It is a month before Christmas and kids all over the world must be excited to receive gifts from Santa Claus. With fears that Santa would not know their Christmas wishes, children found a very effective way to help Santa remember- send their wishes through love letters.
Christine Corbett, Australia Post executive general manager, explained how Christmas last year was a busy time for mailmen to deliver reply notes from Santa to over 100,000 kids residing in many places around Australia. "Santa receives thousands of letters from children across Australia with requests for all sorts of Christmas gifts including the latest toys and games. With so many good boys and girls this year, Australia Post is expecting to send even more letters to the North Pole," Corbett said.
Other than snail mail, kids everywhere may also reach Santa through websites or send their mails online. Some sites inviting children to write Santa Claus a letter are aletter4santa.com and emailsanta.com. These websites give kids opportunity to send their messages and Christmas list to Santa and fuel their hope as Santa write back to them.
Lying may be considered bad in all aspects but physiologists explained how making kids believe that there is an actual Santa Claus who send gifts and love to all the children across every continent in the world is beneficial to their mental health. Dr. Matthew Lorber, a child psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City stated, "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. Imagination is a normal part of development, and helps develop creative minds."
Stephanie Wagner, a clinical psychologist at the NYU Child Study Center in New York believes that children's idea of Santa Claus as a real person is also helpful in building a stronger bond among family members as parents give efforts to know and give what their kids really want for Christmas. "I don't think we could necessarily say it's a good thing, but I would certainly say it's not harmful," Wagner stated.
