Cailey Saenz seems to be thinking about what else she wants Santa Claus to bring her for Christmas. Cailey, was among the many children who sat on Santa’s lap and took pictures with him at the King Ranch employee party Dec. 5. (Photo by Gloria Bigger-Cantu). At that special time of year, on that special night, when it’s cocoa and warm blanket time, what is that jingling we hear? Is it the wind chimes we forgot to take down before winter came? No! Then what is it? Any 5-year-old will have the answer, and in a breathless voice will say, “It’s Santa.”

But who and what is Santa? Does reality have anything to do with it? When is it time for parents to ‘fess up about Santa?

“That depends upon the age of the child,” said developmental psychologist Cyndy Scheibe at Ithaca College. Scheibe has been studying children’s beliefs about Santa Claus since the 1980s, and in the process has interviewed hundreds of children ages 5 to 12.

“In our research, we found that for Santa Claus, if someone tells them the truth, children don’t change their belief overnight. Instead, it is a much longer transition,” Scheibe said. “From a child’s perspective, there is a lot of evidence that he’s real, not least of which is that he brings you presents, you can see him on the street, and in most movies the answer is that Santa is real.”

“The transition to disbeliever usually begins around age 6 or 7, taking about two to three years. From a developmental psychology standpoint that makes a lot of sense. That’s when children are moving from preoperational to concrete operational thinking, and that means they’re looking for solid evidence, and magic is no longer a reason to believe how something works. A child in the concrete operational stage will begin to ask questions like, ‘How does Santa fit down the chimney? How does he get to all those houses in one night?’”

Scheibe advises parents that when children ask about Santa for the first time, no matter what their age, the important thing is to ask back, What do you think? Why do you ask that?

“When children first ask, they aren’t really looking for the right answer,” she said. “They’re just trying to make sense of the fact that there’s a lot of ambiguous information out there.

“If a child is really demanding to know the truth and he or she says, ‘Come on, tell me the truth. I think Santa isn’t real,’ and the child has good evidence for changing his or her beliefs, then I think it is fine to talk to them about the truth. The advice I usually give is to always treat the Santa Claus story as part of a larger conversation about the magic and wonder of Christmas, and how it is about people giving things to each other as well as getting things and it is about making it a special time when special things happen.

“Then, explain to a child that there have been people -- like St. Nicholas -- who did caring and loving things, giving gifts to people who were lonely or needed them. Parents and other grownups continue this by playing Santa Claus for their own children and for each other -- which makes the whole season and holiday more magical and wonderful, especially for little children. And now that they know the real secret of Santa Claus, they can join in with all of the other grown-ups and continue this tradition to make it wonderful and magical for others.

“In truth, we ALL get something out of believing in Santa Claus.”

(c) 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.