by Carol Dunn

Created on: December 01, 2010

If Your Child is Afraid of Santa Claus -

At around two years of age, most children develop a fear of Santa Claus, and it might last a year or two.  For goodness sake, let them be afraid.  We parents spend a fair amount of time warning our children about strangers.  And here you have a grown up, rotund stranger with an unnaturally white beard and clothes that no one in their right mind would wear in public.  He may smell like smoke, or Hai Karate aftershave, or booze, or even greasy fried food.  It turns my stomach just thinking about it.  Your child knows perfectly well that you would never let her sit on such a person’s lap.  That’s creepy to kids, and, if you’ll just admit it, it’s creepy to us adults too.  You’re not sitting on his lap – why should your kid?  So what really frightens your child is when you say, “It’s OK honey, sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what you want for Christmas.”  No matter how old your child is, she knows perfectly well that this isn’t Santa.  You just saw Santa at another department store at the other end of the mall.  Besides, the real Santa is supposed to be at the North Pole finishing up his “naughty or nice” list.  Ain’t no way this is the real Santa.  

So, the kid’s thinking, what’s up?  Are you making good on your threat to sell your child to the circus because he wouldn’t eat his green beans at supper the other night?  Is this the monster you warned would come get her if she ever puts silly putty in the cat’s ear again?  She wants to bolt and hide behind the nearest Christmas tree, but she knows she’d better do what you say because she now realizes the circus thing wasn’t an idle threat.  Your little one silently vows to eat green beans until they come out of his ears and never again complain about spinach.

If you insist that your child sit on Santa’s lap while the well-meaning photographer (another stranger, by the way) takes a picture, she will make you regret it.  You’re going to spend good money for it, but you will end up with a permanent record showing your terrified, bawling child trying to smile because you told him to.  You’ll never bring it out for the holidays, because you will find that your maturing child will abhor looking at it.  Who knows, it may scar her for life.

If your child is afraid of Santa Claus, don’t make it worse by insisting she like him.  That’s just life with kids.  Skip the Santa this year, and take her for an ice cream cone instead.  Then take her picture being happy and treasure it always.

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