14 DAY TRIAL // Christmas is, perhaps, the holiday dearest to the majority of people. Almost everybody likes snow, fir trees, presents and to believe in Santa Claus. Although they know it's not real, parents tend to perpetuate the myth of the red-suited jolly old man that brings presents for everyone during Christmas Eve. They perceive it as non-detrimental for their children, though some feel like lying to their kids, shows a new study.
Serge Larivee, a professor of psycho-education from Universite de Montreal, together with fellow researcher Carole Senechal from the Univerity of Ottawa, both in Canada, performed a comparison on the way 1,500 children (7 to 13 years of age) related to the myth of Santa back in 1896, and in 1979 (obviously, not the same children), and studied the implications of the changes.
As a general rule, Larivee notes that "When they learn the truth, children accept the rules of the game and even go along with their parents in having younger children believe in Santa. It becomes a rite of passage in that they know they are no longer babies," shows the official site of the University of Montreal. Among the findings of the study was the fact that some 22% of the children in 1896 were disappointed to find that Santa did not exist, compared to 29% in the study performed in 1979.
"The constant outcome of the two studies was that children generally discovered through their own observations and experiences that Santa doesn't exist," shared Larivee. "And their parents confirmed their discovery. Children ask their parents, for example, how Santa gets in the house if there's no chimney. And even if the parents say they leave the door unlocked, the child will figure out that Santa can't be everywhere at the same time and that reindeer can't be that fast."
History shows an increase in the tendency to perpetuate the myth even after kids' discovering it as such, as it maintains a good mood and joyfulness: 54% of the parents did so in 1896, 73% in 1979 and 80% in 2000. Now, the team has bolder goals: they want to find out why, although God and Santa are both described as having supernatural powers, children stop believing in Santa but keep believing in God.