Father Christmas, Pere Noel, Sinterclaus, La Befana, Joulupukkiy, and Dun Che Lao Ren. This one person keeps many kids’ imagination and helps them develop their emotional and psychological capacities. Children have an amazing imagination that parents have helped keep alive with the different traditions that they celebrate each holiday season. The one celebrated the most would be the myth of Santa Claus.

This magical person named Santa Claus has many different beginnings depending on who you ask, but one of the stories can be traced to a monk named St. Nicholas from hundreds of years ago. He was someone who was admired because of his piety and kindness, which made him a legend. St. Nicholas took action and helped many people with his wealth, including three sisters that he saved from prostitution. Due to his actions, he became a protector of children and sailors who had a feast day on his death day.

It was not included in American culture until Dutch families who were celebrating his death day were reported by newspapers. The name used in today’s society was taken from the Dutch as well. It turned from Sinterklaas to Santa Claus, and Saint Nicholas was first Sint Nikolaas

Many argue whether it is a good thing to start this tradition within their families for many different reasons that are valid. Those who don’t want to celebrate this holiday believe that it is unethical to lie to their own children, and they don’t believe this myth shares unconditional love with their children. Their dislike of this Christmas tradition is reasonable, as song lyrics even suggest that they have to be good or Santa won’t bring them any gifts. Other parents would disagree with this statement and believe that starting this tradition actually has many benefits, including cognitive benefits and even helps their imagination.

There are many positive and negative impacts when enforcing this tradition in your family. An article in collingwoodtoday named “Believing in Santa helps children develop creativity, imagination, and play” mentions that celebrating this holiday has positives that are very important.

“Imagination and play encourage children to think through hypothetical situations and create new worlds — and even to develop new possibilities for our shared world,” they said.

Junior Jamie Gallegos, a teen in today’s society, participated in this holiday tradition and believes that believing for too long is not a good thing. She believes that they should learn pretty early on that this magical person is not real.

“I think that if someone believes for too long that they would turn out to be gullible people. Kids should know before they go to middle school as they can also get bullied for still believing in Santa Claus,” Gallegos said.

While some people have those holiday traditions within their family, others did not hear about the man with flying reindeer giving presents.

Although some did not believe in Santa Claus, they also have opinions about this myth that has been going on for so long.

Junior Nhu Lam believes that this holiday does more bad than good if it is celebrated or if families keep it going for too long.

“I believe this holiday does more bad than good as some would definitely have trust issues going on because they would feel like they have been lied to the entire time,” Lam said.

Believing in Santa Claus as you grow up can help one preserve traits like empathy and imagination, but it can also lead to disappointment when you find out the truth.

Many families include this tradition in their holiday season for different reasons and many don’t. At the end of the day, they all are doing what is best for them and their family.