It's Not Okay to Take Your Children to See "Santa Claus" in the Malls

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Well it's December 6 (the traditional Roman Catholic feast day of Nicholas of Myra) and there's still that ongoing need to keep refuting foolish parenting notions such as nothing is wrong with lying to children about Santa Claus. Some can even argue that it's no different than me being taken to see an event where there's a Mickey Mouse or any cartoon-character related mascot. But this is where difference between seeing a child to see "Mickey Mouse" and Santa Claus step in?

One could think that a child seeing Mickey Mouse usually knows he's not seeing the fictional character called Mickey Mouse. It's just like hosting a birthday party and the child is aware that the mascot is just an employee wearing a suit pretending to be Mickey Mouse. It's just like having a McDonald's or Jollibee party. Most of the time, children know that the mascots are just people in suits. Parents usually have the audacity to tell them that Mickey Mouse is just a pretend character. The child is happy having fun pretending to be meeting Mickey Mouse or any pretend character where they are getting entertained by the dance numbers and other activities - all the while they know that they aren't seeing their favorite cartoon characters!

The same thing can't be said about "seeing Santa Claus" at any local mall event. I remembered the time when I but a child when I fell in line to talk to "Santa Claus". I remembered believing that when I got that candy - it was the real deal. I thought I talked to Santa Claus and not some guy in a tight red suit. I really used the event where "Santa Claus" was in to defend his existence and I was told it was just a guy in a tight red suit. I was furious because I was told by the organizers (and my elders) that I talked to the real guy himself who didn't exist. It was really painful when I found out the sad truth that there is no Santa Claus. I soon lived a year in denial still believing that said magic old man in a red suit until I got over it. 

Maybe one can be suddenly reminded of a scene in a movie where a child followed a mall Santa Claus into the bathroom - believing said person was Santa Claus! It was a shocker when the mall Santa removed his fake beard and said, "Hiya kid!" revealing that he wasn't Santa Claus at all! The event is where children fall in line to see "Santa Claus", to talk to "Santa Claus" and they suddenly believe that "Santa Claus" is real. It feels to be the most wonderful day of their lives because they finally "know" that "Santa Claus is real" - all the while he isn't! Quite a far stretch from them meeting mascots in the form of pretend characters whom they acknowledge are just people wearing suits. It's a serious categorical error because one event has a child misled into believing that said cartoon character (Santa Claus) is real while the other has him or her aware that said cartoon character isn't real.

This is one thing that parents need to be ashamed of. They keep lying to their children and excuse themselves from ever making amends for said error by saying that it's just a "little white lie" and fundamentalist Christians just need to stop raining on their parades. Unfortunately, God didn't hesitate to rain on the parade of Baal worshipers by proving their god didn't exist. John the Baptist was sent to warn Herod Antipas of his incest and adultery with his half-niece Herodias who was previously married to his brother Herod Philip. Jesus didn't hesitate to rain bad news either because people needed to hear what they needed to hear. The same can be very true about telling children that there's no Santa Claus!

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