Christmas time has rolled around once again!
We at Wicked Uncle know how important this season is to some folk, but it does seem tied to an important thing – belief. So, does Father Christmas (aka “Santa”, aka “The Fat Man”, aka “Kris Kringle” as well as other pseudonyms) exist? Of course he does! We here at Wicked Uncle employ many of his elves (off-season of course) and knowing as we do that Father Christmas does indeed exist (because we’ve met him), we thought we would investigate how many people still believe in him. Since we know for a fact he exists, we didn’t survey anyone here at Wicked Uncle HQ but instead went further afield to see how the spirit of Christmas and the belief in Father Christmas was doing.
As we prepare for family gatherings and a grand feast, little ones have something completely different on their minds – gifts! That’s right, for children, Christmas is largely focused on an excuse to be bombarded with new toys and gifts from family, friends and ‘Father Christmas’, but do they know Father Christmas is actually stealing most of the credit for their parents’ hard work?
The phenomenon of Father Christmas is magical at a young age and can make Christmas time a little bit more special. Whilst some of us don’t remember the age our children stopped believing, reality soon sets in when you have to do the buying yourself!
One thing is for sure, parents will be unable to escape the gift-buying either way, but from what age do their children start giving their parents recognition for these purchases?
We at Wicked Uncle decided to explore this further. To do this, we surveyed 1000 UK parents with children aged 3-17. We quizzed them on their children’s belief in Father Christmas and investigated the age children stop believing and the potential reasons behind this.
Our survey has revealed the average age that the festive magic wears off; we also asked parents how old they were when they first thought Father Christmas was make-believe, for comparison.
Methodology
We commissioned a OnePoll survey of 1,000 UK parents with children aged between 3-17, questioning them on their children’s belief in Father Christmas.
The survey was carried out between the 10th – 14th of November 2022.
The number of children who believe in Father Christmas
Father Christmas has become synonymous with the festive period. Dating back historically to Saint Nicholas of Myra, the iconic figure can be seen in advertisements, movies, and even our favourite Christmas songs.
These days, it’s the parents who are the real saints, providing presents and allowing their children to live out the magical fantasy of Father Christmas’ existence. Traditions such as leaving snacks out for Rudolph only fuel the fantasy and can convince even the most sceptical of kids that Father Christmas is real!
So, how many children still believe in the man himself? Well out of the 1000 UK parents surveyed, it was an even split – with 42% of children still believing whilst 42% do not, the remainder of parents were unsure about their child’s belief.
Analysing age demographics, more specifically by age of the eldest child, 71% of parents whose eldest child was 5 years of age responded that they no longer believe in Father Christmas, a surprisingly high portion for such a young age.
The highest percentage of parents with children who believe in Father Christmas are aged 3 (82%) and aged 4 (88%). As you’d expect, the percentage gets lower as the age range increases and kids become ‘too cool’ for Father Christmas!
Of those who responded that they were unsure, it tended to be parents of older children with the largest proportion of responses being for parents of children aged 11 (30%), 13 (32%) and 14 (31%).
Regionally, 62% of children from London still believe that Father Christmas is real, whilst up in Scotland, it’s the opposite – 64% responded that their children no longer believe, no-nonsense will be taken from the Scots.
For comparison, we also asked the parents surveyed how old they were when they first thought that Father Christmas was make-believe. Interestingly, a whopping 13% stated that they have never believed in Father Christmas!
Overall, 29% of parents shared that they believed until between the ages of 7-9. The average age for parents surveyed was 9.1, a figure that would feel extremely high today with the evolution of smartphones and social media.
Additionally, 21% were even older, aged 10-12. On the other hand, only 14% of parents surveyed were 4-6 years old when they stopped believing in Father Christmas.
Regionally, parents from Scotland were most likely to be aged 7-9 when they stopped believing, 40% from this region responded with this age range. Elsewhere, 30% of East Midlanders were aged 4-6, proving much more adept at spotting the deception than the average age around the UK.
Why do children stop believing
Nowadays, children are blessed with easy access to information, thanks to smartphones and social media, it only takes one Google search for the festive ruse to be uncovered.
There is a multitude of reasons why a child might stop believing in Father Christmas from any age, the survey quizzed parents to discover the ways their children stopped believing and the responses were:
It’s interesting to see schoolmates and friends were at fault for a quarter of children ending their belief in Father Christmas. No matter how hard parents work hard to maintain the fantasy, sometimes all it takes is for another child to find out before yours.
