Christmas Edition: Red-Pilled about Santa

The phrase ‘to be red-pilled’ from the movie The Matrix originally meant to wake up from a fake environment and see the world as it is. It is ironic that in our post-truth world, the phrase has completely reversed its meaning because nowadays it is almost exclusively used by conspiracy theorists. Today, to be red-pilled typically means to be a person who has left reality behind and moved into a fantasy world of conspiracies and evil elites manipulating everyone.

But if you are Christian, or grew up Christian, you have indeed been red-pilled in the original sense of the phrase at some point in your life.

Many of us will be looking forward to Christmas. Children are eagerly expecting the arrival of Santa Claus (or Father Christmas, if you are British) and the presents he brings. As grown-ups, we know Santa does not exist (sorry to break the news if you are an adult who still believes in Santa Claus), while children do live in this fantasy world where Santa is a real person. So, when exactly do we take the red pill and stop believing in Santa Claus?

A team from the University of Texas in Dallas and George Mason University ran two surveys asking 48 children between the ages of 6 and 15 and 2,383 adults when and how they discovered that Santa wasn’t real.

For one, there is remarkable agreement about the typical age when a child discovers that Santa isn’t real. At about eight years as told both by children as well as remembered by adults. But unlike in The Matrix, children are not suddenly realising that Santa is not real. Only one in five children report that they had a sudden epiphany, while half report that it was a process that made them realise the nature of Santa over time.

How do children find out about Santa based on surveys of children's and adults’ recollection?

Source: Mills et al. (2023)

The typical way children find out about Santa isn’t through logical reasoning. Rather, the most common way is through overhearing siblings or schoolmates talk about Santa. Or they ask their parents point blank if Santa is real and observe the tortured responses and draw their own conclusions. Another common way is to observe events that cast doubt on Santa’s existence, such as finding the wrapping paper of Santa’s gifts in their parents’ drawers, or the famous ‘I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus’ story.

But even though, the initial reaction to finding out the truth about Santa comes with feelings of sadness or anger, these emotions soon are superseded by joy that they still get presents. And the vast majority of adults still teach their children the myth of Santa Claus even if they recall feelings of sadness and anger when they got red-pilled.

So, if you have young children, look forward to Christmas and enjoy it while they don’t know the truth about Santa. And don’t worry about them being red-pilled. They will do fine. We all did, and we all still love Santa. None of us loves Christmas any less because we one day found out Santa wasn’t real.

Whether you believe in Santa or not. Whether you have children or not. I wish you a merry Christmas. And whether you are celebrating Christmas or not, I wish you a Happy New Year. I will be back in January with more daily missives.