Almost every toddler spends the year behaving well for Santa Claus to bring gifts, writing wish lists and setting out cookies and milk on Christmas Eve for the big man in the red suit. For those toddlers almost nothing is more traumatic than taking that magic out of the holiday season.
The question is how to not traumatize kids when telling them the truth about Santa. The easy answer: there is no way to not upset them. Many people have a horror story of how they found out about Santa Claus.
“I found out when I was in 5th grade riding the bus home from school,” senior Shelby Daniels said. “I wasn’t upset about it but I was genuinely surprised. I went home and told my mom and she was upset that someone had told me the truth.”
Perhaps finding out the truth in fifth grade is a bit too late. For some parents it becomes a struggle to keep this magic alive for their children, wondering what age is acceptable or opportune to break the truth to them. However, when the child is old enough their peers and surroundings will suck the joy out of the holiday versus the parents having to claim that burden.
“There’s so much reality in this life, that one of the delights of childhood, and of being a parent, is to spread a little fairy dust occasionally,” Slate columnist Emily Yoffe said.
On the other hand, some parents break the truth to their children very young. According to researcher Jacqueline Woolley, 74 percent of children at the age of three, believe in Santa Claus. The same study also shows that 85 percent of five year olds believe and 33 percent of nine year olds are still holding onto that fantasy.
While the age of three is too young and nine is considered too old, “it also depends on how hard parents try to maintain the Santa illusion,” according to Woolley.
As long as children are not writing letters to Santa when you send them off to college, it will not do any harm to keep them believing a little while longer and keep that magic alive.