Should Parents tell kids Santa is real

By Andrew Wong

Every Christmas season brings joy and laughter to millions of families. To most, Christmas is considered to be the best holiday of the year. During this season, the most iconic figure children always look up to is none other than Santa Claus himself.

Santa Claus is a mythical figure that is said to give presents to nice and behaving children every year. But as all of us modern adults and teenagers know, Santa Claus isn’t real. Of course, many children do not believe this until their parents tell them otherwise. Depending on the child, the case of learning the harsh truth may emotionally traumatize them. The real question is, would it be a good idea if kids were to learn about the truth early or have them believe on a legend for a long time?

If parents were to shift into the position of lying to their kids about Santa’s existence being real, the positive and negative effects will vary. For the positives, the children will tend to become a lot more acquisitive about the holiday and become more excited about presents. Believing in Santa Claus can also help children to enjoy the holiday better, by encouraging children to participate in activities such as sending letters to the North Pole for Santa to read and going to the mall to sit on his lap to ask for presents.
Another positive effect of lying about Santa’s existence is that it helps parents to condition the children into behaving properly and being considerate towards others. The children believe that if they misbehave, they won’t be receiving presents for the following year. Overall, lying to children about Santa helps bring the children to enjoy the Christmas spirit and increased holiday participation.

Although some families like to enjoy Christmas through the spirit and the legend of Santa Claus, there are definitely families out there who do not want to follow the myths. Because of that, they will tend to tell their children the harsh truth of Santa’s existence. At first this might seem like the worst thing a parent could ever do to their child, however positives still lie within this decision.

For starters, parents who tell the truth early won’t have to deal with their children’s big disappointment upon realizing the truth. Children learn that Santa is a myth early on will just brush it off like its nothing. In contrast, telling the truth to other children who believed in Santa for a long time may wound their spirit. Their vision of Christmas would be torn apart dramatically that their magic of Christmas would simply disappear.

Regardless of what parents decide what to do with their children, it necessarily isn’t a good or bad idea to tell kids about the truth of Santa’s existence. It is most certain that the parents should decide how they want to spend their Christmas, and Santa Claus isn’t always the way to properly celebrate Christmas.