by Simon Wright

Created on: November 24, 2011

In general, I disapprove of perpetuating superstitious myths in impressionable children. I believe that it is harmful, and disingenuous, to allow children to believe that fairies, elves, or gods exist. In theory, therefore, I should also be opposed to allowing young children to believe that there is a little old man, decked out in Coca Cola’s colours, who flies across the world at impossible speeds and manages to squeeze his considerable girth down narrow chimneys.

However, having enjoyed the Santa experience as a child, I feel it would be overly hard hearted to prevent my child from believing in the existence of a wonderful entity who hands out gifts to little boys and girls once a year. For the parent who is torn over the contradiction between wanting to always tell our kids the truth and wanting them to enjoy the full Christmas experience, I think the key is not to go too overboard with the Santa Claus masquerade. In my family, Santa brought small stocking presents and the larger presents we received were from our parents. This prevented the belief that some benevolent mysterious stranger would provide us with lots of expensive toys.

I also feel that parents should not go down the road of saying that Santa will “provide toys if you’re good but coal if you’re bad”. By doing so, you are basically using Santa Claus as a way of controlling behaviour, much in the same way as religion does with its Heaven and Hell promises. It’s better, and more honest, to teach kids to be good because it’s the right thing to do rather than just to extract a reward or avoid a punishment!

The title asks whether perpetuating the myth of Santa Claus is “good” for children. I am not sure I would actually go as far as saying that it is good for them but, perhaps more importantly, it may be bad for them if they are not allowed to join in the excitement that their peers feel at the imminent arrival of Santa. They may feel cheated at not being allowed to bathe in what they may view as a harmless lie. Therefore, although you may have the noblest of intentions in disabusing them of the Santa myth, you need to ask yourself whether a rigid adherence to truth in this matter is worth potentially robbing them of a little childish wonder?

I also feel that it should be possible to justify to them, at a later point, why you allowed a distinction between this myth and the other superstitions that you take a stronger line on. You can still encourage a child to always seek the facts and probe for the truth, even where you have allowed them to believe in Santa Claus for a brief period of their life! 

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