{"id":19084,"date":"2019-12-27T22:14:02","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T22:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=19084"},"modified":"2019-12-28T05:50:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T05:50:45","slug":"what-do-kids-really-think-about-santa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-do-kids-really-think-about-santa\/","title":{"rendered":"What do kids really think about Santa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Lane<\/a>, Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Children\u2019s belief in Santa may be taken as evidence that they\u2019re gullible or unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. But, consider your reaction to the following scenario:<\/p>\n

The past few nights, the local news has been filled with reports of an unidentified person who has broken into homes, stolen car keys and driven away with vehicles. The culprit hasn\u2019t left much evidence behind, aside from muddy boot prints.<\/p>\n

You wake one morning to find a trail of mud on your floor, notice your car keys are missing and run to the window \u2013 your car is gone. You immediately think that this must be the work of the person from the news. Minutes later you get a call from your messy \u2013 and inconsiderate \u2013 roommate. He apologetically explains that he tried to walk to work as usual, but it was raining heavily, so he went back into your apartment with soiled shoes and borrowed your car for the day.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., adults, peers and TV commercials give children the constant narrative that Santa exists<\/a>. Children visit shopping centers where they meet a person elaborately dressed as Santa, sit on his lap and divulge their desired gifts. Parents then plant evidence \u2013 the cookies and milk on Christmas Eve, the half-eaten cookies, the half-empty milk glass and \u2013 most important \u2013 presents under the tree on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

Believing that Santa exists is no more evidence that children are gullible than is your initial deduction that a wanted criminal broke into the apartment. To the contrary, children are at times more skeptical<\/a> than adults about a variety of people\u2019s claims and assertions.<\/p>\n

The topic of children\u2019s beliefs about Santa is particularly intriguing to me, as a scholar who examines children\u2019s beliefs<\/a> in what they\u2019re told, their concepts of people and minds, and their understandings of the extraordinary. Research on children\u2019s cognitive development supports an intriguing and nuanced story about children\u2019s belief in St. Nick.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A child writing a letter to Santa. It\u2019s one thing to believe that Santa brings gifts, but another to imagine that he flies around the world.<\/span>
\nYuganov Konstantin\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What exactly do children believe?<\/h2>\n

To believe that Santa exists is one thing. But do children believe that Santa can do all of the extraordinary things that parents and other adults purport? Do they believe that Santa can fly around the Earth in one night, on a sled pulled by reindeer, and deliver gifts to every child\u2019s house; or that Santa really knows if they\u2019ve been naughty or nice?<\/p>\n

This is where the developmental story becomes more interesting and nuanced. These beliefs depend on children\u2019s concepts of the world, and these concepts undergo dramatic development across childhood.<\/p>\n

For example, there are substantial individual differences and developmental changes in how children conceptualize the Earth<\/a> and in how they conceptualize time and speed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If a young child believes that the Earth is rather small or that there aren\u2019t many people in the world, then believing in Santa\u2019s 24-hour mass gift distribution isn\u2019t so far-fetched. There are also substantial differences in children\u2019s concept of minds<\/a>. Young children, in particular, find it difficult to conceptualize someone who is all-knowing<\/a> or who knows about their every thought and move<\/a>. Preschoolers likely believe that Santa has a special mind, that he may know some things that most other adults don\u2019t know but not everything.<\/p>\n

So, young children typically believe that Santa exists, but in a more mundane form than adults let on.<\/p>\n

\"\"
By about age eight, most children realize their parents bring the goodies and gifts.<\/span>
\nLightField Studios\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the believing stops<\/h2>\n

Yet, even within cultures where messages about Santa and physical evidence of Santa\u2019s existence pervade, most children eventually come to realize that Santa doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

Messages from friends may slowly erode children\u2019s belief, or children may catch parents in the act of feasting on Santa\u2019s cookies or placing presents under the tree.<\/p>\n

Also, as children increasingly understand the magnitude of Santa\u2019s purported powers \u2013 for example, when they realize the distance Santa would need to travel and how many houses Santa would need to visit on a single night \u2013 this may raise doubts about Santa\u2019s purported qualities<\/a> and eventually inspire doubt in Santa\u2019s existence altogether.<\/p>\n

By the age of about eight<\/a>, most children don\u2019t actually believe<\/a> in Santa anymore.<\/p>\n

The pretense continues<\/h2>\n

So why do they continue to participate in the annual ritual? Why do they act as if Santa really exists and actually delivers presents to them \u2013 of course, only if they\u2019ve been nice?<\/p>\n

The simple answer is because it\u2019s fun. This is similar to their having imaginary friends. Children with imaginary friends<\/a> realize that those friends aren\u2019t real people, but they pretend to play with them and tell people about them because that fantasy is enjoyable and rewarding. Playing with the idea that Santa is real has the added benefit of receiving toys every year! When older children indulge in the mythology of Santa, they are playing the game with adults, who themselves enjoy the fantasy.<\/p>\n

Are there consequences to deceiving children about Santa? Do children lose trust in their parents when they realize that it was all an elaborate ruse?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much research that directly answers these questions. One of the few studies<\/a> that asked children about their reactions found that children experienced more positive emotions than negative emotions when they learned about the myth, whether they discovered the ruse themselves or parents told them.<\/p>\n

Considering that children may understand that it\u2019s a game before their parents realize that they do \u2013 and children continue playing along \u2013 and considering that the whole fantasy plays out in the context of fun and togetherness, there\u2019s probably more to gain by playing along than there is to lose.<\/p>\n

[ You\u2019re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation\u2019s authors and editors.<\/em> You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter<\/a>. ]\"The<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lane<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Lane, Vanderbilt University Children\u2019s belief in Santa may be taken as evidence that they\u2019re gullible or unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. But, consider your reaction to the following scenario: The past few nights, the local news has been filled with reports of an unidentified person who has broken into homes, stolen car keys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":19085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[1717],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19091,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19084\/revisions\/19091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}