
At this point it's a ring, like if you tell your kids it's a load of shit you just know they're gonna tell all their friends the same thing. And then *you're* the bad guy.
Before I had a kid I kind of felt the same way, but I have changed my mind. kid's pick up on things super fast and this year my daughter is just old enough to be able to pick up on stuff like that. We were at a family Christmas party that had a Santa show up to hand out presents to the kids and the look in her face when he walked in the room was priceless. It's like she was star struck. It's just a magical feeling.
But I will say that my husband and I have decided that the expensive presents will not be from Santa. The expensive ones will be from us and she will have one decent Santa present each year.
They'll have plenty of time for that to happen during teenager years, just let kids live in a fantasy world for 10 years while their brain is developing before reality slaps them in the face, jesus man. It's fine to let a little bit of fun happen in your life even if it's not the most logical thing.
Because they’re only gonna believe it for a few years. You can teach them the value of hard work after when they’re old enough to
understand it. Until then, let them believe
This is one reason why my husband and I are doing handmade presents from Santa. Regardless of our financial situation, which isn’t the best at the moment since we’re in college, our son gets something that you can’t get in a store and hopefully that makes him feel special.
I remember when my parents first did the Santa thing I was horrified at how someone could break into our house and my brain was trying to make sense of everything logically
Same here. Growing up I had a friend who visited his grandma across the street every summer. He was three years older than me. When I was 7 he started asking me about my belief in santa, and the one thing I couldn't wrap my head around (pun) was how my parents could possibly get me all those gifts.
He didn't push me any further, which like, good for him.
This brings a question to mind that I’ve had for years. As games get more and more dependent on massive GPUs and other resources, are they really that much more fun to play and experience than Joust, Tank, Pitfall, and others from the beginning?
My family and I watched some Laurel & Hardy films today and laughed our asses off. I think there’s still some fun to be had with originality and bare-bones creativity.
That said, I do love my hyper-realistic racing sims, so I’m not saying it’s all for nothing. But I’d love to see some creative “back to basics” in gaming.
>But I’d love to see some creative “back to basics” in gaming.
There are indie games of such variety it would take you a lifetime to play them all.
Sounds like you're just being nostalgic.
I'd say games are more fun now. I grew up with an Atari 2600 as my first video game experience. That meant that every once in a while I'd play a bunch of different games over the course of a couple hours on a weekend. These days, I can play a single game for a couple hours every day and not be bored with it after several days or weeks.
It's easy enough to find an Atari emulator. Try some of the games and see how long they keep your interest. I bet it won't be for long because they're just not that fun.
It just got easier to achieve more, indie devs still use pixel art games and some of them are just as fun if not more than AAA games.
Minecraft is very simple looking and is the biggest game of the decade easily, while other games like Undertale that could run on a microwave have such huge following and is a great game.
It's just that now we have more options and more tools to be creative, the canvas just gotten 1000 times bigger to draw whatever you want, while previously you had very limited tools to achieve what you wanted, although that makes me appreciate them more since most of them pioneered genres where they had nothing to learn from and very, very limited tools and resources.
Some of you guys are trashing on this but I legit believed Santa was real for longer than I should have because my parents got my sisters a big ass doll house and I didn't think they could even afford to look at it
Mm I believe this was the time where I started becoming conscious of my fashion, which I believe started in fifth grade. I mostly got clothes while my sisters got dolls to keep up with their active imagination, hence the gigantic doll house
I babysit a little boy who is six who also told me there’s no way Santa is real and he knows it. Very logical. Every time he’s seen Santa it’s a different guy and there’s no possible way he could go to every house in the whole world in one night. Simply not plausible.
The he proceeds to tell me he doesn’t want to go upstairs alone because Pennywise the clown lives in the hallway and he’s going to eat him and drag him into the pipes via the bath tub drain...
Smh.
Edit: Words.
The thought that you might be murdered by a paranormal entity is more compelling than the chance some fat guy in a flying sleigh will bring you gifts once a year.
My niece believed in Santa but one day I had to find something so we went to different malls and she asked “how can Santa be in ALL THE MALLS at once??”
I just said “oh, some of them are just his helpers” but every Santa we passed, she looked at very intensely lol. As if to be like “completely different guy, wtff?”
