The tooth fairy

I’m sorry Christmas was hard for your family. It is for lots of families.

For the last few years especially, I’ve made a big thing about Christmas
for my aunt. As I don’t know how many
more Christmas’ she will be alive.

I think its harder for families if they believe a lie and dont believe in God.

They soon find that they cant sustain this santa claus thing. Thats why people often say christmas is only for children. Although workplaces often insist everyone play 'secret santa' but its gifts for everyone in workplace not actually gifts for poor children.

Even at retirement villages I saw people do christmas things but you do have to pay. For a meal you need to prepay it. They actually didnt like having children around at retirement villages, even in school holiday times i hardly ever saw any grandchildren there visisting. Maybe the reaidents went out to visit instead of them coming in. Although santa as hes represented is meant to be quite old, like a garandparent. My grandparents didnt celebrate christmas. Its not a thing they did in China.

I think it would bankrupt grandparents to play santa if theyve got heaps of granchildren. How do you buy gifts for 17 or more granchildren?


Tooth fairy seems tame in comparison. I dont know how much money children are getting from that.

Chinese new year everyone thtas unmarried receives money, usually in a lucky red packet, tooth or no tooth.
Its easier than christmas gifts cos its just money you dont have eto go out and think of what to buy or make for each child. Then the children can spend it on what they like or save it. Its actuallly all the money they receive for the entire year.

I agree, Christmas is definitely over commercialised, but I love it
and it’s what you make of it that counts.

I have thirteen grandchildren and two on the way...

It has now become to much for me money wise to spend on them at Christmas , so now I buy a christmas box and fill it with a new cup , side plate and dish...I fill the box with chocolate sachets , and a small pack of marshmallows with some christmas candy , a pair of socks , little bath bombs , some pretty bows for the girls , and a little toy car for the boys ...

I also buy them a new pair of PJs each , and they are allowed to open their boxes Christmas eve , they have their baths with their smellies , new PJs on , finished off with their nice nice hot chocolate and candies , I hope they will all remembers Grandma`s christmas eve box

My grandparents never gave me anything for christmas that I can recall. But my grandma made me things just as gifts for no special occasion, and it probably counted for me that she made them just for me and not anybody else. She would knit jumpers and hats. I do recall she made me and my brothers some soft toys.

But i dont think it was for christmas.

I cant remember what I did with loose teeth I think just chucked them away. I certinaly dont recall anyone giving me money for them. I think that would have been weird.

Now that I need to pay the dentist, and I cant say to the, oh wait till I lose a few more teeth and THEN I can pay you cos the tooth fairy pays all the bills. They not going to believe me. I really ought to ask my dentist what he thinks of the tooth fairy.

They gave me this plan in which I have to pay $5 each week so they can inflict pain on me. Shouldnt it be the other way round.

So anyway I was totally disbelieving when this seven year old told me she got money for teeth. I was like really? How come the tooth fairy doesnt pay my dentist bills?

I am not sure what to say to those children who believe in santa claus. Do i just say to them its actually your parents. Nobody actually lives at the north pole. I dont want to lie to them.

@Miri -lovely explanation!
@Rosemary- great way to deal with all those lovely grandkids!

When I became a Christian, the first few years, I just continued to celebrate the pagan holidays, but for Christmas and Easter, in December I would put in a Christmas concert (as the school music teacher!) and each grade would learn one secular Christmas carol and one religious carol. I would explain to the students the meaning of the words, like manger and angels and Magi, and why Jesus was born. Easter was a follow up.

In grade 7 I had a teacher, and she dropped our 2 hours of English classes in December and we learned all the verses of all the religious carols. When I went carolling with people who were generally non-believers, people were amazed I knew all the words. And those words did stick with me! " Christ the Saviour is born, Christ the Saviour is born." It was an essential piece in my search for God. I really dislike it when people get all legalistic about Christmas, because it is fun, and a joy to preach the gospel. Mind you, what I got away with 20-30 years ago, I bet you could not do in public schools today.

And speaking of legalism, a lot of you would like my husband. He got very legalistic, didn't want any tooth fairies, Santa's or bunnies in our home. I just collected teeth and gave increasing amounts of money to my 4 kids. I've got 3 grandchildren losing teeth right now, they love the whole process, and it covers up the actual pain of having a tooth hanging by a thread.

