Santa Claus: Naughty or Nice?

This year, Mikio plans to write a letter to Santa Claus, as he's done since he can remember, and leave his North Pole visitor some milk and cookies.

"He's a man with a white beard who delivers presents and flies with reindeer," says the 8-year-old. "I think he's a cool guy."

Mikio is one of millions of children who eagerly anticipate the jolly old soul's magical trip around the world. Every December, kids hear the story of a red-clad, robust man who enters homes through chimneys and doles out gifts to well-behaved youngsters.

No doubt the tale has generated excitement in many households. A brief review of comments from some online message boards, however, reveals that the Santa notion also elicits its share of cringes:

• "I will never teach my children about the myth of Santa, because he is not the reason we celebrate Christmas."
  
  
• "You teach your kids not to lie and yet we lie to them right away about Santa and the Easter Bunny."
  
  
• "The truth is some kids get nothing for Christmas, because there really is no Santa and some parents cannot scrape up the extra dough. The child that gets told Santa loves and gives to everybody will wonder what is wrong with them."
  
  
• "Why would anyone want to make the nice gesture of buying and wrapping the perfect gift, only to give the credit to a fictional character?"

Roberto, a San Francisco Bay-area father, says family and friends have already told his 2-year-old daughter about Santa Claus. Yet he does not plan to further promote the story because the consumerism produced by the holidays bothers him.

"When Christmas or Fourth of July comes around, these figures symbolize that holiday, but they also propagate sales," he says. "To have Abraham Lincoln be responsible for a President's Day sale is ludicrous."

The 32-year-old father says he won't stop his daughter from believing in Santa Claus if she chooses to, but he wants her to know that holidays can be engineered to encourage spending. Instead of focusing on Santa Claus during the holidays, he says he will encourage his daughter to cherish family time.

Any thought of hooking Santa Claus away from the holiday stage is enough to make some parents roll their eyes or throw up their hands in outrage.

"Why on earth are we in such a hurry to take away the innocence and magic that exists in childhood?" says one parent in an online message board.

"Let children be children for as long as possible!" says another parent.

Like-minded mothers and fathers say they would never deny their kids the joy brought on by belief in Kris Kringle. There are those who declare that Christmas wouldn't be the same without good ole St. Nick.

Who's right and who's wrong? Could the Santa Claus tale actually hurt kids? Or is it harmless fun? WebMD placed Santa on the naughty or nice checklist and asked child psychology and development experts what they thought about the twinkle-eyed gent.