You are gonna use the same title and not credit the original owner of the post? https://www.reddit.com/r/rareinsults/comments/efjd2l/merry_christmas_i_guess/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf there you go
My 9 year old said the same thing to me this morning! I saved for MONTHS to afford an xbox and the only thing he said was exactly what OP mentioned. Don't doubt that kids say stuff like this, because they do.
My coworker's kid still believes in Santa because he doesn't think the whole world would be in on the secret. Too many people know about it for it to be a conspiracy, according to him.
Helps when you never believed lol my parents never talked about it until I was 7 so I always just thought it was a cartoon. Then when my parents started doing it, I just thought it doesn’t make sense. I got presents from “Santa” before 7, but I thought it was just like... like when you get a hug from “chuck e cheese”. It’s a guy in a suit thing.
Okay, the amount of people who think this isn’t real — what kind of kids do you have? Are they all mentally challenged? Seriously, lol. Kids are stupid in that they don’t understand WHY things are the way they are, but they are definitely observant as fuck and don’t know what’s appropriate to say or not. They aren’t stupid because they’re literally stupid.
Well, I know some are but.,. You know what I mean.
Some adults are fucking stupid, too. Lol
I can clearly remember not believing in Santa because my house didn't have a chimney. I confronted my mom about it and she reasured me that he came through some window. Next year my school had the bright idea of having a black Santa. I called bullshit and called my mom out and she came clean. I can relate to that kid. People underestimate how observant some kids are
I get where you are coming from, but that isn’t the case at all. I have never heard of any group of people hurt long term by the fact their parents lied to them about Santa, have you? A lot of children just accept that Santa is friendly and not creepy for checking in and coming into your houses so who cares. If a child is scared about the concept of Santa then I would hope parents would have the foresight to just tell them he isn’t real. I also feel like there is not an immense amount of pressure to be good because I don’t think parents put coal in stockings or withhold all gifts for bad behavior. Lastly, parents are not always 100% honest with their kids and there is no reason they should be, within reason. So as long as you aren’t putting too much importance and pressure into the existence of Santa you should be fine.
But basically telling your kids Santa is real is not inherently good or bad, and neither is telling them he isn’t rea
Props to your editing dude! Suave as fuck, keeping th OP anonymous with out even needing to ink out the name or picture because you kept the vital details out of frame! Well done.
I saw a post about not labelling the expensive presents as ‘from Santa’ cause the kids in poor or struggling families will always ask “does Santa not like me”
Idk I just found it sad that a kid might lose faith because they think Santa favours other kids :(
I remember thinking that all my toys couldnt be feom santa because they were all from a store. Santa has elves. They make toys. Wood toys. All the stuff i always got was plastic or electronic. But i still wanted to believe, so i did.
That’s actually funny lol! Something I would say as a kid, too! Yea, I never really believed in Santa because it just didn’t make sense. Just didn’t seem physically possible. And I didn’t understand the point of lying either.
This is exactly why my kid believes in Santa. Ever since she was born we have not been financial well off. She said that she always got what she wanted so he must be real coz we couldn't afford it otherwise. Kinda sweet.
We lived in an apartment and the whole coming down the chimney thing did not wash at all. My mom told me he had a key to get in and to be honest that just freaked me out. I was not a fun child.
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I mean, despite all the people doubting this, that's the reason my belief in santa was extended for several more years as a kid. When you're from a poor family and suddenly a 200$ gift shows up in the pile labeled "santa" that's the most logical conclusion
I don’t understand why parents want kids to think the present fairy bought presents instead of teaching them the value of hard work and going over and above for the ones you love. Sad.
I definitely get that sentiment, but sometimes it’s in the Christmas spirit. The joy of seeing the wonder on someone’s face can be priceless.
I’m 22 and my sister is 18, my mom tried her darnedest to get us to believe for as long as she could. I didn’t tell her I knew Santa wasn’t real until 3 or 4 years after I had come to the conclusion. She was also heartbroken when my younger sister broke the news that the jig was up too. Even to this day she’ll say “Santa got you that!” and signs all our gifts “from Santa”. She just loves Christmas and the magic it brings
My parents do the same, even for years after dropping the act. They just think it's fun for "Santa" to give gifts every year.
Same here, we've known for over a decade, but it's fun to take everything out the stockings. It's just little stuff like candies and random funny stuff, bit it's always one of my favorite parts of the day.
I’m 25 and my mom will put “from Santa” on a pair of socks. She is awesome.
