Christmas magic without Santa

Can you keep the magic in Christmas without Santa? This astrophysicist has a few ideas.

Christmas No Matter What Children Believe


Should you tell your kids that Santa exists? Kelsey Johnson arrow is an astrophysicist — and a mother of 3. She’s decided not to tell her kids that Santa is real. Santa can be re-thought as an exercise in critical thinking, instead of being a myth, according to Johnson. For parents worried their kids will miss out on Christmas magic, she has a few ideas. The downside of making your kids believe in Santa. For this scientist and parent, Christmas can be used as a tool to develop your kid’s critical thinking. According to Johnson, these are ways to make a Santa-less Christmas a meaningful holiday.


There are so many things you can do with your children that are magical and wondrous and factually true


If we're relying on something, we know to be false, to give our children a sense of imagination and magic. I think we're failing as parents and we're failing as a society. There are so many things you can do with your children that are magical and wondrous and factually true. Kids are pretty astute observers and it's important for that one of the most important of information for children are people who they think are authorities. I don't want to say it always is a problem, but it can be pretty devastating for kids when they find out that someone whom they have trusted as authority has lied to them.


Breaking the News


When one of my children was in first grade, they got in a very heated debate with one of their classmates. And heated debates in first grade are really quite something about whether or not Santa was real. And they decided to go to the local authority. And the local authority was, of course, the classroom teacher. And instead of saying, you know, this puts the classroom teacher in a pretty tight spot because what is the teacher going to say? I think maybe the best response is that the question you need to ask your parents. I don't love that answer because it's not factually correct, but I'm OK with it. Instead, what the teacher actually told the two children who were fighting over Santa was that Santa is real.


Brut.


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Brut.