Mayeux Research

I’m a bit late in posting this—Santa Claus has, after all, come and gone—but a recent discussion on a parenting blog got me thinking. In the nature of full disclosure, I should mention that my husband and I are big fans of Santa, and our daughter spent many hours over the last month singing songs about the guy, discussing his impending trip down our chimney, and reminding me of Santa’s (and Rudolph’s) need for cookies on Christmas Eve. So I entered into this bit of research with a pretty clear sense of how I wanted it to turn out.

The gist of the discussion on the blog was this: Some parents felt that facilitating a child’s belief in Santa was nothing short of deception, and that it would lead to anger and feelings of mistrust and betrayal when the child eventually learned the truth. Others saw real value in creating a magical Santa experience for their children, believing that it presents a developmentally-appropriate way for children to engage in make-believe and fantasy.

I knew where I stood; I remember well how magical a time the holidays were for me as a child, how much of a thrill I got on Christmas Eve as I climbed into bed hoping I’d fall asleep before Santa arrived on my block.  And I remember being extremely disappointed when I learned that it was all pretend, although I certainly didn’t feel betrayed. But I was curious—Had anyone actually approached this from a scientific perspective? Was there research on children’s reactions to learning there is no Santa?

As it turns out, there is, albeit very little. The one empirical article I found (by Carl Anderson and Norman Prentice) interviewed children who used to believe in Santa about their reactions to finding out that he didn’t exist after all. The children admitted to feeling sad, angry, and disappointed—but those feelings were short-lived, and they were not severe. About half of the children interviewed found out the truth on their own, with another third being told by their parents—and for most children, the realization was a gradual one. What I found most interesting was that many of the children reported mixed feelings about discovering the truth, including relief. Their parents, on the other hand, reported almost no positive feelings about their children’s discovery, and were mainly just plain sad about it.

This was a small study, and as far as I can tell it hasn’t been replicated. But it made me feel a little bit better about my child-deceiving, trust-busting holiday parenting decisions. I hope it does the same for yours.

Now if someone would only design a study to measure the traumatic effects of forcing children to sit on Santa’s lap for a photo op….