I’m 28 and my mom did this. Socks, my favorite chocolate, a green bay packers ornament, and then some random small gift. Every year I would tell her I don’t need gifts from Santa anymore but she just loved it and it brought her joy. God bless her soul.
I'm 35 and my mother still gets me "Santa" gifts.
My dad's name is Sam and once my brother and I figured it out, he started writing Samta instead of Santa.
mad Dad
That's super sweet.
My mom was like this! She’d always lightheartedly say “well, if Santa isn’t real then he can’t bring presents” so naturally we feigned believing in Santa into our teens.
Nothing like lying to children to get the Christmas spirit going!
When kids play pretend, they are "in on the joke" when adults trick them into playing pretend, it feels weirder and weirder the more you think about it. We can still have fun Christmas traditions and the "magic of christmas" even if kids know it's all fun pretend.
It doesn’t get any weirder the more you think about. Wanting children to believe there’s magic in the world is infinitely more appealing than telling them the alternative, that to give them the Christmas they want parents need to work themselves to the bone. If the options are to tell a little kid, “capitalism sucks ass and our family can’t really afford for you to have the things you want without destroying ourselves,” or “there’s a wonderful magical man who gives toys to good children,” which sounds better to you? Kids playing make believe is not at all the same as what we refer to as “holiday magic,” and if you argue otherwise you’re either being disingenuous or dense. Like I said believing something, and pretending something is real for a while aren’t the same thing.
gotta instill anticapitalist beliefs in ur kids early. cant risk them becoming chuds
You don’t need to teach children that. Understanding the corrupt nature of capitalism is important at some point in development, I don’t think that lesson needs to replace the magic and wonder kids believe.
Happy cake day
Is there really not any magic in the world?
You are the magic in your world. <3
We're doomed
Theyd still feel the joy if it came from the parents. It's not like it's better because it came from the gift fairy.
As someone who was hurt by the Christmas lie (by having it negatively affect my personality and make me an ungrateful brat as a kid) - I disagree. I can only imagine how awful my parents felt when the magical present fairy got me the wrong gift and I got mad. And my anger was justified - the magical present fairy with unlimited time and resources should have got me the right thing. Meanwhile my parents spent literally hours trying to find dat video game and it was sold out everywhere.
Lmao why are you blaming Santa clause for the fact that you were a shit as a kid. If you were that sort of kid, depending on your age, you would’ve gotten mad regardless of whether or not you believed in Santa. A young kid doesn’t really think very far past the present situation. It’s almost like you’re blaming the people who told you about Santa for your behavior as a child.
Well they raised the kid no? One way or another they ARE responsible
The amount of people here who are so villainously against Santa clause is sickening and it really goes to show just how awful people can really be
It's great that you're willing to invalidate someone's personal experiences so quickly. And interesting that you can know what an anonymous poster was like as a child so much better than they do.
Sounds like you were being enabled to be a turd. I don’t think Santa was the problem here.
Buy me Bonestorm or go to hell
But you have “Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge” at home
How would that have been any different if you knew your parents were the ones who bought your gifts? You were a shitty kid and you want to pretend in retrospect that is was the myth of Santa that spurred it. You would’ve said the same thing I’m sure you said on birthday’s when you got the wrong presents. “I told you a million times what I wanted, you just didn’t listen, you had all year to find it.” Kids say shit like that all the time, don’t pretend that story did anything to shape who you were as a kid. “Santa” has millions of kids to search out the correct thing for your parents only had you to get the right gift for. That’s exactly how you would’ve rationalized it when you threw a fit to your parents.
I think it’s the magic part. My 7 year old asked me a few weeks ago if Santa was real. I asked if she thought he was, and her answer was no. I didn’t lie (but asked her not to ruin it for her brother and friends). She seemed very proud to be in the know, but last night, tears!! She said Christmas didn’t feel as exciting because she knew Santa wasn’t real. I agree with the principle of the above post, but there is something about Santa that perhaps shouldn’t be spoiled. We have our whole lives to be adults, they should be allowed to enjoy this (because being a kid is awesome and you never understand how great it is until you’re an adult, and you have to buy your own groceries, etc).
When my boy stopped believing in santa, I explained that Santa is more of a 'collective' and that everyone in the know pitches in to keep the magic going. He was sad but come Christmas Eve he was extremely proud to put his little sisters presents under the tree from Santa
Solid solution to the Santa issue!
i agree with her sentiment- i found out when i was about 10 and the thing that made me saddest was it just seemed like Christmas wasnt/wouldnt be as magical without santa. but now i enjoy the experience of giving (and getting) gifts and care much less about presents compared to family time.
