

Yes, Sophie, there is a Santa Claus - Zelphyr

My kids go to a Montessori school.  Its an amazing school.  Sure some of the parents tend to be extreme but that's probably why they choose to spend money on a private school in the first place.<p>Recently several of the kids have been telling my daughter they don't believe in Santa Claus.  I'm sure their parents have told them this in an effort to be "completely honest" with their kids.  They consider the idea of Santa Claus to be a fantasy we tell our kids to get them to behave.<p>They don't want to tell their kids about a fantasy because its impossible. Except...<p>100 years ago it was impossible to split an atom.  50 years ago it was impossible to walk on the moon.  25 years ago the computer you're reading this on was impossible.  10 years ago the smartphone in your pocket was impossible.  And 5 years ago it was impossible to elect a black man to be our President.<p>What's wrong with believing in the impossible?  The world we live in used to be impossible.  But for the likes of Curie, Einstein, Von Braun, Turing, Hopper, and Obama the world we live in would still be a fantasy because those people, men and women, refused to be limited by the impossible.  And all they did was change the world.<p>Santa Claus is real because a 5 year old can't understand nuclear physics, escape velocity, logic gates and capacitive touch screens or, hopefully, racism.  But if they can believe a man can fly around the world in one night then one day maybe they'll build a car that can fly around a city or take a stroll on Mars.
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charonn0
You're confusing impossibility with human ignorance. A great example of human
ignorance is nuclear fission, which is known to have occurred naturally long
before Humans figured it out[1]. An immortal toy maker with flying reindeer
capable of visiting billions of households in a single evening violates the
observed laws of nature and encourages magical thinking over critical
thinking.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reacto...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor)

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mvleming
You're a good writer. And I can relate to what you say: if we raise our
children to be so practically-minded, where's the space for them to be
imaginative and dream? If they don't believe magical things can happen,
they're certainly not going to make them happen.

Are you going to tell Sophie or will you let her figure it out on her own?

