Well, here it is less than a week until Santa arrives\u2026 I usually don\u2019t do these things, but I think it\u2019s my duty to alert any of you faithful believers that today\u2019s blog may contain information that Santa Clause may not be real.<\/p>\n
I read an article a few days ago about a study that concluded that children stop believing in Santa Claus by about the age of six, but play along to keep their parents happy. Many of the kids in the study said they found out that Santa wasn\u2019t real from older siblings and friends, which has always been the case, but recently a lot found out on social media. One of the conclusions of the study was that the Internet and technology available to children contributed to the early dis-belief and that the information was exposed to the youngsters \u201ctoo young, too soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, of course this study got me to thinking\u2026. Generally, lying to kids is a bad thing. But then, there\u2019s this Santa Clause thing. I think most people, especially parents, think believing in Santa is a normal, and healthy, part of a child\u2019s development. Now let\u2019s be honest, the idea of a man who flies around the world in a sleigh, drawn by reindeers and goes into people\u2019s homes through their chimneys and delivers presents \u2014 all in one night is\u2026 highly improbable. But if you\u2019re 3, 4, 5 or 6 years old, it seems perfectly logical.<\/p>\n
Kids believe, and that\u2019s what\u2019s so great about kids, they believe \u2014 in not only Santa, but the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, imaginary friends and all sorts of fairy-tale creatures. Kids use their imagination all the time, even if they know some of the things they create are fiction. When Emily was little (maybe two or three) she said she was going to have a picnic with her imaginary parents. I asked if her imaginary parents were nicer than her real parents\u2026 her response (after looking at me like I was stupid) was, they\u2019re imaginary<\/em>! So obviously little ones are perfectly capable of keeping real and imaginary separated.<\/p>\n But as kids get older, the Santa story, like a lot of good things, eventually comes to an end. Kids stop believing in Santa at different ages. As the study pointed out, often their friends break the news or they discover it on social media. But kids also figure it out for themselves \u2014 when they notice that the story doesn\u2019t quite add up. Questioning what\u2019s real and what\u2019s not is normal. Most parents have a good sense of when their children are ready to accept the truth. I remember that being harder for me than it was for our kids when the Santa story ended in our house. St. Nicholas was a real person and he became famous for giving gifts and money to the poor \u2014 it\u2019s those values that\u2019s important anyway. So when the little ones stop believing, parents can (and probably should) tell them about the real St. Nicholas and impress upon them that the spirit<\/em> of Christmas is real\u2026.<\/p>\n For most of us, especially parents, a lot of Christmas is about children, magic and imagination. And when you\u2019re young, lots of that revolves around a fat guy in a red suit. When we have kids, we should hang on to that chubby guy for as long as we can, because when he\u2019s gone, so is some of the imagination and magic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, here it is less than a week until Santa arrives\u2026 I usually don\u2019t do these things, but I think it\u2019s my duty to alert any of you faithful believers that today\u2019s blog may contain information that Santa Clause may … Continue reading
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n