Children burned by Santa story

Sounds like one of those instances where a person said something without thinking. Happens all the time. This story is kind of sad isn't it?. People, adults...sometimes forget how children take things.

On a side note...interesting that a vicar was talking to a bunch of children about Santa in the first place...and not the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

If the poor vicar had only studied quantum physics as Santa has.

Honestly, I don't recall Tim Allen having these problems.

 

In all fairness, we only know about this one excerpt from the message; the bulk of the message we didn't hear could very well have discussed the Christmas story.

 

Maybe he was. Maybe in doing so he was simply telling the truth about Santa as well.

 

"There were a lot of children there who still believe in Santa Claus, or did so until last night," Sue Smee, who attended the service with her five- and nine-year-old sons, told the Daily Mirror.

Huh? Is she trying to say Santa doesn't exist? What does she mean Santa doesn't exist?? I better plug my ears before I hear any more!!!

 

Whatever 'appened to Father Christmas? Everyone in the UK knows that 'e's the bloke wot delivers the gifts on Christmas Eve, and not the American Santa Claus, that cheap dressup from a Coca-cola advert.......

Cheers, God bless us,,,,everyone (A Christmas Carol 36: 1)

Jim

[ December 12, 2002, 07:54 PM: Message edited by: Jim1999 ]

 

I am the principal of a Christian School. A child in our second grade asked her teacher about "Santa". The teacher told her that "Santa" was a fairy tale not to be confused with Jesus who was not.
The next day the parents were in contact with me about disallusioning their child.
What was especially enlightening was when the parent expressed alarm when the child asked her "What else have you lied to me about?"

 

From http://www.preplan.com/fun_xmas/santa_d.html

1)... No known species of reindeer can fly. There are, however, some 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are microorganisms, this does not completely rule out flying reindeer, which only Santa claims to have seen.

2)... There are approximately two billion children (classified as persons under the age of 18) in the world. Since Santa apparently doesn't handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total -- 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

3)... Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second -- that is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000 of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, hop back up the chimney, retrieve the sleigh, and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, is false but we will accept for our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, or 3000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle (the Ulysses space probe) moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second. A conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4)... The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child receives nothing more than a medium-sized Lego set (about two pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see item 1) could pull ten times the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight or even nine, but instead some 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload (discounting the weight of the sleigh) to 353,430 tons. For the sake of comparison, this is four times the weight of the QE II.

5)... Thus 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance, heating up the reindeer just like spacecraft reentering the atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would then absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy . . . per second . . . each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousands of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion: if Santa ever did deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.

 

But seriously.....

If the "Santa Claus" as presented today is real, he is an incredibly unfair critter. The song says he makes a list of who is naughty or nice, the list would be more like how much the child's parents make. If Nicholas of Myra (the man the Santa Claus stories grew from) was alive today I am sure he would sue all "Santa Claus" promoters for slander. Or at least slap them as he allegedly did Arius at Nicea.

I don't think Mr Rayfield's methods can be questioned when only have one line of the whole deal to work with Last year at Christmas time I told the Sunday school children the truth about Nicholas at the start of the lesson for the day..Then said something along the lines of "as Nicholas would want us to concentrate on Jesus and not him..." and explained a couple of carols line by line.

Nicholas would want kids to be happy, but not at the expense of truth. The baby in the manger sure wasn't Santa

Pete

 

Thanks Titus. You crushed me. I will now sue you for mental distress, and I will encourage my attorney to file a lawsuit on behalf of Santa for defamation of character. You may be able to say that it is unknown to US how someone could travel that quickly without injury, but you cannot prove it to be impossible. You have, however, managed to create serious doubt in the mind of a believer, and you will be held accountable.
Gina

 

Why does Father Christmas run his operation from the North Pole?

Firstly it is a Tax dodge, Second He does not have to worry about Workshop Safety Inspections. Third He gets to use the elves as slave labour and is accountable to no one.

The Unions should close down this operation immediantly!

 

This guy ought to make a speech about Star Trek, and how the crew would become liquid against the bulkhead of the ship going at the speeds they claim.

 

Lauren I had a similar experience overt he easter bunny once, I learned that when it comes to what parents choose to do in their homes and families it's up to them, tell the child to ask their parents about things like that. So a few months later when I wa sasked about santa claus, I told them what christmas was about, Jesus, but they needed to ask their parents about santa. It's much better then to let the child think the parents are liars, they may not trust their parents agains and we have interfered in a parent child relationship.

 

Gina, not a problem I'll file a cross-suit on behalf of one Nicholas of Myra against everyone on the planet who has ever slandered that gentleman's name by associating him with "Santa Claus" (see my serious post)

Serious doubt.....cool, thats a good start

I have no problems being held accountable by today's PC army and their lawyers. My concern is being accountable to someone just a tad higher...And no I don't mean Santa Claus

But seriously mate, there is so much emphasis these days placed on Santa that soon people will be wondering whose birthday we are remembering...

Pete

 

Ben, HAHAHA reminds me of a story I saw on the net of a "Waco" style siege at Mr Claus' factory at the north pole. I'll have to search for it, if I pasted it here I could get into some REAL strife

....

hmmmmm....but then again what else is new

Pete

 

I couldn't bring myself to lie to our son about Santa Claus. It seemed like it would seriously hurt my credibility down the road.

Joshua

 

I think I'm going ot faint! I have never been able to lie to my children about Santa either. I've always taught my kids not to lie . . . had I lied to them about Santa, Easter Bunny, etc., how could I have taught THEM not to lie either once they found out the truth?

This, however, did not go over well with my husband's family. I've been chastened many times over it, and no one seems to care that I had my child's best interest in mind.

I wan't tell you what my oldest daughter told some kids in her kindergarten class . . . oh boy!

Julia

 

I have always told my kids the truth also.

At thanksgiving my uncle told my five year old daughter that he hoped she got what she wanted from santa to which my daughter replied I don't believe in Santa I believe in God who died for my sins on the cross!

All I could of think was THAT'S MY GIRL!

Heidi

 

Maybe if mom and/ or dad didn't lie to their children...