{"id":63624,"date":"2018-12-17T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T22:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=63624"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:33","slug":"science-goodbye-santa","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/science-goodbye-santa\/","title":{"rendered":"The science of saying goodbye to Santa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n The science of saying goodbye to Santa\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Dear Parent, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santa here. I know this season has been hard. Your eight-year-old looked at you baldfaced and said I wasn\u2019t real. How can this be? Is the innocence and magic already gone? It seems like just yesterday they were so easily convinced that crumbs on the plate were irrefutable evidence that I\u2019d been there. And they have no respect for how hard I work to make my handwriting look just like yours! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter that you never got a chance to tell them I don\u2019t exist. Most children come to that conclusion themselves.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But don\u2019t worry about your kids too much. Coming to disbelieve in Santa is not particularly distressing for them. You, like many parents, are actually sadder than your kids are about it.<\/a> And they probably won\u2019t blame you for having told them I exist, either. Kids who no longer believe in me think that other kids should be encouraged to<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
\n Research suggests not many children over the age of seven-and-a-half believe in Santa. (Shutterstock)<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And a little happiness can\u2019t hurt, particularly in light of evidence that people are less happy around Christmastime,<\/a> (with the exception of devout Christians).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parenting is tough these days. I don\u2019t get a lot of news up here in the North Pole, though we\u2019ve gotten a lot more since Mrs. Claus talked the elves into using pixie-dust to make a rocking horse that functions as an Amazon Echo. But from the little news we get, we can tell that people are super-judgmental about every decision you make,<\/a> including your decision to (or not to) tell your kids to believe in Santa Claus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Christians think Santa strengthens consumption as religion<\/a>. Indeed, like the gods of religions, I do have \u201cstrategic knowledge\u201d<\/a> about what your kids do that is good and bad, paying more attention to moral issues than anything else (I don\u2019t pay any attention to you<\/em>, parents, so don\u2019t worry about clearing your browser history, ho ho ho!). But the similarity of believing in me to believing in the gods of religions is tenuous,<\/a> because I have failed to attract a substantial community of true believers.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your skeptical kids are not alone. Not many people over the age of seven-and-a-half believe in Santa Claus.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some think that telling kids about me is lying, and destroys trust, but there\u2019s no evidence that that happens<\/a>. In fact, there isn\u2019t any scientific evidence that believing in me is harmful in any way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
\n There\u2019s no evidence that telling kids about Santa destroys trust. (Michael Nunes\/Unsplash<\/span>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>)<\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But belief might have some benefits: kids are more generous after talking about me (versus when they talk about pets or the Easter Bunny). But it\u2019s unclear whether bringing up Santa promotes good behaviour.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if your kids stopped believing, or if they never did, it probably doesn\u2019t matter much either way. But don\u2019t be too sad. Just because a sleigh ride ends doesn\u2019t mean it wasn\u2019t fun, does it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santa Claus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Carleton University is a member of this unique digital journalism platform that launched in June 2017 to boost visibility of Canada\u2019s academic faculty and researchers. Interested in writing a piece? Please contact Steven Reid<\/a> or sign up to become an author<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photos provided by The Conversation from various sources.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
\nCarleton Newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Parent, Santa here. I know this season has been hard. Your eight-year-old looked at you baldfaced and said I wasn\u2019t real. How can this be? Is the innocence and magic already gone? It seems like just yesterday they were so easily convinced that crumbs on the plate were irrefutable evidence that I\u2019d been there. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":63625,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[1623],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-63624","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-expert-perspectives"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/63624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/63624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63627,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/63624\/revisions\/63627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=63624"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=63624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}