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Relapse wrote:
My wife, growing up, had one Christmas where the only thing she got was a can of beans. She said she was extremely happy and thinks about the feelings she had about it to this day.

Must've been some damn fine beans

It was the big can.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 whembly wrote:

 KingCracker wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
And not to mention all the work you put in with not thanks. Sure sweetie, Santa got you that Xbox one, not daddy.

Spoken like a person with no kids.

Doesn't matter who "provided" the gift. Seeing the joy and happiness on the kids faces is the real reward.

Exactly this.

Ditto. So much this.

It's a blast.

It's the greatest thing in the world.

My younger daughter was literally screaming with excitement while opening presents this year on Christmas morning... it was beautiful.

The exact opposite happened, my mom ouht my nephew(Or whatever he is to me, my family is weird) A transformer, the exact one he wanted. It was so expensive my cousins F couldnt afford it. ut my mom is one of those persons who can get anything. She got it. When he opened it he was so shocked he couldnt even say thank you for a good ten minutes(He eventually did)
I understand that its aout making kids happy. Im not some 22 yr old that thinks only of himself. That is why, despite not having any income and only savings I still donated toys this year

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Teaching children that not everything has to be done for some kind of gain is an important lesson which will help make them more charitable and kind children and, hopefully, kinder and more charitable adults. Santa provides a way to do that in the form of an example to point to.

Although it's a somewhat mixed message, since the other side of the Santa thing is 'Be good, and you'll get presents'... which is pretty much the opposite of teaching them that not everything has to be done for some kind of gain...

 Deadshot wrote:
Third reason being is all the other kids . If my 4 year old came home from school and said "Jamie Briggs said Santa's not real! His parents told him they just buy presents and pretend its Santa" I'd be pretty mad (not really but just exampling). I don't want a string of angry parents at my door accusing me of ruining their kids' christma/childhood.

Yeah, that's definitely a factor. My parents never really said that Santa was real, they just played along with the meme. And when they figured out I knew that's all they were doing (I was 5), they sat me down and made me promise not bring it up around my friends. Not that hard, really, as I was a smug bastard even then so confirming that I was in on the joke was an easy way to keep my mouth shut.

After that "Santa" was just the name attached to the "From" section of gift tags intended for the family, or one of our pets.

 Steve steveson wrote:
Another reason, IMO, is that kids don't realy understand money and tradition. A young child will understand you get lots of toys at Christmas if you explain "that's when Santa comes" much better than "because it's christmas." Santa is a useful construct to explain to young children why they can have toys on one day of the year and not others. Once the child is old enough to understand the basics of time, diffrent times of the year and where money and toys come from they are at the age where they start questioning Santa, but also start to understand the concept of giving and the joy it brings others.

Too many adults expect kids to be little adults, but they live in a very diffrent world to adults. Imagined things and fantasys are very real to many children, and things like time and personal interactions are seen in a very diffrent way.

lol I remember when I was young I'd ask for something and usually get the "we can't afford that right now" followed by me saying "well can't you just right a check for it?" Exactly right, children just don't grasp that concept very well until an older age. I also agree to many parents treat their children like shirt adults. Responsibility is one thing, balancing a check book and holding down a job is another.

 Steve steveson wrote:
Actually, I would argue quite the opposite. Young kids of the age still young enough don't understand money. They understand the concept that you need money to buy things, but have no idea about the diffrence between socks, a bike or a house in value. When children are young enough to truly Belive in Santa they are too young to understand the value of gifts. They understand if they got what they wanted or not, but that is a matter of parants managing expectations, not about Santa. If anything it is better for parants to explain to young children "You should ask Santa for something smaller." than "We can't afford it". I know I did. We were not poor poor, but my parants could not afford to spend more than, I would guess, £100 equivalent today on each of us, on both Santa, their gift and a few bits for a stocking, so no games console or bikes ever.

"I have no actual experience of the thing you're describing, unlike you, but I will tell you your experience is invalid and your conclusions are wrong regardless".

Spending £100 on each of your multiple children is not any kind of poor, and I find it a bit hilarious that you can argue kids have no idea about the difference in value between objects when a lot of schools in the UK list kids being bullied for not having the right kind(ie, the expensive kind) of clothes as a primary reason for their policy of requiring a uniform.

In retrospect I had an advantage; my autism spectrum disorder(at the time undiagnosed) meant I found most of the concepts surrounding "fashion" or owning the latest "thing" pretty baffling and uninteresting, I didn't even grasp that people were trying to have a go at me until years later. My cousin wasn't so lucky, he was "normal", and spent almost his entire time at school being tormented purely because he couldn't afford the "stuff" other kids got. Funnily enough it wasn't usually the wealthiest kids, it was the middle class kids and those like yourself, the "not poor, but not well-off" crowd.

 insaniak wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Teaching children that not everything has to be done for some kind of gain is an important lesson which will help make them more charitable and kind children and, hopefully, kinder and more charitable adults. Santa provides a way to do that in the form of an example to point to.

Although it's a somewhat mixed message, since the other side of the Santa thing is 'Be good, and you'll get presents'... which is pretty much the opposite of teaching them that not everything has to be done for some kind of gain...

Well, only if you consider it as a kind of bribe rather than a reward. I mean, good behaviour should be rewarded. If you perform well at work, you can be promoted or get a pay rise or stock option or whatever. If you practice your instrument lots you could get to play in the concert etc.

The difficult bit is getting the child into the mindset that the reward is not the goal, merely the product of their actions and that to perform well in the first place is the goal. Have them strive for excellence in whatever it is they do, be it schoolwork, dancing, music and get them to enjoy it for what it is, rather than just constantly lure them through it with the promise of rewards.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Teaching children that not everything has to be done for some kind of gain is an important lesson which will help make them more charitable and kind children and, hopefully, kinder and more charitable adults. Santa provides a way to do that in the form of an example to point to.

Although it's a somewhat mixed message, since the other side of the Santa thing is 'Be good, and you'll get presents'... which is pretty much the opposite of teaching them that not everything has to be done for some kind of gain...

Well, only if you consider it as a kind of bribe rather than a reward. I mean, good behaviour should be rewarded. If you perform well at work, you can be promoted or get a pay rise or stock option or whatever. If you practice your instrument lots you could get to play in the concert etc.

The difficult bit is getting the child into the mindset that the reward is not the goal, merely the product of their actions and that to perform well in the first place is the goal. Have them strive for excellence in whatever it is they do, be it schoolwork, dancing, music and get them to enjoy it for what it is, rather than just constantly lure them through it with the promise of rewards.

Nah, that's bullgak. The reward is doing well at school/dance/music and success. That feeling of pride when you accomplish something. There has to be a reward to make it worth the time and effort. Its called capitalism. The reward is entirely the goal, otherwise what's the point?

This year I told everyone to get me nothing and still had to convince people not to get me anything. Everytime I told someone that I didn't need anything they got a confused look on their face like the idea of not needing things on Christmas anethema.