OOOPS. Forgot to add my own: In México, we have "Los Reyes Magos" - Gaspar, Melchor y Baltazar, who are the Three Wise Men... THEY bring the presents, not Santa, on January 6th, which is the day they visited Jesus at the manger. Although with so much United States' influence, some people have adopted Santa instead. We leave our shoes out, and the three dudes leave us candy and presents. (http://www.inside-mexico.com/ReyesMagos.htm explains more) Christmas DAY is a big holiday in the United States, but we celebrate Christmas EVE, in which we break a piñata to celebrate Jesus' birth... we open presents late at night, like in the wee hours of the morning. We also "put the baby to sleep", where we sing songs to him and adore him by singing. Damn, I miss my MEXICO. By the way, ¡Felíz Día de las Guadalupes! (today is the day in which we celebrate our Virgin of Guadalupe's apparition)
This is what happens when you live in a country of dope smokers. The is only one Santa - the one officially endorsed by Coke!
I had a teacher that was probably 35-40 years old in high school. He was a black guy and said that he didn't even know about Santa Claus until he saw one on a Coke can when he was 5 or 6. He said Santa wasn't really a big deal to black folks, is that true?
I figured it out when someone told me in first grade. No big deal to me. I got gifts from Santa for years after that because I had a sister who was six years younger then me. Mom and Dad said I had to play along with the charade for her, so of course they had to buy my silence.
True story. I was 5 years old and a friend told me Santa wasn't real. He said he saw his parents sneak downstairs, instead. Of course I didn't believe him for a second, but I thought it was a good prank. So the next Sunday school session, I started repeating his version to all of the kids in there just to rile them up. Almost immediately, the Sunday school teacher grabs me and yanks me outside. He states "Just because YOU know Santa isn't real doesn't make it ok to ruin it for everyone else." Needless to say I was in shock. So I found out Santa wasn't real from my Sunday school teacher.
HAHAH oh my! That's the funniest Santa story I've heard hahahaha! Err... sorry to hear that though For me.. I don't really recall ever believing in Santa when I was younger. I was too busy believing in ghosts and being a scaredy lil p***y. I believed that clowns were scary creatures sent by the devil to eat little kids.
I don't remember when or how I stopped believing in Santa. It was a gradual thing, I guess. I won't be telling my daughter that Santa is real in the first place. We plan on telling her it is a fun little game everyone plays.
Personally, we never played the Santa, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny game, because to us: 1) Santa and Easter Bunny take away from the real reason for the season. What did Santa/Easter Bunny bring you instead of what did Jesus do. 2) When they find out that Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny don't exist (things you can't see but are accepting by faith) will they also question the existence of Jesus or God? We wanted our kids to trust us on what we said was true and not true. One time a teacher went against our parenting and told our son that the Tooth Fairy was real and if you put the tooth (which he had just lost) under your pillow, you will find money under your pillow in the morning. I asked him who he believed and he said his teacher. So I said that place the tooth under his pillow tonight and find out who’s right. In the morning, he still had his tooth under the pillow and we talked some more. The bottom line is he wanted to see money under his pillow so we agreed that mom or dad would put money under his pillow so he could enjoy the same “find” as the other kids. And we exchange gifts for Christmas and hunt for candy and money for Easter, but we maintain the real reason for the season. I don’t want to be a scrooge, I just want them to trust us for the truth. But we tell our kids that it is game some parents play and they shouldn’t tell other kids X doesn’t exist – they will find out one day.
I love that movie...Yeah, you have to keep up the facade and as they get older, or find out from others, you let them in on the secret...Capitalism at its best... The other pic from the dope smoking country, man, that just looks all kind of wrong...Maybe its just me...
That might mean more if it wasn't a shallow slogan used in marketing, song titles, bumper stickers, etc.. That and celebrations (including gifts, greenery in the "house", lights, etc.) on Dec 25 existed long before Jesus ever came about.
But... we're not really celebrating his "doings", man, we're celebrating his birth on that Eve, aren't we? I mean the rest of the story is later... like in March and April?!?!? We give presents because everyone came to see Him after and gave Him gifts, no?
hey SwoLy you beat me to tell about "Los Reyes Magos" Speaking of La virgen de guadalupe and Los reyes, in Mexico, the adults we have like a marathon of drinking, you start drinking on 12th december "Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe" and you drink at least one thing that contain alcohol, (beer, tequila, rum, etc) until January 6th, which like SwoLy said is "Dia de los reyes". This is called "Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon". Only the braves one do this, who is going to follow that tradition??
I'm just saying these are times of rememberance for adults and kids in our family for what Jesus did for us. I know these are not the true dates, but I think it is good to chose a date to remember significant events. How many kids do you know that have "What did I get?" as their main attitude for Christmas and Easter? Ask them what Christmas and Easter is about and you'll most likely get Santa and presents and bunnies and candy. Jesus? Oh yea, him too. And I don't think my kids ever feel cheated because I didn't tell them things that weren't true.
