Santa Clause, Easter Bunny and other Fairy Tales...

I checked your archives and did not find this subject. My daughter is 6 and as we head into the Christmas season, I am anticipating getting the question about whether or not there "really is" a Santa Clause.  We have entertained the myths in innocent fun but I am wondering now how to handle it when she asks. We do the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy as well.  Please post any suggestion you or your readers may have. Thank you.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Ms. Newman,

I hope readers of the Forum weigh in on this, because you'll certainly encounter a range of opinions on this matter, much as you will about many aspects of parenting.

My inclination is to allow children to solve this question on their own, in their own time. They should be permitted to enjoy the benefits of belief in Santa, Easter Bunny, etc. as long as they need to, without parents intruding in this pleasure. Some parents ask me if the child's trust in them and their credibility will suffer if they promote such beliefs, but in thirty years of clinical practice I have never seen an instance when a child expressed such lack of trust in a parent for this reason.

[[e-mail]]

I found this online - I plan to use this:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon



Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the scepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus?Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

[Angela Brown [e-mail]]

I am doing a research project on the effects of childhood myths like Santa Clause and tHe Easter Bunny on children and wondered if you could recommend some resources to help me find information.

Thank you