The Lucknow Sentinel, 1986-12-03, Page 43.t3r434Z%-41g,3-A4‹
The Santa Claus myth
is a treasured tradition
Christmas is the season of peace
on Earth and goodwill toward men,
a time for sharing and bringing out
the best in the worst of us. It is also
a time of year parents all across the
country are lying to their children —
The Santa Claus lie.
The Santa Clads lie goes
something like this: A jolly fat man
in a red suit is going to land a herd
of reindeer on the roof without mak-
ing a sound, squeeze his sizable belly
down- a 12 -inch square chimney and
leave a bunch of wonderful goodies,
no strings attached -Not only that,
but he's going to do all this without
leaving any soot marks on the •
carpet.
e While it may sound incredible that
a loving parent would try to pull a
fast one like this on a kid, the facts
are that every 4 -year-old who hears
it buys the whole story — hook, line
and sinker.
• Relax, Mom and Dad. Even in an
age when you're supposed to tell the
kids the absolute truth about
everything from sex to divorce to
that speeding ticket you got last
week, the experts say it's perfectly
okay to lay out the Santa he in all its
glory.
That's bec.,use, as everyone really
knows, Santa Claus is not a lie.
"It simply don't consider it a lie,"
says Dr. Barb ra Korsch, head of
the division of pediatrics at
Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.
"It's one of those bea tiful myths we
have in our culture."
"Young children have a lot. of fan-
tasies," Korsch adds, "If it's told in
a format where it's beautiful and
magical ... this this is an enhance-
ment to "children's lives."
Dr. Morris Green, chairman of the
department of pediatrics at the In-
diana University Medical Centre;
agrees;The Santa Claus myth, he
says, "meets a need of children and
also parents. Santa Claus is one of
those nice, playful, with -it -were -true
illusions. I think it's &mistake to
raise children without any illusions,
because then it would be a very bar-
ren, spartan existence."
Dr. Joseph Noshpitz, senior atten-
ding child psychiatrist at Children's
Hospital in Washington, D.C., says
children are most receptive to the
Santa Claus myth at about age 3,
"when magical things seem very
possible, so very real."
Continued
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SANTA'S
SUPER
SPECIALS
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744
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