It seems that we’re talking about two different kinds of belief here. When you say your family believes in Santa Claus, do you really mean you think Santa is a real person up at the North Pole with a cadre of elves, and that he lands on your roof each Christmas, comes down the chimney, and delivers presents? You consider Santa to be as real as George W. Bush or San Francisco?

I didn’t think so. (Since you say yourself that Santa is “unreal.”) Your belief seems to be story-belief, which is something quite different from real belief, in that it’s make-believe; you know it’s not real, but you try to suspend your disbelief so you can enjoy it as if it were indeed real.

Now, the problem is that children can’t easily discern between the two — at least not when we’re insisting that Santa really does exist, the way New York exists. Encouraging a story-belief in Santa is fine, and that’s precisely what we’ve been saying. But encouraging real belief in Santa is not a good idea. It skews reality, invites disillusionment, and makes a mockery of the idea of truth. That’s lying.

If by “encouraging belief in the unreal…is harmless, necessary, even healthy” you mean that story-belief is good, and that it’s not the same as real belief, I completely agree. We anti-Santa advocates (I have to LOL here :)) aren’t disagreeing with that at all; all we’re saying is that Santa is not real and that he therefore should not be presented as such, but instead as a character in a story, inviting story-belief and not real belief.

We don’t need to have a real belief that the ghost story actually happened in order to be giddily frightened, by the way; we only need to have a story-belief, perhaps stronger than usual but still not real belief. It’s different.

Amy Gordon: Would you say that Christmas lost some of its magic because you knew Santa wasn’t real? (I’m expecting a “no,” but maybe I’m wrong. :))

Amy Holt: Your mother’s method sounds quite good. And yes, the reality of Christ should always have center stage. The same problem tends to occur with Easter, at least to some degree: the Easter bunny and candy overshadow the Resurrection. It’s not bad to have an Easter bunny or Easter eggs or candy hunts or what have you, as long as the focus remains solidly on Christ.