I do not have my Watchtower CDROM installed on this box. I recall a quote by the Watchtower some years back that said in effect;
"If you teach your kids about Santa Claus, and they find out it was all a lie, they might begin to think that what you taught them about Jesus is also a lie."
In essence, without knowing it, this was a prediction that applied to me in time. I was never taught about Santa. But once I left the Watchtower fantasy I began to think deeply about Jesus/Jehovah/The Bible/Religion/Christianity. I discovered them all to be total fabrications, designed to hold my fancy, distract me from life and living, and to mesmerize my thinking around conceptual unrealities, unprovable substantiations.
When one thinks about it: There is absolutely no more proof that Jesus lives in heaven waiting to 'bless' his servants with eternal salvation than there is in the belief that Santa Claus is going to fly thru the skies on Christmas Eve on a sleigh pulled by reindeer to deliver presents to all the good boys and girls. In fact, SC is in a sense, less fantasy than Jesus. Presents are delivered, sleigh bells do ring in the night. And the fantasy of all that is dispelled as the child ages with no discernable damage in most cases. Jesus never shows. Everyone waits for centuries and millenia. He doesn't come. He never will.
The fantasy of Santa was probably created by real life exploits of real persons - St Nick et al. Jesus' legend was probably perpetrated by early zealous men who wanted freedom from oppressive government - and who genuinely believed that a 'messiah' was imminent.
The Jesus Fantasy is far more dangerous though. Billions of years of life have been wasted in that fantasy - oh I know you Christians will take me to task for that statement - but not one shred of evidence exists that eternal life awaits faithful followers of this man who lived and died, convicted of treason against Rome, now about 2000 years ago.
Interesting irony here, that it was not my being taught about Santa that lead to my eventual questioning of Jesus. It was my beginning to think about Santa [and beer and love and books of all sorts and careers, etc] that lead to my doubting of Jesus over time.
I guess the Society had a point: Break one set of fantasies - and one is destined to examine all the others with greater care.
Ho Ho Ho - Merry Christmas to all.
Jeff