Elsewhere, parents also quoted social media as a factor influencing their children’s belief in Father Christmas. Facebook (17%), Instagram (13%), TikTok (12%) and YouTube (12%) all proved a major factor in uncovering the mystery, Google searches were also a way children found out with 13% of parents claiming this.
A total of 19% stated that they told their child when the time was right, of this 19%, 28% had a child of 11 years whilst 26% had a 13-year-old child.
Rather amusingly, 14% of parents were forced to come out with the truth after their children caught them in the act – preparing gifts under the tree. Regionally, 29% of West Midlanders surveyed stated this, it’s safe to say that the parents in this area need to up their sneaking game!
In London, 31% of children had their festive fantasy spoiled by schoolmates or friends while an additional 29% had it spoiled by their siblings. It seems you can’t trust anyone in the capital!
Could our children be pretending to believe Father Christmas is real?
One thing we might not have considered this entire time, could our children have been deceiving us when it comes to believing in Father Christmas?
When a child reaches a certain age, the help of social media and schoolmates or friends could see their belief in Father Christmas vanish. Instead, could these children be tricking their parents into keeping up the facade? Our survey investigated this.
When analysing the pretenders – (and no, I don’t mean the band!) – we asked parents if they believed their children were merely pretending to believe in Father Christmas for the potential for extra gifts, the results will surprise you!
The survey revealed a whopping 56% of parents believe their child pretends to believe for better presents. Looking at data by the age of the eldest child, 72% of parents with the eldest child aged 7 fell into this category. Similarly, 73% of parents with their eldest aged 12 believe their child is merely pretending.
It was quite fascinating to see only 5% of parents respond that their child doesn’t get extra presents from Father Christmas anyway, this highlights the incentive for children to pretend as seemingly 95% of parents surveyed will give extra gifts so long as their child believes.
Regionally, the East Midlanders were by far the biggest pretenders, with 79% of parents in this area suspecting their child of faking their belief in Father Christmas. Elsewhere, 63% of the North East were the opposite and found no reason to believe their child was misleading them.
Now that we’ve looked at the children pretending, our survey lastly quizzed parents on some of the ways they have pretended to be Father Christmas in order to maintain their children’s belief.
From leaving tasty treats out to helping write the all-important letter to Father Christmas, parents try to enhance their children’s Christmas experience in a number of ways. The survey revealed the ways parents pretend to be Father Christmas:
The top three responses are the go-to ways parents pretend to be Father Christmas, the looks on the children’s faces the next day, when they discover the cookies and milk have been devoured, are worth the hassle alone.
We found it interesting to see only 29% of parents use a Father Christmas tracker online, these platforms have grown in popularity over the past few years and now have their own app that does the rounds every December!
Of the respondents, 17% are unwilling to pretend to be Father Christmas to keep the magic alive. Whilst it doesn’t take much to make it look like the snacks have been devoured on Christmas Eve, we appreciate that this can be an extremely busy time for some parents.
Interestingly, regional data showed 31% of Scotland similarly refuses to pretend to be Father Christmas during the festive season.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we found our investigation into the number of children who still believe in Father Christmas yielded some interesting statistics. Almost 20% of parents decide when to call a halt on their children’s festive beliefs.
The discovery that children could be misleading their parents in the hopes of getting better presents proved fascinating, particularly when we found out that only 5% of parents stated their children do not get extra gifts, highlighting that pretending to believe is scoring them more presents come Christmas Day.
When analysing the reasons why children stop believing in Father Christmas, we found it slightly unfair to find 13% of children had their fantasy ruined by a family member outside of the immediate family.
In total, that means one-third of children have the magic of Christmas ruined forever by family, the magic is such a vital part of festive celebrations for young ones which can be easily ruined by adult family members.
Additionally, it was intriguing to see the effect social media has nowadays on children, with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube all featuring as reasons behind the loss of belief.
Overall, over half of the children have had their faith in Father Christmas diminished as a result of social media, this data indicates a negative impact of social media on the younger generation as they are robbed of their festive belief.
Lastly, we also found the statistics surrounding parents not pretending to be Father Christmas quite high (17%), this includes actions such as eating the tasty treats left out on Christmas Eve and simulating footsteps to fully immerse their children.
The number of parents pretending to be Father Christmas was even less in Scotland where 31% stated that this is not something they do each festive season.
