The level of indoctrination with Santa Claus doesn't come close to matching the indoctrination when it comes to god. As a child you believe Santa Claus brings gifts once a year if you're good. But even as a child you can start to deduce that's not true. You may start to wonder, hmm, I wasn't that good though, and I still got gifts. Why does my dad have a Santa costume buried in the closet? Why does the milk we give Santa have to be the lactose intolerant one that only my dad drinks? Why does the writing on the gift look like my mom's writing? How can Santa give gifts to all the kids in the world in one day? It's much easier to put together the clues as a kid and then be OK with the fact that your parents lied to you.

But god is a different ball game for a lot of people. It's the creator of everything. Without god, then how? Then why? You don't get answers the way you get with Santa. And you don't have churches. You don't have cliche says like "god works in mysteriious ways". You don't go to church every week with Santa. It's just one belief after the next. Religious people have an "answer" for everything and if you have poor deduction skills, then you continue in your belief system.

Money. The church makes money off of their fiction - tax free.

Funny, as a kid I thought they were one and the same, old white guy, long beard and all.

Most everyone graduates from Primary School and many graduate from Secondary School but only a few go on to Higher Education.

Because Santa Claus, et. al., are planned temporary fictions that parents eventually own up to. This gives children the freedom to abandon such beliefs. Also, it's associated with childhood and childishness, so there's no motivation to cling to it as you enter preadolescence when you're hyper-focused on fitting in with everyone else who saw the joke.

The Abrahamic gods on the other hand are planned permanent fictions that parents are themselves still in the grip of (or, at the very least, feel they would be wronging their children to give them permission to entertain the adult's shameful doubts). And there's a whole societal mechanism in place to keep people compliant, just like there's a whole mechanism in place to pull one over on the kids with Santa, but not the adults.

We are hyper-social creatures and the fear that social reciprocity will be denied -- not just by fellow humans but by the deity itself -- is potent.

Father Christmas is a fiction????!!!!

Because as Ignatius Loyola said 'give me a child till he's five and I'll have him for life' something you learn at the heart/hearth of your family will stay with you because its reinforced conditioning.

All good reasons posted. Here's another. The adults have a serious look on their face regarding God, but a knowing smile when they regard Santa/Father Christmas. Also, stories of Santa Claus are in paperback and hardbound books made for children and are brought out only at Christmas, while the bible is bound in leather and is preached year. It's blasphemy to disbelieve God, while adult to disbelieve Santa Claus.

As we age we find out that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy as not real. Our parents just played that role. We have the option to raise our kids that way as well. My parents didn't play the role of God. We listened to the sermons. I asked questions and never found the proof I needed to be a believer. I am considered by some religious people to be a Cultural Christian. I prefer to be referred to as a human that thinks.

That's a good question. We are force-fed lies all the time. Parents tell their kids about Santa. Then you find out he isn't real. They tell you the Easter Bunny is real too. When you figure out it's bullshit, you figure out god isn't real as well.

Parents lie!

Far too many people need a crutch to get through life.

They just want to believe their world has soem sort of order and a predictable (magic) formula for success and happiness.

Santa brings gifts but god offers the gift of eternal life.

I'm with Dwight on this one. What do you mean? I see him all over the place at Christmas. Don't you? Or, from what you are saaying, is he possibly one of my imaginary friends? Dwight, what do you say?

No answer to that, but I do find it interesting that even the some of the true believers have carried on this tradition of teaching kids to doubt their belief. Anyone seen any statistics on the topic? Do Santa believers tend toward agnosticism later in life?

Learning that Santa was fiction was, for me, the first step towards doubting God. But it took more than that. I have gone into more detail on this elsewhere on this site.

Actually, the myth of St. Nicolas is based on one of two bishops. One was from Turkey who would leave gifts for children during Christmas. The other is from Norway or Russia (depending on the teller of the story) who would leave gold coins in the stockings of newlyweds.

That indeed is the $10 000 dollar question.

Great question cuz they r afraid of death. They believe in heaven and of course hell.

Hi, Jaymr,

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Who is father christmas?

Who is father christmas?

Because fathet xmas is fun.

That's a bloody good question