While everyone is different, according to a recent poll by House Method, the average age kids in the United States stop believing in Santa Claus is 8.5 years. So, chances are good that somewhere around then is the right age for your child to learn the true story about Santa Claus.
"It's not an overnight shift in thinking," says Laura Lamminen, Ph. D., a pediatric psychologist at Children's Health℠, "and there's no set age where children should know the truth about Santa Claus." Dr. Lamminen says each family and each child within that family will be ready to talk about Santa at different ages.
Nick is fictional. About 40 percent of the parents polled by the site said the right age to break the news about Santa to children is between the ages of 8 and 12, while one in 10 adults feel you can put off that disclosure until after kids turn 12.
Research suggests it's bad practice to lie to children. Dr Justin Coulson, one of Australia's leading parenting experts, – "If you want to do Santa that's fine, but let the kids know Santa was based on a historical figure who may or may not have done the things that we think he did".
"There is no such thing as being too old to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy," Kelman tells Yahoo Life. "Letting kids figure it out on their own is preferable to parents breaking the news to them.
Half (49%) of Americans say they stopped believing in Santa before the age of 10 – with a quarter (23%) reporting that they lost sight of him between the ages of seven (10%) and eight (13%).
Some tweens hold onto their childhood beliefs for as long as they possibly can. The truth is that if your children are asking questions like "Is Santa real?", they probably already know the truth or have an idea about the reality of the tradition. They may just be looking for validation from you.
If you're wondering if your kids are still expecting Santa to bring their presents this year, most have stopped believing in Old St Nick by the age of eight, according to the first international academic "Santa survey," while many parents wished that they still believed in Father Christmas even as adults.
Instead, the average age that children stop believing in Santa is eight years old, according to an international academic survey. Woah. This varies slightly between countries in the UK, with kids in England believing in Santa until they're 8.03 years, and kids in Scotland believing until 8.58 years.
Santa is real in the sense that he was an actual person. Otherwise known as Saint Nicholas, his story goes all the way back to the 3rd century. He was a monk who was born in 280 A.D. in modern-day Turkey. As an only child, he was given great affection by his parents.
A study from 1978 found that about 85 percent of young American kids believe in Santa, and researchers today confirm those numbers still hold true, with many kids believing until about age eight.
Say something like this, “The Santa that you see in books, movies, and in stores is a person in a costume. People dress up in Santa costumes to remind us… …of someone who lived a long, long time ago called St. Nicholas who secretly gave money to people who needed it.”
By age eight, kids begin to acknowledge the unlikeliness of one man travelling the world in a single night. The good news? If you started the tradition of Elf on the Shelf in your household, you can likely send the elf into early retirement around your child's eighth Christmas.
8.4 years is the average age when kids do stop believing in Santa . Interestingly (and perhaps sadly) Australian kids are discovering Santa no longer exists much earlier - around just 6.5 years of age.
While there is no perfect age to have this conversation, it is generally best to wait for your child to ask you first. Often, parents start noticing their children becoming skeptical around eight years old, but this can vary.
We asked over 1,000 MFM mums and discovered that the average age at which your little ones grow out of the Santa story is eight and a half. By the age of nine, 62% of children no longer believe and by ten, when they're in the last stages of primary school, more than 4 in 5 children know the truth.
Because Santa is synonymous with childhood, the belief in him must go away at one point or another if we want our kids to grow up. There's no specific age, necessarily. No edict that at exactly 11 3/4, a child will cease to believe.
There isn't a right or wrong age to tell kids the truth
So don't be surprised if your child starts asking questions. You might not get a direct question like, "Is Santa real?" But you may get questions like, "How do reindeer fly?" or "How does Santa make it all around the world in one night?"
The Age Most Kids Figure It Out
According to psychologists, believing in Santa can be beneficial to children because it teaches selflessness and service to others.
In interviews, 85 percent of 4-year-olds said that they believed in Santa, 65 percent of 6-year-olds said that they believed, and 25 percent of 8-year-olds said that they believed. Those numbers were published in a small study in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry in 1978.
Santa advises that no family member touch their Elf on the Shelf, but he does describe a few rare instances when an adult may use tongs or potholders to help an elf in an urgent situation. Parents: read on to learn about special, few and far between cases where emergency help will be required.
Bad Santa is rated R by the MPAA for pervasive language, strong sexual content and some violence. Violence: - Infrequent gun and automobile violence, with some blood.
Because the Elf on the Shelf “moves” each night, belief can sometimes be suspended into thinking that it is real. And for all intents and purposes, the Elf on the Shelf is real. It's a real doll, after all.