<p>For all those non-Christians out there, growing up, what did your parents tell you or do about Santa? Did they</p>
<p>a) Go along with the concept and give you presents because they felt sorry for you even though you don't celebrate Christmas
b) Tell you Santa only gives presents to Christian children
c)Tell you flat out Santa ain't real and those other mommies and daddies are filthy liars
d) None of the above - be specific!</p>
<p>I just got curious all of a sudden. My parents did choice A which is kind of weird, I think.</p>
<p>“look kid. we know you’re not ■■■■■■■■ like every other kid who thinks a fat man is gonna fit through that chimney. just be a good at school and smile for some christmas pictures so your grandparents are happy and we’ll get you that nice, shiny new bike :)”</p>
<p>I was never really introduced to the Christian story… I’m not even sure I really know the whole story. But basically the story I know is that Santa goes around with his reindeer and gives presents to good kids and coal to bad kids. Nothing to do with Christian kids… So yes, we did celebrate Christmas, but not from a religious aspect.</p>
<p>^ Yeah that’s basically what I was told…that on Xmas eve, Santa flies around the world in his magic sleigh and gives toys to all the good kids and a lump of coal to the bad ones. It didn’t necessarily have to be christian kids, it was just something that happened every christmas.</p>
<p>^ Because Christmas is traditionally a Christian holiday, so stop playing devil’s advocate and asking rhetorical questions to be clever Anyway guys please don’t go off-topic - I really just want to know what other non-Christian parents did about Santa Claus. If you wanna talk about the commercialization of Xmas, create your own thread and like 1 person has answered the question lol…did your parents go along with the Santa idea or what?</p>
<p>Wasn’t Santa the invention of Coca Cola? Morally speaking, it’s worse for Christian parents to tell their kids about Santa than for non-Christian parents…</p>
<p>“Santa” has become a pretty secular concept, in the US at least. So has Christmas. (Actually, the reason Christmas is a federal holiday is that it was declared a secular holiday in . . . oh, I believe the 1800s.)</p>
<p>Personally I think “Santa Claus” is a pretty odd thing to teach children. First we emphasize how dangerous strangers can be and never to accept presents from them, then we tell them that an obese weirdo with a bag full of candy breaks into the house through the chimney. Nice.</p>
<p>@ B@r!um: No, he wasn’t invented by Coca Cola. Maybe you’re thinking of Rudolph, who was invented by Montgomery Wards. He’s based on the myth of Saint Nicholas. (Santa = Saint, Claus = Nicholas.) In a lot of countries Saint Nicholas is still the one who brings the presents (and in other countries, the little Christ Child.) </p>
<p>The thing with hanging stockings by the chimney originates from a legend about Saint Nicholas dropping gold down a poor man’s chimney so he wouldn’t force his daughters to become prostitutes. (The stockings were hung by the chimney to dry them and the money landed in the stockings.) </p>
<p>Or how about this story?</p>
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<p>I don’t know why people don’t tell their kids these great legends instead of mealy, insipid “Santa Claus saves Christmasville from Mean Mr. Meany!” stories. Kids eat this stuff up.</p>
<p>Christmas was just a fun thing we did at home, with a tree and everything else. I think it’s as much of a cultural holiday as it is religious…</p>
<p>As to your question, I don’t think my parents ever really pretended that Santa was a real figure. Maybe when I was very young, around 2 or 3, but for the most part, I’ve just known that Santa was fictional. Of course, presents still had “from Santa” on them, etc., until our celebration later became more of a small family gift exchange and then just a token tree and Christmas dinner with no gifts. I will note that knowing Santa was fictional did not diminish the charm and fun of the Christmas season…kids will be kids.</p>
<p>sumzup, my mom still puts presents under the tree saying “from Santa” and I’m 20, lol. And she know I know it’s not real and haven’t really believed in Santa since I was like, 8.</p>
<p>I was raised Christian, even though I’m not now, but I know more Christians who refused to tell their kids about Santa than those who did, because they were all, “it takes away from THE BABY JESUS!!!”
Although, a girl I work with is originally from Hungary, and she said there, they believe Jesus brings them presents as a kid… to me that was just like O_o because what do you tell your kids when they find out that isn’t true? It’s not like you can tell them, oh yeah Jesus is just a fictional character (if you still want them to believe in christianity at least) like you would with santa.</p>
<p>haiku, when I first heard about hannukah, I think I was in middle school (dont judge me, I’m from Alabama, we don’t have any jews here), and I thought it was SO MUCH cooler than Christmas because you get 8 days of presents instead of just one!</p>
<p>I don’t even remember believing in santa or anyone believing in him at all really. Except that my cousin got extremely scared of him when she was a kid :p</p>
<p>My kids grew up with a holiday where one gets presents for eight days and gets to eat fried food (a treat in our mostly healthy food house). Who cared about Santa? We love Chanukah.</p>
<p>My parents wouldn’t take me to the mall so they wouldn’t have to explain why all the other kids could sit on Santa’s lap and I couldn’t. I was aware of the holiday and just understood that I had my own holidays as well.</p>
Anyway guys please don’t go off-topic - I really just want to know what other non-Christian parents did about Santa Claus. If you wanna talk about the commercialization of Xmas, create your own thread 
and like 1 person has answered the question lol…did your parents go along with the Santa idea or what?</p>