The santa thread

[Rel]

I'm not terribly worked up about any aspect of this but I don't see the paper as having done anything wrong or being in violation of "journalistic integrity". I know that I myself could read pretty well by the time I was 4 to 5 years old and certainly was capable of reading most of the words in a news article by the time I was 6 or 7. If the paper publishes the story from a purely factual standpoint then aren't they guilty of the same sin as the teacher? By writing it the way they did they got the point across while steering clear of any accusations of "messing up Santa" for kids that might have read the story.

From a journalism standpoint, this is hardly noteworthy since the local nightly news constantly has references in their newscasts to the effect that "the weather will be (good/bad/ugly) for Santa and the reindeer on Christmas Eve" and crap like that.

 

[Ampolitor]

I had to put in my two cents, some of these posts are killing me.
First if you dont have children you cant say that you would tell them there is no santa, when your a parent then you will understand.
As for the teacher, Yes I would be furious about it if she told my son that, BUT in the article she made a mistake and it didnt sound like she did it on purpose. If she did well then thats just not cool.
Its nice to have some magic still in the world that children can believe in, kids grow up too fast nowadays and IMO there are a lot of them growing up in the wrong direction because of all of this polictical corectness crud. For the ones who know me they know Im a police officer and I come across way too many Kids who are doing too may bad things. The other day I arrested a kid who walked out of a store with a CD player. He did not think anything was wrong with it because "he gave it back once he was caught". He was 13.
I've had way too many of these the last year. When I was 13 I was playing rpgs! not stealing things!
Instead of reading and playing a RPG kids would rather get their playstation and play games that include killing cops and carjacking, real nice! It just amazes me that kids IMO have no imagination anymore. If you ask most kids now if they have ever read Lord of the rings, they say no, but they've seen the movie or played the video game. Action figures and playing outside on bikes seems like a thing of the past and its a shame. Dont get me wrong I love to play a good video game but this is getting crazy. I"m all for letting kids believe in Santa as long as they can, for soon all of the imagination will be gone and what a sad place It'll be then.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I had to put in my two cents, some of these posts are killing me.
First if you dont have children you cant say that you would tell them there is no santa, when your a parent then you will understand.

I am a parent. I don't plan on my kid "believing" in santa. My sister is a parent. Her son knows santa is pretend, but its a fun pretend that he enjoys a lot. And thank you, I do in fact understand.

 

[Krieg]

I don't plan on my kid "believing" in santa.

Now you've gone and done it...you've pissed him off!

Santarchy!!

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

From a journalism standpoint, this is hardly noteworthy since the local nightly news constantly has references in their newscasts to the effect that "the weather will be (good/bad/ugly) for Santa and the reindeer on Christmas Eve" and crap like that.

I'm just upset that they never have any news reports on our beloved Hanukkah Harry!

"On Moshe! On Herschel! On Shlomo!"

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Since it stll isn't on the Boston Herald website, I'm reproducing the orriginal article. (which is attributed only to the associated press).

Teacher learns the hard way you don't mess with St. Nick
RICHARDSON, Teas(sic) --
The cruel heartless teacher lied. The distraught, shaken children cried.
After an ensuing uproar, the teacher had to recant and tell the kiddies the truth:
There is a Santa Claus.
Who could think otherwise? Who could doubt? And what kind of a monster would say such a thing to first-graders?
A suburban Dallas music teahcer, that's who.
The unidentified teacher - whose name they must be withholding for his own protection - told the kids the hateful lie on Monday.
After the kids wiped their tears away, went home and asked their parents if it could possibly be true, the phones started ringing.
The flood of angry calls prompted the Richardson school district to issue a pro-Santa statement.
The district announced that the offending teacher had heard from Santa Claus himself - who assured the teacher that "the spirit of the holidays is alive and well."
And Santa asked the teacher to pass that message along to the students.
A district spokesman says the teacher won't face any disciplinary action. But that's OK. Santa has a list. He checks it twice. He knows whose been naughty. He knows whose been nice.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Yeesh. The nerve of some adults. :\

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Now you've gone and done it...you've pissed him off!

Santarchy!!

Weird Al always does it best....

Down in the workshop all the elves were makin' toys
For the good Gentile girls and the good Gentile boys
When the boss busted in, nearly scared 'em half to death
Had a rifle in his hands and cheap whiskey on his breath
From his beard to his boots he was covered with ammo
Like a big fat drunk disgruntled Yuletide Rambo
And he smiled as he said with a twinkle in his eye,
"Merry Christmas to all - now you're all gonna die!"

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Yeesh. The nerve of some adults. :\

Yeah, I'm annoyed by completely inaccurate and sensationlist "journalists" too....

 

[WayneLigon]

From a journalism standpoint, this is hardly noteworthy since the local nightly news constantly has references in their newscasts to the effect that "the weather will be (good/bad/ugly) for Santa and the reindeer on Christmas Eve" and crap like that.

I don't know if they still do it, but the largest TV station here used to do things like that on Christmas Eve. They'd talk about it on the six o'clock, have a couple updates during commercial breaks through the evening, then at some point on the ten o'clock, they'd announce Santa had been spotted on the weather radar (they were there first station to get a weather radar and boy were they proud of it) and they would drop whatever they were doing and cut to the weatherman. He'd do the weather, then show the tracking data on the sleigh, and a blip on the radar that would resolve itself into the sillouette of Santa and his reindeer.