But the best story happened when our youngest son was 3. My husband decided to tell all the kids there was no Santa, because he thought lying to the kids would make them question whether Jesus was real, too!

He sat them down, and gave them the talk. I wasn't sure if the 3 year old understood. I still put up decorations, bought lots of presents, and made a big turkey dinner.

Anyway, after the "talk," I took my son to the mall, to get the pictures I had taken of him. As we got closer, my son saw a helicopter above us, and got excited. I drove into the parking lot, and the helicopter followed us, and landed 10 meters from us (30+ feet). My 3 year old was delighted! He loved helicopters and trucks and machines.

But then the passenger stepped out. Guess who? Yes, it was Santa Claus in full costume with a big bag of toys, and a microphone and he was saying "Ho Ho ho! Merry Christmas!" My son's jaw was hanging slack in shock. But then he turned to me, with a big smile, and said, "Wow, Dad sure was wrong, wasn't he?"

When I told my husband the story, he allowed me to give the kids stockings, and an extra present. Our oldest son was 11 knew Santa wasn't real, (or any other myth) but he was quite happy to pretend he believed to get more loot.

Christmas was the most joyful time of year for me growing up. And I made it that way for my children! But I always included not just baby Jesus, but the crucifixion and resurrection!

God is full of love and joy. If we are clear with our children what is real, and what is not real, and read the Bible with them, pray with them, and live as Jesus told us, through the whole year, no child is going to get led astray by these secular stories.

I think some children just pretend to believe in things like tooth fairy and santa claus.

But prcedent for this is they might also pretend to believe in Jesus. For the loot. Not sure if this is good or bad, but kinda sounds like something Judas did.

I actually found some books on the tooth fairy in the library.

Also, a very popular graphic novel amongst girls at the moment is Smile by Reina telgemeier

Having raised 4 I am emphatically against lying to children. No tooth fairy, or santa clause, or Easter bunny.
I didn't lie to mine and it worked out nicely.

They can also still have fun without the lying.

Absolutely. We had tons of fun with the truth.

I just want the tooth fairy to pay my dentist bills for me.

When my daughter lost her first baby tooth at age 6, I made sure she knew this was so her big girl teeth could come in. She was very excited and we Googled about it together. You don't need the tooth fairy to make milestones fun!

Reward motivated salvation isn't an inherently bad thing I don't think...but I would doubt sincerity on some level if no other motivation developed. You can't fool the Lord, so I don't see what the point would be. Judas is a unique case that I don't fully understand as yet and I have some unresolved questions...his story has some frightening elements.

Serving the Lord only because of the wisdom of the investment seem selfish from a certain perspective, but full investment requires great faith. It can certainly get a bit humanistic at times that is true, but we are wired for reward.

I had a curious thought...there are certain areas of the kingdom that your eyes would need to be open to in order to invest in (time, prayers, strength, blood, money, etc.) and in a way it is a motivation to draw close to the heart of the father. The more time you spend with him, and the more you hear his heartbeat, the more it changes you. Even if the original motivation was childish greed (much like xmas) the Lord doesn't work like santa. You reap what you sow. That is a reward...based off input. This (in my view) is in indirect contrast to the day's wages parable (1 worker laboring a shorter time and receiving the same amount). Indirect, because I think the I.P.O is the same potentially...but beyond that? Surely there would not be distinctions such as a "prophet's reward" (I had to look it up to recall the others but MT 10:42-43) or "blessed is he who believes without seeing".

As well as the rewards seemingly exclusionary in the letters to the seven churches.

Potentially a rather deep discussion, I rarely see reward based theology discussed and I think about it often. For me that is one of the biggest motivations for good stewardship.

I've learned from years past this is an incredibly depressing place to go to for the holidays 🙄 "Evil" "Pagan" "WE Have NO sense of Humor and see Evil in everything"

Interesting topic as you said getting a reward doesn't delegitimize a belief or a saving faith like many atheists insist. I find my motivation at first was not wanting to go to hell. I've noticed my values fluctuate as I'm filled with the spirit I find I'm genuinely praising God for being who he is. Other times its difficult to see but all I know is there are no other options that I'm at all comfortable with.