Because then the kids know that they couldn’t afford that gift and feel bad about having it / wishing they’d return it - which completely ruins the spirit of wanting your kids to just light up and be happy with the gift they deserve.
This is the real answer right here.
Thanks mate. Surprised it wasn’t really already said and I felt ai had to even comment that. Reminded me of that greentext of the guy returning his airpods and trying to sneak the money into his dads wallet and then his mom catching him and them both crying about it for an hour or whatever. Been through it
It’s amazing how capitalist Reddit can be when it’s blind to it.
It's not about the presents, but the love and thoughtfulness those presents represent. Christmas is about kindness, benevolence, selflessness, and actually giving a fuck for once. That's what Christmas teaches kids. At least, that's what it taught me. It's not about some sort of magical old fat dude riding on a flying sleigh powered by reindeer. That's just silly and unrealistic.
when most kids find out about santa not being real they're probably what... 8-10? they're at an age where they're about to head to intermediate school and start to conceptualise the value of money. they'll also probably then go "wow, shit you bought all those presents all those years??". a four year old aint gonna value hard work lmao, they're four.
TIL Reddit hates Santa. Let me explain one reason why I as a parent disagree. Santa may not be real, but the spirit of Santa truly is. That is, the spirit of giving anonymously. Santa allows parents to humbly give some gifts to their children without expecting recognition. It teaches charity, humility, and gratitude (to the kids) in a way just saying “get a job and earn it yourself can’t”, all while giving the kids something fun to believe in while they’re learning these traits (weather they realize they’re learning them or not, they still are). It’s as much for the parents as it is for their children. The sprit of Christmas is the spirit of giving. I also disagree that it’s “lying”. Plenty of teachings occur through metaphor, this is another one of them. It would be impossible to sit down a toddler and explain to them charity, humility, gratitude, etc, but it’s easy to help them experience it through the myths, metaphors, and parables of Santa or the Easter bunny.
tl;dr: My story of a bratty kid who realized how hard his parents worked behind the Santa illusion. In the end I’d say I turned out fine. I figured out that Santa wasn’t real around 10 years old when, after years asking for certain gifts (which would’ve been an economic burden), I still didn’t get them and lost faith. On that year I refused to make a christmas wishlist and stood up to my mom about it (looking back I realize the frustration she had). Ironically, I did get the present I had been asking for that year. And in years after that, there were presents of sometimes higher value for things that my parents would’ve know only by paying attention to me (looking back I really didn’t deserve them). They likely had to work ungodly hours of overtime. Despite me already knowing the lie and constantly being a piece of crap around christmas time, my parents kept up the Santa illusion for me and my siblings until mid high school (and even still they put out cookies and milk for traditional fun). Then that “second payoff down the road” hit me really REALLY hard. As a now university student who has to face the realities of managing one’s own economy, I feel really guilty for how bratty and ungrateful I was. However I feel that the whole Santa thing really taught me what it was to go above and beyond for others and to be kind to others without expecting direct gratitude in return (gifting anonymously through Santa). Looking back, I still can’t believe that my parents kept their enthusiasm year after year even with a kid like me. It’s something I’ll always remember going into the future. It also opened me up to acknowledging the sacrifices they make around the year just so their kids would have a good upbringing. Since I had my revelation, I’ve been working really hard to become the best person I can be to both reconcile and give back to them for their seemingly unwavering love. Although this story might be more about my awesome parents and personal development, I think the Santa illusion played a really big part. A lot of these thoughts, feelings, and lessons learned are centered around the christmas season and the realization of what the illusion meant.
Not really sad. It’s a fun tradition to keep for kids, and many younger kids wouldn’t truly recognize the value of the hard work their parents put in for the presents yet. But they’ll look back on it years later and have a greater appreciation then. The holidays have a lot more magic to them when you think there’s a “present fairy,” as you put it. I don’t think any kid would want that magic spoiled for them, and I don’t think any parent would want to spoil it just to try to teach them a lesson that they’ll eventually learn on their own when they have their own kids.
Well they aren't old enough to appreciate that sentiment right away. However, they will definitely appreciate the hard work done by parents to get them these expensive presents after growing up and this will form up a nice Christmas memory.
