How Urban Legends like Santa Claus Influence Us - Essay Example

How Urban Legends like Santa Claus Influence Us in Childhood and as Adults Schools Number and of Date of Submission (e.g., October 12, 2014) How Urban Legends like Santa Claus Influence Us in Childhood and as Adults Introduction In childhood, we are surrounded by urban legends, spinning our imaginations through magic and adventure. While some urban legends such as Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are propagated by our parents and elders, others are figments of our own imaginations and that of our peers. The stories that we hear in childhood stay with us lifelong, and so do their effects, be they negative or positive. These not only mould our thoughts and actions but also our personalities to a fair extent. In an attempt to guage these effects, this paper discusses how urban legends such as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny influence us as children and affect us growing up. It also evaluates how our lives change throughout adulthood when these legends disappear. Urban Legends – Why They Originate An urban legend, as defined by Charles Housteau, is – …Modern folklore believed to be true by the people who preach about them… [An urban legend is] an incredible story that may be true or false but gets exaggerated by the people who tell the story. As the story grows older, the more unbelievable the story becomes...Urban legends are a way for people to try and explain the unexplainable. Every culture has their own urban legends that people create. The stories carry their own traditions as they are passed down to later generations (Smith, Smith and Bobbitt, 2008, p. 93). Urban legends originate for a number of reasons. They may have been propagated as an explanation for unexplainable phenomena, as a fun addition to festivities, as a consolation for tragic events, as a way of inculcating certain morals and values, or merely as a creative release. Whatever the reason be, the fact is that these are lies. In most cases, those who propagate these stories know them for false. The questions that emerge here are – is it ethical to spread stories that we ourselves know are false? Is it right to lie to small children about the existence of characters such as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy? Is it valid to justify those lies by believing that they serve a fun or moral purpose? These questions continue to be a matter of debate. Urban Legends and Childhood In early childhood, we live a magical time. We grow up listening to fairy tales, tales of dragons and brave princes. Our festivities, especially Christmas time, are immersed with hoards of expectations from Santa Claus and fun with the Easter Bunny. We grow up idolizing the characters we hear stories of. As children, we do good and avoid bad because we know Santa Claus will get us what we want. Gifts appearing miraculously under the Christmas tree, stockings left overnight filled with candy from Santa, the cookies, milk and carrots we left for Santa and his reindeers – gone, the tooth we left underneath our pillow turned into a coin – we believed every single bit of the fantasies spun by our parents and elders. Little did we know that all these were staged and had no truth in them. Surprisingly, these urban legends dictate our morals and personalities in childhood. As Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Dr. Benjamin Siegel, from the Boston University School of Medicine asserts, children, especially between four and seven years of age, are highly influenced by what they hear and see around them. Characters that they hear about have a special meaning for them. These characters could be anyone – superheroes, animals, monsters, and even Santa Claus (Brown, n.d.). Parents bank on this excitement of their children to make them do what they would not have done otherwise. For instance, telling tales of superheroes and then using those superheroes as role models for inculcating good habits in children is of common occurrence. Parents also give their children the expectations of good gifts from Santa in return for good deeds. These myths thus become a means of encouraging good morals. They are also a fun addition to festivities. As we grow up and get acquainted with the realities of life and its various nuances, we start questioning the very stories and characters we idolized. Somewhere, questions begin to form – is Santa real? Does Tooth Fairy really exist? Have my parents been playing with me all along? How does Santa travel all over the world in just one day? Why does he not visit countries hit with war or poverty? Although these questions begin appearing, we do not really ruminate on them until a friend or an elder breaks the news to us – that everything we believed in was fiction. This abrupt truth affects all children differently. Growing up, we outgrow these stories ourselves. Some children take it as-a-matter-of-factly, as they had already begun to question the veracity of these stories. Others take offense to the notion that their idols, the heroes they believed in, all the miracles they witnessed at Christmas, were all staged and fantasized. It is the latter scenario that is disturbing. Finding out that our parents and elders lied to us instills a feeling of distrust. We may start questioning the other “truths” told to us – about God, about being good, being ethical, about our religious teachings, about science, about everything else. The very premise of trust between parents and children is shaken. However, in most cases, these contemplations do not last long as our growing years expose us to other frivolities and tribulations of adolescence, and subsequently, adulthood. Urban Legends and Adulthood Throughout adulthood, as these legends disappear, we remain largely unaffected. We start to understand their significance in shaping our thoughts as children. More than that, we realize the other facts that underpin these legends. While on the one hand, these legends are used as a tool to inculcate morals in children, on the other hand, these are mere boosters of commercial sales. Alternative Motives behind Urban Legends It is hard to imagine Christmas and Easter without Santa Claus and Easter Bunny. And it is even harder to imagine these without the gifts and accompanying merchandise. Be it books, clothes, stationary, these legends are everywhere. As adults, we realize how these legends have been interwoven into our commercial fabric. Surprisingly, the very legends we idolized as children, who dictated our ideals, come back to us in adulthood, only to make us realize how we tend to monetize and derive materialistic benefits from almost everything. With the growing prejudices of adulthood, our questions regarding these legends evolve as well. We are even willing to debate over these legends who we know are not real. An example is the debate over Santa’s color. Is Santa white? An article by Aisha Harris proposed that Santa should be deracialized by turning his image into a penguin – they are cute, have no race and live in snow (Smith, 2013)! This proposal offended Megyn Kelly from FOX News who had an unwavering belief that both Jesus and Santa are white. This triggered a cascade of debates and discussions all over Twitter and the blogosphere. As adults, does Santa’s color, racial identity really matter to us? Apparently, it seems to. The Cycle When we grow up, these legends disappear from our lives and have no meaning whatsoever. However, once parenthood sets in, these legends