Ho! Ho! Who? Parent promotion of belief in and live encounters with Santa Claus

There is a long enduring lay notion that children must be taught the difference between fiction and reality. Yet, cultural fictional characters such as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are widely promoted as real. With Santa Claus, children are faced with an additional conundrum: multiple live versions of Santa Claus seen at malls, museums and parades. In two studies we investigate how and when children come to understand this live version of a fictional, magical character. In both studies, we find parents are highly promoting of the live Santa as real, regardless of child age. In Study 1, we find the more live Santas children are exposed to, the more they believe a live Santa is the real Santa. In Study 2, we find the more parents promote Santa Claus, the less likely children are to question who live Santa is. Taken together, findings indicate parental promotion of Santa does not change much with age, and that amount of Santa promotion is negatively associated with understanding this live version of a fictional character.