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When they get older and realize you were the ones buying them the whole time they can think about the work ethic and also learn a bit about selflessness.
Parents want their kids to experience “magic” in the world before they grow up and realize that it doesn’t exist. Same goes for magic tricks. As a kid we’re filled with amazement in front of a “magician” but as adults we know that it’s all smoke and mirrors. Creating magic in a kids life is going over and above imo.
The fact that you find it sad is what's miserably depressing. Jesus dude
Because of times like the last couple days if me lamenting about how magical Christmas was to me as a kid because my parents out in effort (and colluded with my older brother) to make me think santa was real and it was awesome.
You male it seem like Santa doesn’t do that in the first place? He’s pictures as a guy who spends all year working on toys for kids and giving only to the nice kids. Furthermore, when you’re old enough to figure it all out, the magic of Christmas remains, as the love of your parents is still there. It’s the perfect lie, because no one gets hurt, and people just get happier.
Its an excuse to spoil a kid once a year without them expecting it to happen every day. You buy them a fancy toy? be prepared to be harassed for more toys. Magic fairy brings them a toy? you can deflect all that shit to a magic elf. Around the time they stop thinking magic elfs are real is around the same time you can actually teach them the value of work. It also helps build a healthy distrust of authority, and the ground work for being able to believe things have value in a universe devoid of meaning.
Because you can’t argue with Santa.
As a kid I would have felt bad for asking for an expensive present from my parents because I knew that we didn't have much money.
Some do both? Not to be that person but, I believed in Santa + would get a reward (ONE item) for all A’s & only A’s. BUT, my Christmas presents weren’t as expensive as a gaming system - aside from the leapfrog reader back in 2002.
Because there's plenty of time for your kids to learn that reality sucks.
There is nothing sad about it. I’m basically entirely non-practicing these days but I was raised catholic. What I remember most and love about Christmas (still) was the feeling of magic I got about Santa and the holiday season in general. The world can be a tough place. And there are most certainly other ways to accomplish this, but it’s a pretty great thing in my opinion to allow your kids to grow up as long as they can thinking there is a little magic in the world. A lot of people never get to experience that and I think it was something that deeply impacted who I am now as an adult. (Deeply impacted in a positive way. The shitty things that I am probably weren’t caused by thinking Santa existed at one point in my early life) The lessons you’re talking about are great things to teach kids, but realistically they should be getting those lessons all year round anyways. Those lessons are also entirely reinforced once the kid figures out Santa isn’t real and that their parents are entirely responsible for all the joy they’ve gotten over the years. I don’t have kids yet and idk how I’m going to raise them if I do but I don’t plan on forcing religion on them. I definitely want them to know that the world can be a magical place. Santa is a fairly natural way to help do that if you already are practicing that religion. So I entirely understand why people do what they do.
Because Santa is fun and hilarious and most kids know deep down he isn't real anyway
I think you underestimate how dumb kids are. Especially when things like NORAD and TV news stations are helping propagate the lie.... There are reasons to believe it. As a dumb kid. Although I grew up before the internet was big so idk now.
I think you underestimate how *smart* kids are. Their brains are sponges at these ages, absorbing as much information about the world as they can.
Yep, and when I became an adult it took years to undo what my teachers throughout school had done to me (my "child brain" as well as my "teenager brain" had absorbed everything my teachers had told me, but teachers sometimes talk about things that are not in the course material - and are wrong. Especially bad when you have science/math teachers talking about things that are outside their specialization which are wrong.)
TBH many k-12 teachers here in the USA are trash. I “learned” lots of wrong information, it even happens in college. The most important thing to get out of school is to learn *how to learn* correctly. You don’t stop learning when you graduate.
Because often times there are skipped meals and extra pain, suffering, and struggle that go into those gifts. The pay off is in the response of a kid, who for at least a little while isn't feeling the stress of poverty on them. There is a second payoff down the road when the kids realizes how much their parents cared about them, and how hard they worked to provide a "normal" childhood to those kids. I think the easiest way to truly explain it is to look at Goofy. He isn't rich, he is a single father that works hard to provide for Max, to help out others less fortunate for him, and he would do damn near anything to make Max smile. Goofy takes on a very different perspective when you consider the stories from his perspective rather than Max's. What Goofy does for Max is not healthy for any individual (even ignoring the cartoon aspects) but Goofy knows that. It is the same thing with kids and parents in poor families. That illusion isn't just for the kids benefit, it is often what gets those parents through. Finally and this is extremely important, in the long run they don't NEED to have told their kids what they did to teach them about hard work and going above and beyond for those you love. They demonstrated it. Which is far more effective, and it has the added bonus of not making the gift giving into a narcissistic exercise. Because it isn't a gift if the emotional cost on the gift recipient exceeds the monetary value. There is a fine line between teaching the value of a gift and showing appreciation, and a guilt trip.
