Why Children Believe in Christ Child – and Parents Lie to Them

Parents do everything they can to convince their children of the existence of Sinterklaas or the Christ Child. Successfully up to a certain age. A researcher investigated this phenomenon.

Psychologist Rohan Kapitany, who conducts research at Keele University in the northern English city of Newcastle, has focused on why children believe in the Christ Child. According to him, several factors play a major role in the belief in the Christ Child and similar figures: First, children depend heavily on their parents to understand the world around them.

“We forget that it is psychologically challenging to be a child because there are many experiences that they go through for the first time,” he says in an interview with the German news agency. In terms of evolutionary biology, it makes perfect sense to rely on the experiences of parents and other people close to them. After all, they would have proved relatively successful by coming of age.

However, Kapitany mainly emphasizes that it is the great effort that the parents put into the Christmas ritual that makes the story seem credible. “What makes Christmas and Santa Claus or the Christ Child so compelling are all the rituals and behaviors,” says the Australian-born researcher.

Think of setting up the Christmas tree, under which Santa Claus or the Christ Child then puts the presents or socks that some families hang on the chimney. “If Santa Claus didn’t exist, why should we?” Captain said.

Some parents feel guilty at the thought of fooling their children like that. But they’re not the only ones lying about Santa’s ritual. According to Kapitany, there’s research showing that kids are pretty good at convincing their parents that they still believe in Santa Claus when they don’t.

On average, children between the ages of seven and seven and a half lose faith in Santa Claus. But the prospect of not receiving any more gifts initially deters some people from telling their parents the truth.

In general, the moment when faith in the magic of Christmas is lost doesn’t have to be traumatic or hurtful to children, Kapitany says. “Studies show that parents are usually sadder and more disappointed than children, because it represents a transition in the child’s life,” says the scientist. (aeg/sda/dpa)