BTW, re: Jeff's Grandma scenario, I was hardly trying to provide some comprehensive analysis of every possible way you might respond to every possible way Grandma might ask about the meal. P.S. Later he asks "But how did I get out of Mommy?" No, I'm not talking even about the "Nazis at the door" example. Lydia | It's not the "Nazi at the door" scenario which bothers me because it is more hypothetical than the real situation that happened: the Pope and Vatican officials forging documents that said the holder was a Christian in order for some Jews to escape Germany (I can find a link if necessary). You might want to think a little more then. The sense of deception comes when Santa is owned by the parent and the child is merely allowed to see him once a year. I know some parents were flat-out NASTY about lying to their kids. But I do appreciate your comment. I once wrote a poem from the tooth fairy and put it under Bernadette's pillow. I thought it was real and my dad allowed me that misapprehension. And including people who, in other contexts, are quite happy to mount their high-horses and ride them roughshod over any who disagree with them. Posted by Besides, kids have a hard enough time distinguising fact from fiction as it is (I'm having to explain to my three year old that we can't pray for Elmo and Thomas the Train). “‘White Christmas’ is the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ of Christmas songs.” ― Stewart Stafford, 33.

I was impressed that it was a slam-dunk debate kiklkler, but Ed noted sone Catholics have already spoke on being obfuscatory in war, yet not lying. Perhaps if you view the Santa Claus thing as a sort of open-ended, long term "game" of imagination it won't seem pernicious. I thought I found the answer to the "Nazi at the door" scenario in the HAL post but on a re-reading perhaps not. Isn't it???" The myth already exists in the culture. It isn't me, or Lydia, who has a duty to show you shouldn't lie.

How badly? Or on principles carefully enunciated and applied with precision, with qualification, and fully supported by the Church over centuries? But when you volunteer a comment that can ONLY be understood as intended to create certainty in the mind of the child that the jolly elf is real, that's a different kind of act. Yes. And I would worry that some of the howling at Dr Feser and Lydia isn't a bit too hysterical. Posted by It just isn't needed. Santa might fall into the "make believe" category depending upon how it is played out in the family. 3) If it makes anyone's conscience easier, you can simply tell your child that Santa only exists as we believe in him. Posted by Posted by Seriously?

(/quote), Posted by November 9, 2010 1:03 PM, Posted by “Dear Santa, before I explain, how much do you know already?” — Unknown, 84.