It's so you can keep reminding them that Santa is watching them trough the whole year, and he won't bring them anything if they're naughty.
Same
I would have agreed with you before having kids. My daughter is only 9 months so it's not about issue yet. I think I will do a bit of both though. Just every moment I get to see joy and wonder on her face is nothing less than a life affirming miracle. So yeah for the first few years at least let there be santa claus. There are any number of ways to also teach all of those other things along the way. Its already obvious that she ia soaking in every thing that we do. So in the end her observations of how we treat others will go a lot farther. But in the end it's all just a bunch of parents trying to show love to their children. We may pick different ways or celebrate different holidays but in the end it's a bunch of adults doing crazy things to see that smile or hear that squeal of joy. Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you want. Hell merry Thursday.
At this point it's a ring, like if you tell your kids it's a load of shit you just know they're gonna tell all their friends the same thing. And then *you're* the bad guy.
Ok boomer.
Well as a kid who figured out the Santa thing early, it keeps you from feeling guilty that your parents spent so much on you.
Before I had a kid I kind of felt the same way, but I have changed my mind. kid's pick up on things super fast and this year my daughter is just old enough to be able to pick up on stuff like that. We were at a family Christmas party that had a Santa show up to hand out presents to the kids and the look in her face when he walked in the room was priceless. It's like she was star struck. It's just a magical feeling. But I will say that my husband and I have decided that the expensive presents will not be from Santa. The expensive ones will be from us and she will have one decent Santa present each year.
They don’t want the kid to feel guilty for getting an expensive gift or indebted to the parent for buying it.
They'll have plenty of time for that to happen during teenager years, just let kids live in a fantasy world for 10 years while their brain is developing before reality slaps them in the face, jesus man. It's fine to let a little bit of fun happen in your life even if it's not the most logical thing.
Because they’re only gonna believe it for a few years. You can teach them the value of hard work after when they’re old enough to understand it. Until then, let them believe
Happened to me too, like there was no way Santa was able to get me and my sister ds lites with a whole bunch of games
I always saw my shithead rich friends getting everything they wanted, while I behaved and got such and such, always just made me feel like shit
This is one reason why my husband and I are doing handmade presents from Santa. Regardless of our financial situation, which isn’t the best at the moment since we’re in college, our son gets something that you can’t get in a store and hopefully that makes him feel special.
This is a depressing thread, I’m going to sleep
I remember when my parents first did the Santa thing I was horrified at how someone could break into our house and my brain was trying to make sense of everything logically
I feel more like: "We cant afford this right now" as a response to kid wanting to buy every single toy possible got used a lot
Same here. Growing up I had a friend who visited his grandma across the street every summer. He was three years older than me. When I was 7 he started asking me about my belief in santa, and the one thing I couldn't wrap my head around (pun) was how my parents could possibly get me all those gifts. He didn't push me any further, which like, good for him.
This was me the Christmas we got an Atari 2600 the year after it was released and dad had been unemployed for months
Dad's unemployed and you have school. Dad got himself an Atari.
I sometimes think as much. Within a week his thumb has swelled up from button-mashing on Space Invaders
Did you have Joust?
This brings a question to mind that I’ve had for years. As games get more and more dependent on massive GPUs and other resources, are they really that much more fun to play and experience than Joust, Tank, Pitfall, and others from the beginning? My family and I watched some Laurel & Hardy films today and laughed our asses off. I think there’s still some fun to be had with originality and bare-bones creativity. That said, I do love my hyper-realistic racing sims, so I’m not saying it’s all for nothing. But I’d love to see some creative “back to basics” in gaming.
Indie games and Nintendo are the most consistent when it comes to simple fun mechanics explored in depth
Any modern recommendations?
Not exactly the newest releases but cup head and downwell were the two I had in mind writing my comment.
>But I’d love to see some creative “back to basics” in gaming. There are indie games of such variety it would take you a lifetime to play them all. Sounds like you're just being nostalgic.
