Who is Santa?

As the Christmas season approaches, people start to practice holiday traditions. Holiday decorations are hung, presents are bought, and pictures with Santa are taken. Children take tradition a step further by writing Santa a letter and baking him cookies. A young child never questions the true existence of Santa Claus. As an adult, however, I wonder if there really is truth behind the story of Santa.

In my quest for knowledge of Santa Claus, I stumbled across an interesting website called the Saint Nicholas Center. I was surprised to find a wealth of information on a man who lived many years ago named Saint Nicholas. Legends describe St. Nicholas as an extremely generous man who had a passion for giving to people. One story in particular details how St. Nicholas saved three young maidens from slavery. By secretly giving each daughter enough gold for a dowry, St. Nicholas gave them the opportunity of marriage.

St. Nicholas was born in modern day Turkey, but his stories live amongst the world. There are sections on the website which describe holiday customs all over the globe. It is interesting to see that most countries portray the historical St. Nicholas instead of jolly old Santa. St. Nicholas look-alikes make frequent holiday visits to classrooms and festivals. There are also a number of churches named after the popular saint.

It is clear that there is much more to the story of Santa. In America, the giving nature of St. Nicholas is personified in Santa Claus. Although we chose to change his name and add a few frills, the message of generosity remains.

Images from St. Nicholas Center

“Baby Einstein” Bad for Baby

Have you ever wondered how Albert Einstein became so smart? Perhaps his parents were persuaded by a groundbreaking parenting study to provide special attention to little Einstein. A number of new parents today hope to raise the next Einstein with the DVD collection appropriately titled “Baby Einstein.” However, increasing evidence is surfacing stating that these videos create anything but geniuses.

After reading the article on Time magazine’s website, it becomes clear that the surmounting evidence against “Baby Einstein” DVDs is becoming more solid. Instead of increasing child vocabulary and encouraging early language development, exposure to “Baby Einstein” videos actually do the opposite. The statistics are alarming. For instance, an infant exposed to these programs for one hour each day will learn 6 to 8 less words. The same infant would also have a 10% lower score on language skills!

Language is not the only area of an infant’s brain affected by “Baby Einstein” DVDs. The amount of overstimulation presented as each scene quickly dashes in front an infant’s eyes creates a predisposition to a short attention span as he or she gets older. “Baby Einstein” babies would expect the world to move at the same rapid pace.

Although it might be common sense to many that television exposure in childhood is detrimental, others cannot resist the temptation. Along with the appealing nature of the DVD promises, parents can enjoy more free time while their infants are cognitively occupied. Still, nothing beats the cognitive stimulation that parents themselves provide. The moral of the story is: read to your baby, talk to your baby, and play with your baby! After all, wouldn’t you rather take the credit for creating an exceptional genius for the next generation?

Baby Einstein pic from Google

Mom and Baby pic from Google