You should keep dreaming! If you settle you become complacent and staid.

I love it too! Kudos to you for finding it :-)

That's brilliant! It would be great to make a film, I can see why you'd like to that.

I agree with your final point It sounds cheesy, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all just get along. For an intelligent species we aren't very bright :-(

I'd love to write a column for a national newspaper, or, even better have my own radio show.

Now, come on - it's your turn!

Mine started out almost as a microblog - I only posted links and one or two sentence posts; it was just a place to share interesting stuff. Now, I use it to share my thoughts, practice writing and keep in touch with friends in and out of the blogosphere. Like Steph, I've never settled on a theme; it's a mish-mash of all sorts of topics and post styles, and really, I like it that way, it works for me. I do have a couple of themed blogs, but still enjoy the freedom of being able to write about anything on that one.

It's funny you should say that - I was surprised the first time I heard Santa speak with an American accent because I was sure he came from Birmingham.

I remember my gran telling me that she overheard my mum telling her younger brother not to say Father Christmas wasn't real because she (my gran) really believed in him. LOL It's true, parents indulge in these charades, but children aren't always taken in.

LOL No, I am bowing to his greater wisdom. Mr Pratchett is the man, he knows all.

Parents lie to kids all the time - if you are on a long journey and they ask 'are we nearly there yet?', you don't say 'no, it'll be another 3 hours', you say 'yes'. If they appear in a school play, but have the acting ability of a melon, you still tell them they are the next Olivier - well, most parents do, I suppose there are some who place little value on the self-esteem of their offspring.

There is a world of difference between teaching kids to think critically, and denying them the chance to use their imaginations. Fantasy, fairytales and even Santa encourage children to think about the world in a safe way - remember we are talking about very young children here - at an age when reality would be far too frightening for them. I'm sure there are parents who sit their 3 year olds down to tell them that there is no Santa and millions of other kids are living in abject poverty, and that there are wars and diseases and other horrible things, but it's debatable whether they do them any favours. Kids will learn about real life at their own pace, but most parents feel it is their responsibility to protect their innocence in the meanwhile, and if that means using mythological figures, then so be it. Most parents wait until their children are old enough to handle the truth, because imposing it on them is more damaging in the long run.

And as for using Father Christmas as a carrot, it just wouldn't work. As I said above we are talking about very young children who have no concept of time. There would be no point in even trying to bribe them with pressies because they'd forget everything you said 30 minutes later.