Perpetuating the Father Christmas Story: a justifiable lie?
Titel:
Perpetuating the Father Christmas Story: a justifiable lie?
Auteur:
Gill, Janet Papatheodorou, Theodora
Verschenen in:
international journal of children's spirituality
Paginering:
Jaargang 4 (1999) nr. 2 pagina's 195-205
Jaar:
1999-12
Inhoud:
Most adults allow and even encourage young children to believe in Father Christmas as a real person. Although adults are usually engaged in open and rational communications with children they appear to be willing to deceive them and they often have to elaborate the story further to maintain such a reality. In the present paper, adult behaviours in perpetuating the Father Christmas story and the value, or not, of children being exposed to this story during their early years have been discussed in the light of the existing literature and the preliminary findings of the writers' own study. In general, the discussion has shown that there appears to be a complexity of issues surrounding the Father Christmas story and many variables need to be considered before one would argue for or against the perpetuation of the story. Such variables include commercialization, traditional cultural conformity, the place of the story in diverse societies, possible adverse effects on children from being deceived, the development of children's imaginative potential, and children's access to alternative value systems and spirituality. Commercial pressures and traditional conformity may be factors for adults maintaining the story, but a further study of the unspoken and perhaps unexamined or unconscious beliefs that adults may hold about positive effects of the Father Christmas story may justify the perpetuation of the story.
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