Faith Filled Family Magazine October 2016 | Page 62

SANTA, EASTER BUNNY & TOOTH FAIRY

Should We Introduce
Fables to Our Children?
By John Lysaught

B

esides our birthdays as
children, there were three
supernatural entities we
could count on to receive gifts
from: Santa Claus, the Easter
Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. The
two former happened each year
and we could look forward to
such goodies as toys and sweets
along with the expectant glee of
restless slumbering through the
night to awaken to these two
days of the year. The latter required a little pain and discomfort because we were losing our
teeth, but we were soothed to
know that if we kept our window

or door ever so slightly cracked,
the tiny and beautiful Tooth Fairy
would collect our teeth from under our pillow, exchanging the
white nugget of bone with money
or a gift. There is a point though
when we stop being gullible, this
often coincides with the shock
of learning the truth from kids
on the playground or after our
parents themselves told us that
which we believed so earnestly with our hearts was nothing
but a lie. We weren’t sure what
to believe anymore, what else
were our loved ones lying to us
about? What are Santa, the Eas-

ter Bunny, and
the Tooth Fairy
anyway? Made
up stories? Are
they
fables
or
folklore?
Something
else? Are they
used to twist
historical people and events
into tools of
manipulations
and commercialization by
the world at
large?
Santa Claus
How did the celebration of the
birth of Jesus Christ turn into
a jolly old fool who lives at the
North Pole riding around in a
sleigh to bring gifts to children all
over the world who were good for
the preceding 364 days? Who
we know as Santa Claus today
came about through many twists
and turns through history beginning with a generous wealthy
Greek Catholic Bishop in the 4th
Century AD that evolved through