Santa is Dead, this is an interesting comment to be written in my notes for Childrens Litureature. But I remembered a funny picture from these notes, so here it is. I guess I should tie this into childerens literature. This idea ties into how stories shape our personalities and values. (and how we cope with the fact that our parents lie to us.) The story of Santa Clause has an obvious moral; be "good" and you get what you want. However when we grow older and we learn that Santa is not real, at least not real in the red suit and flying raindeer way, we also learn that being good is not always enough. The question becomes are these stories even ment to work on our values after all. I mean does the santa story really make kids act more like the little angels we think we want, or are they more simply steps for childrens imaginations. Perhaps it is a little of both.