Simply believing in Santa Claus doesn’t make toddlers any wiser, a British study suggests.
- Belief in Santa Claus alone does not encourage children to behave well during the holiday season.
- However, enjoying rituals and wider festive traditions, like putting up decorations or wearing Christmas jumpers, has been found to make a difference between well-behaved toddlers and rambunctious ones.
- “Children are perceptive in recognizing plausible claims and, like adults, they will look for symbolic behaviors and rituals as evidence,” according to the authors.
Children are told that Santa Claus is a real agent who can watch over them. From these observations, he can reward those who have been good and decide not to give gifts to agitated, “capricious” or even disobedient toddlers. In a recent study, researchers from the University of Durham (England) wanted to determine what factors influence whether belief in Santa Claus or other traditions associated with Christmas would influence the behavior and moral development of young people.
More than 400 families answered questions about children’s behavior in the run-up to Christmas
To carry out the work, available on the OSF pre-publication platformthe team surveyed more than 400 families about the end-of-year holidays, including Christmas, spent in 2019, 2021 and 2022. Families reported on the behavior of their child, aged 4 to 9, during of the six weeks before Christmas and the week of Christmas, as well as details of the activities they had carried out. “We built and refined a parental report tool on children’s daily behaviors that broadly covers positive/prosocial behaviors and negative/antisocial behaviors,” can we read in the research. Potential predictors of behavioral improvements were excluded, including parental mood, whether parents explicitly reminded their children about Santa, the amount of free time and family time a child had during the Christmas period, and various religious aspects.
Christmas: rituals associated with a belief, a fundamental motivation to behave better
According to the results, a child’s belief alone is not enough to lead to positive behaviors. On the other hand, broader festive rituals and traditions, such as putting up decorations, eating festive foods and wearing Christmas sweaters, watching Christmas movies or singing carols Christmas had a certain impact on the behavior of children, who were wiser and acted better. “This work helps show how children understand the reality of the world. While adults may think that children are relatively gullible and believe what they are told, the reality is more complex. Children are perceptive in recognizing statements plausible and, like adults, they will look for symbolic behaviors and rituals as evidence.said the authors.
Thus, scientists conclude that to help your child be kind and wise, it is appropriate to introduce them to and make them appreciate festive rituals and traditions rather than making them believe only in Santa Claus.
