Most of us can remember hearing our parents threaten us with calls to Santa or the simple, “Santa knows if you’ve been good or bad”, which was usually enough of a warning to scare us into being good, at least temporarily.
While as a child, had we known what we know now, this treatment may have been recognized as cruel or manipulative, as an adult we fully understand why our parents used this tactic – the simple truth is that it works. And when a parent finds a fail-proof way to get his/her child to demonstrate the deserved behaviors we latch on to it. In fact, many of us would like to find other ways to use the same sort of method year round.
This method puts the dirty work on someone else – but what child could ever think badly of Santa Claus? After all, he is the ultimate when it comes to giving and caring for other people. Obviously displeasing him is our fault – not his.
These Naughty and Nice Lists are often the core reason that many children want so desperately to write Letters to Santa. They want and need the assurance that they are on his Nice List. While the Santa Letters may not always directly ask Santa which list the child is on, most children know that a response from Santa means that they are in fact, on his Nice List.
The simple fact that a child receives a letter from Santa indicates that he is willing to take the time to talk with the child. In a child’s mind, misbehavior can result in a less caring relationship which would possibly mean that in this case, if the child was on the Naughty List, Santa wouldn’t care and would not write back. When children get a Christmas letter from the North Pole they know they have been forgiven for any misdeeds and that Santa still loves them – but more importantly, they know they are on Santa’s Nice List!
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