Santa Claus Belief
example · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 21 talks
Parents deny believing in Santa while buying presents; children deny believing while pretending so as not to disappoint parents. No one believes in the first person yet the ritual functions perfectly.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 20
“Not to offend my parents and to get presents.”
“Nobody believes but the belief functions as it were we practice it nonetheless.”
“ask a child, ask parents, 'do you believe in Santa Claus?' They say 'no, I'm not stupid, I buy the presents, of course I don't believe in it.'”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 6 jobsuses
subject supposed to believe
×7
the big Other
×3
fetishist disavowal
×2
interpassivity
×2
ideology as articulation
×1
cynical reason
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Golda Meir6Sarah Palin4Niels Bohr12Paul Veyne4Père Joseph (François Leclerc du Tremblay)3Donald Rumsfeld5Claude Lanzmann3Ulrich Beck3
alongside works
Every retelling 20
Parents deny believing in Santa while buying presents; children deny believing while pretending so as not to disappoint parents. No one believes in the first person yet the ritual functions perfectly., illustrating belief without a believer,ideology,the big Other
Parents know Santa isn't real but buy the presents; children know it's pretense but play along to please their parents. Nobody actually believes, yet the belief fully functions., illustrating interpassivity,the big Other
Parents know Santa isn't real but buy presents; children know it's fake but pretend to believe to not disappoint parents, showing belief is socially enacted., illustrating believing through not believing
Parents don't believe in Santa but buy gifts; children know parents don't believe but pretend to believe to not hurt parents, showing belief functions as a social category even without subjective belief., illustrating ideology,everyday-life
Parents pretend to believe in Santa for the children; children pretend back so as not to disappoint parents and keep the presents coming, nobody believes, everyone presupposes another believes., illustrating virtual belief,symbolic virtual,cynical ideology
Parents say they don't believe in Santa Claus but maintain the fiction for children; children say they don't believe but pretend for their parents. The result is a belief that functions as a social bond without anyone actually holding it., illustrating subject supposed to believe,materiality of belief