have a new meaning in our lives. We relive our childhood fantasies sharing these legends with children. Some parents go to extreme lengths only to convince their children about these fantasies. For instance, a father went to the extreme of littering ashes from the fireplace to the milk and cookies his children left for Santa (Dell’Antonia, 2011). He even left a lip balm stain on the milk glass! Dell’Antonia describes many other such cases where parents went to extreme limits to “prove that Santa came” (2011, para ii). In one instance, a parent placed dog waste on their rooftop to mark the visit of reindeer, another parent created candy stickers that read ‘North Pole Fruit Company’, and another faked an email from Santa to say that the radiator noise of her car scared Santa away when they were traveling. What is more surprising is that we have become high tech in our exploits. Video chats with Santa, for instance. One parent hired a Santa to visit his bedridden child and even took him out to see the “marks” left behind by Santa and his team! Another parent called over a creative neighbor to draw Santa Claus’ bootprints on the floor (Dell’Antonia, 2011). As adults, we wish to relive the fantasies, imagination and magic we experienced in childhood in our own children. We may even fear the aftermath that would happen when children find out that these are myths. Most parents fear that when their children find out that Santa is a myth, the magic of Christmas will die, not only for their children, but for them as well. Adults who had a bitter experience finding out the truth do not propagate these myths for their children. Others, who appreciate the positivity behind these myths, continue to keep the tradition alive, thus forming a cycle that may never end. The Faceoff Whether or not these myths should be propagated is still a matter of debate. Some children are completely shattered when they find out the mythical nature of their heroes, while others appreciate what their parents did for them selflessly, only to make their days special. For instance, some children are known have cried bitterly after finding out that Santa is unreal and that all the tell-tale signs shown to them by their parents were fabricated. They wished their parents had never lied to them (Dell’Antonia, 2011). A user at a forum that debated on the topic, “Shouldnt it be considered unethical for parents to lie to their children about fictional characters like Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy?” commented that Santa actually made him an Atheist (Aaige05, n.d.). He writes that the day he found out that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are a scam, he became an atheist. He justifies it saying that if his parents lied to him about these legends, they might be lying about God as well. He felt betrayed and questioned everything else that was told ever told to him. In fact, he never fully able to trust his parents again! He has committed to not lie to his child about these myths. On the contrary, another user on a different forum admits to having a greater love and respect for his parents after finding out the unreal nature of these myths. He writes that his parents were not well off in his childhood and so he would ask Santa for expensive gifts, thinking that this way, he was saving his family’s money. On coming to know that Santa was a myth, he felt bad that his parents worked harder to get him those gifts (sarahkay0282, 2014). The Paleo Mama in a blog argues that believing in Santa in her childhood was “awesome” and that when her dad broke it to her that he was Santa, she felt it was the “coolest thing” ever (2013). She appreciated her father’s selflessness as hers was a low income family and her father worked hard to make her Christmas magical. Urban legends such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny have survived over decades. The fact that these myths have been going strong for so many years now reflects that a majority of people have accepted them in their lives. There is only a small proportion of adults who are against the notion of propagating these myths. Urban legends have served the purpose of keeping the lives of children filled with magic, adventure, and most importantly, hope. Conclusion Santa Claus and other urban legends may start out as a simple story for children, evolving into a question and subsequently, at times, a source of distrust. In our early lives as children, these fantasies offer us respite from our difficulties. They serve to develop our ethics and morals, our thoughts and actions. As we grow up, the fabricated nature of these legends starts revealing itself and our IQ starts questioning their authenticity. Ultimately, a time comes when the truth is passed on to us from friends, parents or elders. We may shake off this disclosure as something expected, or may fall victim to distrust and heartbreak. As adults, these myths come back to us as fantasies that we relive through other children. Some of us may find it unethical to lie to children about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. However, a majority of us pass these on despite knowing their false nature. Perhaps the thought of making a child’s life magical and inspiring a sense of awe in him is too irresistible that we do not stop propagating these myths. These myths have stayed around for quite long, proving that we are not willing to let go of these no matter what we felt about them as children. Parents sometimes go to extremes only to prove to their children the existence of Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. In all this commotion, the debate on whether or not propagating these myths is fair, remains unattended. These legends have certainly done more good than harm and have become an integral part of global culture. In fact, many believe that enjoying the magic of Santa Claus is every child’s birthright. Whatever be the motive behind spreading these urban legends, they certainly make lives more magical and fantastic. References Aaige05. (n.d.). Shouldnt it be considered unethical for parents to lie to their children about fictional characters like Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Retrieved http://www.debate.org/opinions/shouldnt-it-be-considered-unethical-for-parents-to-lie-to-their-children-about-fictional-characters-like-santa-clause-the-easter-bunny-and-the-tooth-fairy. Brown, L. L. (n.d.). Is It Okay to Lie About Santa. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/parents/holidays/is-it-okay-lie-about-santa/. DellAntonia, K. J. (2011, December 23). To Fib — or Not — About Santa Claus. The New York Times. Retrieved http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/to-fib-or-not-about-santa-claus/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1. Sarahkay0282. (2014). How it seemed, growing up in poverty and believing in Santa Claus. Retrieved http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1toelm/how_it_seemed_growing_up_in_poverty_and_believing/. Smith, A., Smith, T., & Bobbitt, R. (2008). Teaching in the Pop Culture Zone: Using Popular Culture in the Composition Classroom. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Smith, M. D. (2013, December 18). Santa Claus and White Racial Panic. Retrieved from http://www.thenation.com/blog/177637/santa-claus-and-white-racial-panic#. The Paleo Mama. (2013, December 5). 5 Reasons Why I Let My Kids Believe in Santa Claus. Retrieved http://thepaleomama.com/2013/12/5-reasons-let-kids-believe-santa-claus/. Read More