Growing up, we all had one thing in common: believing in Santa Claus. Everyone as a child is told of the great legend, Santa.

“Be a good kid, or Santa will drop coal in your stockings.” This is a universal threat that everyone can relate to hearing. 

Every year, parents are using Santa Claus as motivation to make their kids behave. The story goes, “if you are misbehaving all year, you’ll find yourself on the naughty list and will receive nothing from Santa except underwhelming lumps of coal. On the other hand, if you’re on the nice list, you get all the presents and gifts you want, and will not catch a glimpse of coal.”

Gullible children will always believe in him and it’s what keeps the Christmas spirit flourishing. 

As much as kids believe in him however, with social media popularity increasing over time, many kids use it to their advantage. 

We all know there are countless movies, shows, books, etc. about kids meeting Santa, and in some cases even “catching” him. 

These all give young children ideas of their own. A lot of them are obsessed with this idea of doing anything they can to capture him.

I know I did! We can all remember trying your hardest to stay awake for his arrival. Hoping you get lucky and are able to go out to take a peek of him. Some kids however want to accomplish more than just a peek. A big social media influence on this topic is YouTube. YouTube has countless videos published on “Santa Claus Caught On Camera”, “How To Catch Santa”, and more. Of course curious children who have unlimited access to the internet are going to study it. This however can take the fun away from their Christmas experiences.

With all these kids desperate to catch Santa, it’s just going to lead to their disappointment. If your kid is strong enough to stay up all night and go through with the steps into catching him, boy do you have a problem.

The fact that there are so many of these videos online encouraging kids to try and catch Santa is sad. All it’s doing is setting your kids up to see that there really is no such thing as him. 

There is yet another reason as to why giving your young children access to everything on the internet without limits can backfire.

We want kids to believe in Santa as long as they can. That’s what makes the Holidays so fun for them. Let them enjoy it while they can.

While being a kid and wanting to stay up all night for Santa is fun, it should never be more than that. Kids shouldn’t be encouraged to put flour all over their floors to see footprints, set up crazy traps in their chimneys, or put cameras all over the house.

Let kids enjoy being kids while they are still able to. Sure, catching Santa sounds fun, but it shouldn’t be encouraged.