playful Scrooging

[anotheranon]

Am I a total killjoy that I find this (found over at Pharyngula) rather amusing?

'Cos when I think about it, it does seem a bit weird/excessive to invent a jolly, gift-bearing man in red when all the Christmas decorations, gifts, etc. are going to be equally fun whether they come from Santa or Mom and Dad.

I mean, why not tell kids that Wonder Woman is bringing gifts to all the good boys and girls? At least it would render moot the thing about not letting kids find out that Santa isn't real.

I actually don't remember when I figured out that Santa=parents, but I don't remember being particularly traumatized or upset by it.

When/how did you find out about Santa (if you come from that background)?

Comments

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Love it ... as it is and as it can be applied to all blind believe-what-you're-told-without-thinking behaviour.

Couldn't tell you an exact age of figuring it out, but I think I was about 8 when myself and my 18-months-younger sister got out of bed one night to confront our parents on this after discussing the problem between ourselves ... they confessed the truth and we went contentedly back to bed and sleep, having promised not to spoil the fun for the younger siblings (bear in mind that I was also the kid who accompanied the tooth under my pillow with a note asking for a photo as proof of the existence of the tooth fairy instead of money ***GRIN***). My consciousness of my in-built atheism, although I didn't know the word at the time and wouldn't for several more years, occurred around this same age.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I really don't remember figuring it out. I DO remember when I was about 5 or so I was up every hour, on the hour on Christmas eve even imagined hearing footsteps on my grandparents' roof (I was likely so exhausted I was hearing things)!

Some of the comments at Pharyngula (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/12/the_reason_for_the_season.php) mention that figuring out Santa also set them on the road to atheism, so you're definitely not alone on that...

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Actually I'd say my atheism came first, but just not consciously ... one went through the motions of church and prayer because it was what was done, but I know that at a very early age (definitely well before I was 5) there was much about about the whole religion thing that simply didn't "track" for me; there was, at least, some sort of tangible proof of Santa in the form of loot ... ;-)