The Galactic Question Center

My wife said that when she got old enough to "know" about Santa Claus her mother sat her down and had a conversation with her explaining that Santa was still real because the spirit of Santa was real and was something that we kept alive with us, that magic was something that we have the power to create or ignore. As far as heaven goes, we are both fall under a scientific sort of pantheism so heaven is not a place believed in literally but again as something that people have to work to create here on earth.
 

I would say that no one knows
 

I'd tell her Santa isn't real, because if she's old enough to figure it out on her own, there's no point in treating her like a baby. She might find it insulting.

I'd also tell her heaven isn't real, because I'm an atheist and I'm not going to purposely keep religious fantasies alive in the minds of children who doubt already.
 

I would provide the child with the question and before allowing an answer remind him or her that imagination doesn't always equate to fact, but it is in imagination that most people live, young or old. Same goes for Heaven.
 

If it were my child, I'd have to tell him the truth that Santa does not exist.
...and I'd say yes heaven does exist because I would definitely raise my child in my faith so that he would have that faith as a basis for his life as well, should he choose to do so.
 

I have a six year old son, and the Santa question hasn't come up yet. I'll probably just tell him the truth.

The heaven question came up not too long ago after attending a funeral, and I simply told him that some people believe in heaven and some people don't, but that I didn't know for certian one way or the other. He seemed to accept that without too much of a problem.
 

The age of reason? You mean 28, right? :)

You wing it, as you do with everything you do as a parent, since life doesn't always follow the easy assumptions non-parents make.

It really depends not just on the kid, but on what the question is that she really is asking at the time.

As I recall with my children, we had a sort of "Don't ask, don't tell"
policy about Santa, where each side got to save face long enough that by the time we all knew that we all knew we didn't have to say anything awkward.

My daughters are in high school and they still require me (er, Santa) to have special gifts from Santa in wrapping paper that they haven't seen before and won't see again after, with tags and a letter in Santa's handwriting (which is totally different from the handwriting of the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy).

As far as heaven goes, I explained the various beliefs many cultures had. But then I gave them the "Where is it you were before you were growing inside of me? That's where you'll return to" that I cribbed from Alan Watts, and it seemed to suffice.
 

I would tell her that Santa Claus is as real as she makes it.

Heaven...is something she'll have to discover by herself.
 

If the mind is able to image anything whether it be Santa or Heaven then the act of imaging puts the form into a sort of existance. We then, as with all our imaged mythos, move toward bringing the feasible image to objective existance ie thousands of pillow stuffed men in red suits and white beards wandering the streets and malls each December. Heavenly sanctuaries Edens and spas and hypnotic prayers moving toward manifestation. Unfortunately this tendancy consistantly moves us to create armageddons, (imbalance) to prod along the return of our idea of Jesus, (balance). A dangerous fence to walk.
 

I would tell the child the truth, both times. Yes, there was a Santa Clause. He was known in his day as Saint Nicholas and was a very generous servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Eventually he died-- and went to heaven.
 

I would ask the child what they thought and told them if that's what they think then they have a right to believe that.
 

If she's old enough to ask about Santa, she's old enough to be told the truth. I would tell her how great the spirit of Santa is & what it means to people.
As far as God is concerned, I'd tell her God means so much & so many different things to so many people, that later she will have to make up her own mind.
She would already know that I believed there is a God that is literally everything in the universe.
 

I would say what I have told my daughter, that its the love of children that lives inside us and so Santa Claus is alive through this feeling
(although here in Greece is Saint Bill and not Santa Claus)