All Else Confusion

Melanie reflects on something that has always bothered me: the determination of some parents to keep all fun and fantasy out of their children's lives. At this time of the year, the question revolves around whether or not to introduce children to the Santa Claus tradition. Some parents believe that allowing their children to believe in Santa is somehow lying to their children, and doing them a disservice by not teaching them about the real world. In reality it's the other way around. As Melanie puts it:

I feel deeply sorry for children who are deprived of fancy and wonder, who live only in the sordid here and now. There's time enough to learn about the cold harshness of this world when they are older.

Which is not to say that children who live in fancy have no sense of good and evil. Indeed, the land of fairy is populated with witches and giants and ogres and dragons. But where it differes from our "real world" of everyday is that in fancy good triumphs over evil. The witch is burned in her own oven, the giant's beanstalk is felled by a peasant boy, the dragon is slain by a knight in shining armor.

And in the final analysis which more clearly reflects the Christian understanding, the "real world" where criminals go free and evil wins, or the "fantasy world" where evil is always defeated?

Melanie also links to this article: Yes, Aquinas, There Is a Santa Claus. The author uses the Thomistic form to point out that the Santa Claus fantasy is actually good for children because it helps to develop in children a sense of wonder and an appreciation for the truth.

When I was growing up, we always went to my grandparents' house for Christmas Eve, followed by Midnight Mass. We'd return home in the small hours of the morning, half asleep, to find that Santa had visited and there were presents everywhere. With seven kids, the presents often took up half the living room! I'll never forget the sense of awe I felt that Santa had been while we were out. When I grew old enough to be let in on the secret (my mom always forgot something and had to go back to get it while my dad got us all in the car) I became a helper, putting out gifts, getting the littler ones out the door, helping them to retain their awe and wonder with the fantasy we were creating. I'll never forget how much fun it was, and how I was able to enter back into the Santa fantasy through the excitement of my younger brothers and sisters.