Cupid too?

_Elsa_

Elsa can’t believe what people are posting online. She turns to Cupid to let him know that she saw something online about him.

“Hey cupid, I found something online about you,” says Elsa. “Whoever wrote that article didn’t write something positive about you. They called you a chubby child who flies around giving people crushes on one another by spearing them with arrows. Then I read what they said about leprechauns. They were calling you the cute little guys waiting for you at the end of the rainbow. They’re hopping away, shamrock-hatted, with their Lucky Charms. And Santa I read that all you want to do every minute of every day is to spy on the children to find out if they are worthy of your generosity.“

Elsa thinks that it’s now time to study the pros and cons of fantasy and imagination. 

“Here is some positive data on Santa Claus,” Elsa says.

‘The notion of a man who flies around the world in a vehicle drawn by flying hoofed mammals, entering people's homes through their chimneys and delivering presents, all within the span of a single night, is highly improbable, to say the least. Yet the Santa Claus myth is a long-standing and powerful tradition for many families, and may reinforce good values.

"I don't think it's a bad thing for kids to believe in the myth of someone trying to make people happy if they're behaving," said Dr. Matthew Lorber, a child psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "Imagination is a normal part of development, and helps develop creative minds."

The Santa myth is grounded in truth — after all, St. Nicholas was a real person. He became famous for giving gifts and money to the poor, and it's those values that are important, Lorber told LiveScience. "It's a real story, it's a real value and it's something that inspires children," he said.

Santa Claus is just one mythical figure many kids believe in, along with the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and other fairy-tale creatures. Children use their imaginations all the time, even if they know the resulting creations are fiction. When kids play cops and robbers, they know they aren't really cops or robbers, Lorber said. In fact, psychologists worry about kids who lack the ability to write or tell creative stories, he said.

Of course, many children grow up not believing in Santa, either because they don't celebrate Christmas or follow traditions of a different culture. And some families who celebrate Christmas don't raise their kids to believe in Santa, and that's healthy too, Lorber said. However, if that's the case, parents should make sure their kids know that other children believe in the story and tell them not to ruin it for others.

Santa may be a Christmas tradition. "However, the spirit of giving to poor and to the needy, and the spirit of family and being together — that is universal," Lorber said.’ (Source)

Let’s continue - Is it harming children to believe?

Start at the beginning – A story about childhood imagination and make believe