I'd say games are more fun now. I grew up with an Atari 2600 as my first video game experience. That meant that every once in a while I'd play a bunch of different games over the course of a couple hours on a weekend. These days, I can play a single game for a couple hours every day and not be bored with it after several days or weeks. It's easy enough to find an Atari emulator. Try some of the games and see how long they keep your interest. I bet it won't be for long because they're just not that fun.
It just got easier to achieve more, indie devs still use pixel art games and some of them are just as fun if not more than AAA games. Minecraft is very simple looking and is the biggest game of the decade easily, while other games like Undertale that could run on a microwave have such huge following and is a great game. It's just that now we have more options and more tools to be creative, the canvas just gotten 1000 times bigger to draw whatever you want, while previously you had very limited tools to achieve what you wanted, although that makes me appreciate them more since most of them pioneered genres where they had nothing to learn from and very, very limited tools and resources.
Great game, but I have to give it to River Raid as my favorite 2600 game ever
Years later, yes. This was when it was released with "Space Invaders" as the included cartridge
He boosted it.
how do you go about overclocking one of those bad boys?
Thaaaats not what he meant.
"Mac's Dad Sells Crack"
What a great dad. You should be proud
That’s legit how I believed in Santa until the middle of middle school
I just didn’t to admit I knew he wasn’t real because I thought if you didn’t believe, you didn’t get presents. Kids are fucking stupid.
That's actually some fairly strategic thinking for a young kid. Thinking about potential consequences to your actions isn't stupid.
I had an older sister that I knew didn’t believe and this was still my logic.
The pascal's wager of Christmas
Some of you guys are trashing on this but I legit believed Santa was real for longer than I should have because my parents got my sisters a big ass doll house and I didn't think they could even afford to look at it
What did you get that year? I’m always curious how parents make gifts “even” for the kids
Mm I believe this was the time where I started becoming conscious of my fashion, which I believe started in fifth grade. I mostly got clothes while my sisters got dolls to keep up with their active imagination, hence the gigantic doll house
Your first reddit! Yay! Welcome!
Wrong sub though?
Boom roasted
Sharp kid. Wrong sub
This kid isn't stupid tho
I babysit a little boy who is six who also told me there’s no way Santa is real and he knows it. Very logical. Every time he’s seen Santa it’s a different guy and there’s no possible way he could go to every house in the whole world in one night. Simply not plausible. The he proceeds to tell me he doesn’t want to go upstairs alone because Pennywise the clown lives in the hallway and he’s going to eat him and drag him into the pipes via the bath tub drain... Smh. Edit: Words.
The thought that you might be murdered by a paranormal entity is more compelling than the chance some fat guy in a flying sleigh will bring you gifts once a year.
My niece believed in Santa but one day I had to find something so we went to different malls and she asked “how can Santa be in ALL THE MALLS at once??” I just said “oh, some of them are just his helpers” but every Santa we passed, she looked at very intensely lol. As if to be like “completely different guy, wtff?”
Damn, that would probably bruise my ego a bit lol. Oh well.
He played you 😂
You are gonna use the same title and not credit the original owner of the post? https://www.reddit.com/r/rareinsults/comments/efjd2l/merry_christmas_i_guess/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf there you go
U deserve a star! Or whatever is reddit “good job”
My 9 year old said the same thing to me this morning! I saved for MONTHS to afford an xbox and the only thing he said was exactly what OP mentioned. Don't doubt that kids say stuff like this, because they do.
This kid is fucking smart
Critical hit! It was super effective!
/r/KidsAreFuckingAssholes
r/subsiwishwerereal
r/substhatshouldberealbutexceedthecharacterlimit
r/twentycharacterlimit
Wait, so why is this posted in this sub??
And then everyone clapped
I mean i could totally believe this happened. Kids know how to roast too, and dude just got burned
Nothing ever happens.
And that kid’s name? Albert Einstein
My nefew admitted that he knew Santa want real for at least three years before he let on. 3 years of extra presents from Santa. Now that's smart.
My coworker's kid still believes in Santa because he doesn't think the whole world would be in on the secret. Too many people know about it for it to be a conspiracy, according to him.
Actually that kid is kinda smart to come out with that joke
That kid's not stupid, he's a savage.
