Santa Claus, Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas. Regardless of the name by which they call him, that character, as well as the Magi have a mission: to come to homes every year to give illusions and magic to all the children in the world. And as every year, the same question reappears: is there a definite age at which children stop believing?
According to a study that is being conducted by the University of Exeter, most children stop believing in Santa Claus at age eight. We share the key points of this research.
The study
Titled "The Santa Claus Exeter Survey" (The Exeter Santa Survey), this is the first international academic research conducted on the belief in Santa Claus and all the history that surrounds him. Through a press release published on the website of the University of Exeter, Professor in Psychology Chris Boyle comments on this study, which is still in progress.
The objective of this project is to gain a better understanding about the different beliefs that Santa Claus and Christmas have, and to understand how children feel when they find out that it is not real. Until now, The survey has been answered by 1,200 people from all over the world and is delivering some interesting results.
For example, him 34% of participants stated that they still wish they could believe in Santa Claus, while 50% of them feel satisfied that they no longer believe in him. About 34% say that believing in Santa Claus as children helped improve their behavior, while 47% do not consider it that way.
An interesting discovery is that 65% of the participants confessed to having continued the game and the illusion of Santa Claus when they were children, even though they had already discovered that it was not real. Based on the results of the survey, most participants stopped believing in Santa Claus at 8 years old, and in most cases it was by coincidence, as carelessness of their parents.
In Babies and more, is there an age at which children should stop believing in Santa Claus or the Magi?A third of the participants said that he felt upset when he discovered that Santa was not real, while 15% felt betrayed by their parents and 10% were angry. But nevertheless, 56% of them said that their confidence in adults was not affected when they discovered that everything was a fantasy.
Among the respondents are many parents, who they answer how they handled the Santa Claus affair with their children. 31% of them revealed that when their children asked them directly if Santa was real, they answered yes, while 40% told them the truth.
The 72% of parents feel happy to tell their children about Santa Claus and to continue with that myth, while the remaining participants have chosen not to do so.
At the moment most of the participants belong to Scotland and England, and in both countries they handle very different positions about Santa Claus. In Scotland, there are more people who think it is okay to lie to children about Santa Claus, while in England they do not agree with it.
Why do they stop believing
As I said, children stop believing in most cases due to small mistakes by parents that show that they were who were behind Santa Claus.
"It has been fascinating to hear why they began to believe that Santa is not real. The main cause is accidental or deliberate actions of the parents, but some children begin to join the pieces as they mature"says Professor Boyle.
For example, one of the participants tells that he discovered his parents eating and drinking what he had left for Santa Claus at age 10. Another account that at age 11 he was awakened by the noise of gifts that his father dropped, who had been drinking during Christmas dinner.
In other cases, they were small basic mistakes parents made, such as finding the price tag on gifts or realizing that the writing on Santa's letters was the same as his parents.
In Babies and more How and when to tell the children the truth about Santa Claus and the MagiBut in addition to the parents, there were others accidental reasons why they stopped believing, how to realize that Santa Claus was someone they knew and had dressed up, or teachers who revealed to their seven-year-old students that nobody lives in the North Pole.
In other cases, participants report that they discovered the truth as they grew, because they realized that the story of Santa Claus was not very logical and that it was impossible for a single person to travel around the world in one night: "I had learned enough about math, physics, travel and the number of children on the planet compared to the size of the sled to discover for myself."comments one of the participants.
At what age did you stop believing?
If you are interested in sharing your experience or that you have lived with your children, you can participate in the Exeter University survey, which is available in several languages, including Spanish and which you can access here. The final results on the Santa Claus survey will be published in 2019.
