I often wonder what effect the idea of Santa Claus has on children's cognitive development. We have created a vast conspiracy to deceive young children, spanning every possible layer of authority: your parents are in on it, your teachers are in on it, mass media and corporations are in on it, even the government is in on it. All working together to support the idea that a man from the North Pole is going to fly around the world and bring you presents.
As a child gets older, maybe pieces of the story start to not make sense. The child expresses a little doub... (read more)
Young kids don’t make a clear distinction between fantasy and reality. The process of coming to reject the Santa myth helps them clarify the distinction.
It’s interesting to me that young kids function as well as they do without the notions of true/false, real/pretend! What does “belief” even mean in that context? They change their beliefs from minute to minute to suit the situation.
Even for most adults, most beliefs are instrumental: We only separate true from false to the extent that it’s useful to do so!
8astridain
I have a slightly different perspective on this — I don't know how common this is, but looking back on my feelings on Santa Claus as a young child, they had more to do with belief-in-belief than with an "actual" belief in an "actual" Santa. It was religious faith as I understand it; I wanted, vaguely, to be the sort of kid who believed in Santa Claus; I looked for evidence that Santa Claus was real, for theories of how he could be real even if magic wasn't. So the lesson it taught me when I stopped believing in the whole thing was more of an insight about what it was like inside religious people's heads.
3jmh
You might like watching The Hog Father -- a twisted (sort of) remake of the Santa story. The punchline (as I recall) was basically how can we expect anyone to believe the big lies (morality, justice, truths?) if the small ones are not learned.
The whole Santa Claus business is either a good idea or a bad idea. If it's a good idea, it could be taken further and further until it starts being a bad idea to go any farther than that!
I often wonder what effect the idea of Santa Claus has on children's cognitive development. We have created a vast conspiracy to deceive young children, spanning every possible layer of authority: your parents are in on it, your teachers are in on it, mass media and corporations are in on it, even the government is in on it. All working together to support the idea that a man from the North Pole is going to fly around the world and bring you presents.
As a child gets older, maybe pieces of the story start to not make sense. The child expresses a little doub... (read more)
The whole Santa Claus business is either a good idea or a bad idea. If it's a good idea, it could be taken further and further until it starts being a bad idea to go any farther than that!