So it's OK to doubt the existence of God, but not the reality of Father Christmas? Really?

An Exeter primary school used worksheets to tell children that 'only small children believe in Father Christmas' and that the Post Office replied to thousands of letters sent to Santa. Outraged parents now have letters of apology from the Head teacher and the worksheets have been withdrawn. Since when were teachers obliged to promote myth and apologise for telling the truth? More seriously, what responsibility do parents share for contributing to unbelief in God today by their disproportionate insistence on patently obvious fairy-tales? This is a recent development compared with belief in God. Would you parents think twice about encouraging your children to believe in Santa Claus if you knew that would lead them to be agnostic or atheist at a later stage? Or are most of the parents who go along with this agnostics and atheists themselves?

To teach children fairy tale stories like Santa Claus is to clog up and confuse their young minds. They begin to attach feelings and emotions to this chubby man with a red suit and big fluffy beard. Similarly the tooth fairy is a myth until the child has no more teeth to trade for money or gifts. Once this dream of santa claus/tooth fairy is shattered, they become disheartened and cheated...cheated by whom?...their parents!! what does that do to their trust in them? On the other hand to teach them belief in God, is preparing them for their young adult lives when they begin to realise the truth about life, death, disasters and atrocities, about joy, happiness and life. So they can later use this knowledge to choose their own path - regardless of which religion (or no religion) that maybe. Their trust and respect in their own parents who prepared them will be strengthened, renewed and everlasting.

It's fine and all, but the santa thing is too far. Yule and the Winter Solstice are the original celebrations, not christmas.

God belief can destroy people's sense of self. It is a terrible thing to subject people to that.

Santa Claus doesn't have so much dogma and doesn't attempt to mold someones self identity and sense of morality

You'll never hear a Santa believer justifying the killing of thousand of Egyptian children.

God is the figurehead of a religion, which isn't created for the entertainment and joy of children. Many adults believe in God, whereas (I imagine) none believe in Santa.

Santa is a figure who is specifically supposed to bring joy to children - there's no other point to his existence and therefore no point in spoiling the magic for children before you have to. No?

Well, Santa won't send you to hell if you are bad. If I had a myth to pick, I'd pick Santa.

Santa is a figure of fun and joy for children.
God is an entity that when they grow up, children will decide whether to live their lives with.

Parents must encourage any beliefs a child has so long as they're not damaging. But then they shouldn't force THEIR beliefs on a child either. When it comes to Santa, this is just part of the childhood experience.

I teach my children the truth. They know that Santa is a really fun thing to think about and he's real, but only in our stories. I don't want to lie to them, but I don't want them to miss out on childhood dreaming. But I teach them that while Santa is fun to think about and pretend, God is real like you and I are real.

Naturally, I would want my children to grow up free from religion and other lies, but I don't think I would use the tactic of encouraging belief in one easily discounted fable as a way of preparing them to discard another - I simply would not fill their heads with lies such as god in the first place!

Father Christmas or Santa Claus comes from the celebration of St. Nick. A saint, who was a strong worshiper of God. So if you don't believe in the soul of St. Nick, then you might not believe in God. Most atheists don't believe in Santa Claus. If you believed in Santa Claus but not God, then that doesn't make any sense.

thay both exist in till u get 2 that age where u stop and think about it and it was your mom and dad saying if u r bad u wont get in 2 heaven and then at xmas thay say dont be bad santa wont bring your toys what ever i no what im getting this year thanks santa aka mom and dad

Maybe the parents wanted their children to hear that Santa isn't real from themselves.

There is no such thing or person as god, there are no gods, goddess's, no Jesus but these are still being foisted on school children during so called religious education in reality religious brainwashing, the sooner all so called religious education is abolished the sooner this country might start becoming somewhere like a modern country, we still live in the dark ages when clowns like Blair can claim to have been told by a non existent god to invade Iraq and we have the insane Ruth Kelly allowed to preach her extreme right wing rubbish.

one must believe what they think in their heart is the truth what may be the truth to you may not be the truth for me and what is the truth for me may not be the truth for you. as long as each of us believes what we think is the truth even if they differ neither of us can be totally wrong as long as we respect each others views

Father Christmas is just a bit of fun adopted from the Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) story. A bit like the tooth fairy and lots of others. Children soon grow out of it, but why not let them have a bit of fun while they are young? Any way, they are also told lots of fairy stories about gods and so on (made up by people, just the same)- will they ever grow out of that?

I believe that it is a good thing for Children to discover, for themselves, that 'Santa' does not exist. This will hopefully, prepare them to make up their own minds regarding Gods existence and will not just believe everything they are told.
Its an early way of building up some healthy scepticism.