What is your opinion on allowing or not allowing your kids to believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy?

[Nicole]

This is a survey thought that keeps coming up recently and I wanted a wider opinion group instead of causing an issue on Facebook.

[gazeygoo]

As the mother of nine I am not a supporter of either.I have always firmlybelieved in honesty and trust and I find Santa in particular to be a breach of both values. I always wanted my kids to believe and trust me no matter what and Santa just didn't fit in. I always put Santa in more of a spirit of goodwill and giving rather that a truth.

[MADLUV]

i think it can be very magical. and give child a sense of childhood.

[J vs World]

I don't plan to make santa claus the center of our children's Christmas experiences. It won't be banned or demonized, but I think we will focus on family time, snow days and other fun Christmas activities like baking, writting cards, decorating the house and what not.

Its a cute story and I don't think its harmful, but I think it is unnecessary. I disagree that it is the essence of innocence or imagination. It is perfectly possible to have a fun childhood involving magical thinking without the adults telling them what to believe about Christmas, or without the help of marketing schemes. Around here, Christmas is enough of a greed fest and santa is everywhere come November. He is so prevalent that it makes my eyes hurt to see all those jolly fat guys non-stop.

Christmas has so much to offer that I don't plan to make it about santa. We won't encourage our kids to believe the story and we'll open presents on Christmas day as a family.

We don't know what to make of the tooth fairy. Our kids still have a few years to go before they lose their baby teeth, so we don't really care about it for now. I didn't have it growing up, and I don't see what the big deal is. I still had a very active imagination, and was creative and fun loving as a kid though.

[Y]

I think kids have so little time to have that magical fantasy world and we should allow them to have those memories. I understand not centering the holiday around him especially if one is religious but that doesn't mean a child can't have both. I think robbing a child of that world is wrong. I also find that many that claim the truth and honesty line, really just want the credit, they want the child to worship and be grateful to them. That, to me, is selfish.

[Anonymous J]

I have had to deal with this issue.

How I explained Santa to my kids was that years ago there was a man called St. Nicholas. We give Christmas presents to them in his Spirit. There you go .... St. Nick/Santa Claus.

Tooth Fairie ....... I dunno. Eventually we just told the kids to give us the tooth and we gave them money. Didn't want to wake them up anymore.

I never looked at this as lying to them. I told them I still believe in Santa Claus cuz of the butterfly feeling/happiness I get every year at Christmas time.

Just my opinion.

Hope I've helped.