The Santa Claus Myth is Beneficial (On Balance)

Well let's see...just why isn't the SC myth beneficial? 1. "Honesty is the cornerstone of a life well-lived"…Parents should not lie! The above is not something I came up with, thus I have it in quotes. It is from another essay concerning honesty. Anyhow, I can prove it by paraphrasing this same essay. Being not honest is against oneself. A good example is John Proctor. No matter what the others said, even when he knew that his life was at stake, John could not bring himself to sign his name on the list for witches, because he knew that in his life he could not have another name, as he says the reason to not signing was "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life!" [1] This shows that one should stay true to themselves because they are not truly them. Thus it can be concluded it would be irrational to go against oneself, and since Santa Claus does not really exist, it does not help the children to know this. Lies won't help, your friend with bad breath is better off with peppermints instead of your false compliments about his or her "good breath", and in this circumstance, when the children find about the fact that their parents had lied to them, they will get mad, they will get sad, and they will trust their parents less. In addition, at the very core of lying, these parents lose their integrity through telling lies to children. Evidence suggests that when children are told about the SC myth and find about how it is a lie, their relationships grow further apart from their parents. [4] This is another addition to as to highlight how unnecessarily the Santa Claus myth is, as it ruins relationships. There is no reason tell a lie to your kids if it leads to unreliability and ruins your self-image, and this is just one point about how the SC is negative. 1.5 "Honesty is the cornerstone of a life well-lived"…Children should not lie! This point is easily concluded from above. Children learn things from their parents, and they are more likely to lie in the future if their parents lie within their young ages. A website [3] can support this; as we are effected heavily by our family cultures, we will be more likely to do what our family does. Thus, the lying about Santa Claus encourages further lies from the children, which is not beneficial. 2. More trouble for the parents Above argument depends strongly on the assumption that the children will notice; thus, I must prove that the children will easily notice in order for my first argument to work out fully. (But however, even if the children won't notice, the parents will still feel guilty about lying and not being true to themselves, so that's a good point to contribute to this point--because if you feel guilt, you'll have a harder time telling the lies on and on) Anyhow, the SC myth is hard to keep up. The parents need to somehow get their children to believe than some person/mythological being can travel all around the world in just one day, delivering presents to everybody while only using (magical) reindeer. At first little children will probably believe the SC myth, but as time goes on, more lies upon lies will be needed to keep up the SC myth up, and by the time the kid's in middle school there's no way you can fool him. Thus the SC myth has a negative effect on the parents; it would be just easier to outright be a "Tiger Parent" instead of relying upon the Santa Claus myth to keep your children in check. 3. Illnesses for children That's right--the Santa Claus myth can actually bring illnesses to children. As said from source [2], the SC myth can "foster the development of what later in life is called “magical thinking” which is a potentially serious cognitive distortion that many therapist struggle mightily to disabuse their clients of.” The site credits the misbelief to many illnesses, including, but not limited to, OCD and other “psychoses”, as the site says. The site also stresses what I said about the trust. It strengthens my arguments, since even a professional psychology website can credit that, indeed, children will be disappointed and less likely to believe in adults due to the Santa Claus myth. You are now (approximately) half-way through my arguments so here’s a cute pinkie pie picture to compensate for a break. You can thank me for this later, voters. : P 3.5 The SC myth does nothing to children’s imagination. My opponent will probably point out something about how telling kids to believe in Santa will increase their imagination. I don’t know. Maybe he won’t. But I know I have to cover everything and try to set up mine traps even before the giant mighty Bsh1 steps in to have a chance at winning. Anyhow, if you think about it, kids actually don’t have to imagine anything. You are feeding them the story of Santa Claus. If the SC myth really increased imagination, then every kid should imagine a different Santa. But this is not the case. All the Santa’s are pretty much the same because every single story is old and told. Thus, telling the story does not increase imagination, and it takes advantage of the fact that your children trusts you. 4. The Slippery Slope Santa is very similar to Jesus or God, if you think about it. Santa is practically omnipotent, being able to deliver gifts all over the world in just one night without being spotted, being able to tell if you’re good or bad (OMNISCIENT TOO!)….When you tell a kid about when Santa isn’t real, the children will question their faith and wonder whether Jesus or God exists or not and start asking questions about them and why they don’t answer their prayers, solve the world’s problems, etc, etc….which is very annoying. Parents will have to discuss furthermore with their child about religion, and will have a tough time, because after the child finds out about the fact that Santa doesn’t really exist, he’ll doubt the parent and question them heavily. The frustration involved in this cannot be worded, and it extends my honesty argument even further—even after the lies are revealed, they can still harm. 5. Using bribes is wrong It is immoral to give gifts on Christmas as bribe. This is simple and easy to understand. Ever since Christmas started, it was supposed to be a holiday where parents give their love to their children through expressing via gifts. However, using gifts as bribe is simply unspeakable! It’s the opposite of the meaning of Christmas; bribes should be used some other time. It is just not appropriate for the time of celebration, reconciliation, and love. 6. The Parent should give their love, not “Santa Claus” Let us suppose for a moment that, after all, the children never ever falls into the trap. The big problem of the Santa Claus myth is that it makes children think that Santa is giving all these gifts on Christmas, and that you only give your children on birthdays and special occasions. Oh come on, you don’t have to credit everything to an imaginary person! Just credit it to you, and then you can take them to go shopping together, teach them financial lessons, and most of all, make your loved ones happy! Give them the “gift of giving”, the whole point of Christmas!! And with that, I conclude my points. I know I have like more than 500 characters left, but I got no more arguments. And so…. Onto you, Bsh1. [1] http://www.sparknotes.com... [2] http://v.gd... [3] http://psychcentral.com... [4] http://psychcentral.com...