Almost Canadian

There were no presents under the tree and no sight of any presents at all under the big day.

The older ones kept mum.

Shard

Interesting. Is that method fairly commonplace?

Almost Canadian

Who knows? This is what happened to me when I was a kid and what happened in my wife's home too. We simply continued the theme with our kids.

Jingsamichty

Pretty much the same here too.

Oakvillian

Our household is similar. Santa brings a stocking, which the kids open first thing. Other presents don't appear under the tree until Christmas Eve night, after the kids have gone to bed, but they are not "from" Santa - they are from other family members. Our eldest has never overtly denied Santa's existence (probably for fear the stocking might not appear...) and indulges in a willing suspension of disbelief for the sake of younger siblings.

None of this North American "milk and cookies" crap for Santa, either - in our house the big man has a decent glass of port and a couple of mince pies left out for him.

Growing up, my family was a bit too traditional for my tastes. We didn't get to open our presents til after lunch (the morning was taken up with church services and peeling a mountain of potatoes) and had to finish the task before the Queen came on the telly. No such nonsense now - depending on when any guests arrive, the present unwrapping gets going midmorning - they're all handed around from under the tree, then we take it in turns to open one each, youngest to oldest, until they're all done (and the most spoilt child is the one still going at the end...)

koalabear1

The teacher in the article is a complete idiot. How can a non-existent entity be a particular skin colour and not any other? Of course Santa can be any colour, but the most outrageous part of the story is that the teacher ridiculed the boy. A mixture of idiocy and racism I reckon.

It's sort of like Jesus being a red head. People in the region he supposedly lived in are rather dark skinned, so how come he isn't in the pictures?

I think we need multiple and diverse Santas including black, brown, Japanese, ones who use sign language (not fake LOL), short, fat, tall, etc etc why not, it'd be fun.

I think that teacher should be sacked actually.

Almost Canadian

Our presents were labelled so that the children believed that Santa had obtained them from relatives and then delivered them on their behalf. We learned our lesson when our oldest was very young. At that time they were all from "Santa." He opened them and then said, "Those were from Santa, where are the ones from you?"

Whiskey, mince pies and carrot for Rudolf!

I had to do the religious thing when I was a kid, but I don't recall ever having to sit through Liz's speech.

We get up when the first child wakes and open presents in a very uncoordinated fashion. Your method is far more civilised

ultrarunner

Wow I say....where did you come from? I'll like to see more of you round here, and are you single?

You are bang on, and I concur with your "sack the teacher" opinion. I went on to say how can you ever trust a teacher like that with the grading of minority kids work?

Am hard pushed to think his comments and beliefs are just reserved for fictional characters like Santa

dbd33

What are his beliefs?

Yorkiechef

This is about perception. My Santa is white because the image I had as a child was Santa as a white man. I would like to know how a black or Asian person thought Santa looked like when he or she was a child, I suspect it would not be different today. Perhaps coca cola should have a black Santa on the side of the truck, what is the big deal. And the teacher should have thought before speaking, his image as a child was one of a white Santa world. What is wrong with that. Holidays are coming....

koalabear1

Haha, glad you liked my comments

I agree with you too: Of course the teacher is fundamentally racist, or (s)he (can't remember their gender two hours and some wine later) wouldn't have minded seeing a black child dressing up as Santa.

The world needs to grow up and accept we are all different, it's nice we are anyway.

koalabear1

Ok, your Santa is white, and the teacher's was too, that's fine, the image of Santa I've got is also of a fat old white man with a white beard and twinkling eyes.

BUT the case in question was a black child dressing up as Santa and the teacher not allowing it simply because he was black and Santa is supposedly white.

That is what is wrong, and in my view absolutely unacceptable for a teacher to do.

...I mean Santa doesn't even exist so what grounds has anyone for saying a black person can't dress up as Santa?

If you want to be realistic to the extent of that idiotic teacher, then hire a Sami grandfather from the North of Norway and get in an interpreter because a man living in isolation in the North Pole is not going to understand English.

Oh and while you're at it, children can't possibly do nativity plays any more because 5 year-olds aren't realistic parents....

ultrarunner

I hope some BE members are listening here

TheCreature

Not surprising that teachers feel they are walking on eggshells.

If they had told the kid "You do know that the modern image of Santa, in Western society, is primarily as a result of numerous advertising campaigns, by various companies over many years, and he is usually portrayed as an image of a old, fat, white guy but he doesn't really exist" just think how many reasons you could come up with there for getting the teacher sacked.

Racism, ageism, fatism, sexism, promoting soft drinks, telling kids the truth...the list is endless.

ultrarunner

Bold: Nah, there are a numbers of reasons why teachers think they are walking on egg shells, and this barely makes the list. How about the following:

1. Parents blaming teachers that their kids aren't doing well

2. Having a go at teachers for a note that was sent home about kid's behaviour

3. Parents having a go at the school for proposing school uniform

4. et al