(June 25, 2013 at 10:09 am)BadWriterSparty Wrote: It's certainly faked, but I don't have enough information to label it as nonsense, I think. It is, after all, a tradition. Even though the tradition has religious origins, it's definitely a secular hoax. Religion and all else aside, the fact remains that it is indeed a hoax, and it's an elaborate one to pull the wool over the eyes of unsuspecting kids. Though the kids will eventually learn the truth and might even feel good about themselves for figuring it out, they may start wondering what else their parents are lying about.
I certainly did.
Well Santa is based on a coptic "saint" who lived in Anatolia (when it wasn`t the Ottoman Empire but a Byzantian).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
So he aint that fake. "Saint Nikolaus" is actualy a festivity celebrated in wide parts of catholic and eastern orthodox christian Europe, as a feast of remembering the saint and giving presents (as he did).
I think it is also celebrated by the coptic christians (or by what is left of them) in the Islamic Arab world (Mordor).
He was simply invented and copied by coca cola to create a better image for marketing.
To the rest of your post I can only say that I dont have that much expirience with children to make a proper assesment, let alone a judgement.
