LETTER: Santa Claus isn’t bad

Dear Editor,

I, like Richard Timothy, used to believe we shouldn’t tell our kids about make-believe holiday characters like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I think most people would agree that we need a “reformation,” or a return to the true meaning of our holiday observances.

However, someone once posed a question that made me reevaluate the way I think about what Richard calls “lying to our children.” That question is this: Which pattern of intellectual development would be more beneficial to a child:

No. 1 to teach him what is scientifically correct from infancy so that he will never have to revise his views and always be right about everything.

No. 2 Allow a child to believe in tooth fairies and flying reindeer, with the understanding that one day he will revise his views.

“Which course is more liable to lead to disaster, the open-ended Santa Claus or the ingrained illusion of infallibility?” (See The Ancient State by Hugh Nibley page 332.)

Tai Davis