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The Science Behind Santa
Why Young Children Believe in the Jolly Old Elf
When I was little, one of my older brothers told my older sister there was no Santa Claus. When she totally (and loudly) freaked out, he freaked out, too, and ran into the woods behind our house. While I don’t recall exactly what age either of them was when this happened, I’m pretty sure my sister was over age ten. Which is a relief now that I’ve read the 2017 Science News article “The Science Behind Kids’ Belief in Santa” by Laura Sanders, Ph.D.
According to Sanders’s research into why young children have no trouble believing in Santa despite seemingly obvious holes in the whole Santa story, kids’ thinking tends to shift around age eight to a “concrete operational stage” that leads them to question exactly how things work. Until then, though, they get to enjoy what many of us recall fondly as the wide-eyed wonder of belief in things that might not exactly make sense but allow us to believe, unconditionally, that anything is possible.
After sharing some stories about her young children related to Santa sightings and their own wide-eyed wonder with regard to St. Nick, Sanders also shares common concerns among parents, such as feeling a tad guilty about lying to their children about Santa. She also, thank goodness, cites a study that assures parents that children are…