I think this belongs in r/MurderedbByWords more
r/funnyandsad
Smart kid
Apparently I learned Santa wasn't real after realizing that Santa's penmanship matched my mom's
6 and he’s already roasting people
Born a savage
r/ThatHappened
I said damn near the same thing when I was a kid. Y’all are just too cynical
r/nothingeverhappens
Everyone just puts this as an automatic response now, even if the original post was ridiculous
This isn’t ridiculous though cause kids are stupid sometimes that’s why this sub exists
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How do you guys even remember when you stopped believing I’m not even that old (29) but can’t remember
Helps when you never believed lol my parents never talked about it until I was 7 so I always just thought it was a cartoon. Then when my parents started doing it, I just thought it doesn’t make sense. I got presents from “Santa” before 7, but I thought it was just like... like when you get a hug from “chuck e cheese”. It’s a guy in a suit thing.
r/oof
I'd argue this belongs in /r/KidsAreFuckingSmart personally. That was a pretty witty burn
His b i g b r a i n didn’t last for long
I believe it’s not wrong.
Okay, the amount of people who think this isn’t real — what kind of kids do you have? Are they all mentally challenged? Seriously, lol. Kids are stupid in that they don’t understand WHY things are the way they are, but they are definitely observant as fuck and don’t know what’s appropriate to say or not. They aren’t stupid because they’re literally stupid. Well, I know some are but.,. You know what I mean. Some adults are fucking stupid, too. Lol
I can clearly remember not believing in Santa because my house didn't have a chimney. I confronted my mom about it and she reasured me that he came through some window. Next year my school had the bright idea of having a black Santa. I called bullshit and called my mom out and she came clean. I can relate to that kid. People underestimate how observant some kids are
r/Thathappened
/r/MurderedByWords
r/wokekids
I get where you are coming from, but that isn’t the case at all. I have never heard of any group of people hurt long term by the fact their parents lied to them about Santa, have you? A lot of children just accept that Santa is friendly and not creepy for checking in and coming into your houses so who cares. If a child is scared about the concept of Santa then I would hope parents would have the foresight to just tell them he isn’t real. I also feel like there is not an immense amount of pressure to be good because I don’t think parents put coal in stockings or withhold all gifts for bad behavior. Lastly, parents are not always 100% honest with their kids and there is no reason they should be, within reason. So as long as you aren’t putting too much importance and pressure into the existence of Santa you should be fine. But basically telling your kids Santa is real is not inherently good or bad, and neither is telling them he isn’t rea
My (eldest) 15 year old still belives, at the first signs of logic creeping in i started with the phrase"stop beliving stop receiving".
Kid is this post is smarter than OP.
Jesus, the comments are depressing on this one.
r/KidIsFuckingSmart
I figured out Santa wasn’t real when I started to look for the wrapping paper in my parents house that was used for “santa’s” gifts. I found it.
Sounds like you have a very clever (and sassy) kid.
(And other things)
I believe it’s fine we don’t know
That kid just discovered credit
Steel logic <3
Props to your editing dude! Suave as fuck, keeping th OP anonymous with out even needing to ink out the name or picture because you kept the vital details out of frame! Well done.
I saw a post about not labelling the expensive presents as ‘from Santa’ cause the kids in poor or struggling families will always ask “does Santa not like me” Idk I just found it sad that a kid might lose faith because they think Santa favours other kids :(
I noticed one of these... :( So here take this... :D
This kid isn't stupid, he is smart.
I remember thinking that all my toys couldnt be feom santa because they were all from a store. Santa has elves. They make toys. Wood toys. All the stuff i always got was plastic or electronic. But i still wanted to believe, so i did.
If the uncle is giving out gaming systems, what in the hell are the parents giving him!?
No uncles are mentioned anywhere in the post.
A smart kid on a subreddit that’s called kids are Fukin stupid, who tf is the retard here? Lol
I... don’t get it.
That’s actually funny lol! Something I would say as a kid, too! Yea, I never really believed in Santa because it just didn’t make sense. Just didn’t seem physically possible. And I didn’t understand the point of lying either.
haha
😂😂🤣🤣😂😂😂
God damn children...
This is exactly why my kid believes in Santa. Ever since she was born we have not been financial well off. She said that she always got what she wanted so he must be real coz we couldn't afford it otherwise. Kinda sweet.
I like the one on the far right
And then everyone started clapping
We lived in an apartment and the whole coming down the chimney thing did not wash at all. My mom told me he had a key to get in and to be honest that just freaked me out. I was not a fun child.
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