Why do children believe in wizards
The world through the eyes of a child is not a set of scientifically substantiated physical phenomena. The world for a baby is magic and a fairy tale: the animals in it can speak, the sleeping princess can come to life from a kiss, good will certainly overcome evil, and Santa Claus carefully folds gifts under the Christmas tree on New Year's Eve. Why? It's all about the developed emotional perception, it is this that allows the child's fantasies to open up. Belief in a good wizard is a kind of protection for a fragile psyche from the impact of real life events on it. Have you noticed for yourself that in difficult times you so want a miracle to happen? Children who love fairy tales and live in a fictional world grow up more open and more adapted to life than those who comprehend the world from a position of logic from an early age.
Farewell to the fairy tale: when?
The later the better. Look at yourself from the outside: which of the adults does not make a wish to the sound of the chimes, does not strive to celebrate the New Year as best as possible, so that later all 12 months he will be accompanied by good luck and prosperity. So why do many parents want to debunk the myth of the good wizard as early as possible? Someone does not want to raise a child in deceit, someone wants to develop rational thinking in a child by all means, while no one thinks that childhood is given to a person in order to live in goodness. What to do if one day a son or daughter comes up to you and asks: “Does Santa Claus really exist?”
This situation is likely to occur no earlier than 6-7 years. Of course, the guys even up to this age guess that the grandfather in a red coat and with a gray beard, distributing gifts at a matinee in kindergarten, is a disguised actor. How will the good wizard manage to congratulate everyone, because he needs to save his strength for New Year's Eve! It is this explanation that children find for acting productions. But in the North, in Veliky Ustyug, the real Grandfather lives, who will certainly bring a gift under the Christmas tree, flying into the house through a chimney or window and leaving traces of his big boots. How else?!
Whoever believes in him, he will definitely come to that!
You will certainly understand when the child knows the truth. What to do: keep silent, convince or tell everything as it is? Often, children themselves come up and ask who puts gifts under the Christmas tree, while not a single child has been persistent in his convictions. In the depths of his soul, the child hopes that everything will turn out differently, as his friends at school told him, that magic does exist. Use the moment of doubt and ask: “What do you think, is it really there? Would you like it not to exist?" If a son or daughter is inclined to think that there is no Santa Claus, and this is one of the manifestations of teenage negativism, do not resist, just give the child a reason to think, saying: "Whoever believes in him, he will definitely bring gifts."
Even if the myth is debunked, you should not give up magic. Become a magician yourself and offer this role to your child. So what can be done:
- write letters. Yes, as in early childhood, wishing a good grandfather health, talking about his successes for the year, asking for a gift and thinking that only the owner of the distant Veliky Ustyug would become aware of his wishes. What is the use: only close people who know the passions and desires of their relatives will be able to put the most cherished gift under the Christmas tree. This is very close, especially if the family has a problem of relations between fathers and children;
- prepare gifts for friends. Making something with your own hands and sending a surprise to your grandparents or godfather by mail is a good tradition that a child will carry through his whole life. It is a surprise - this is what all people are waiting for on New Year's Eve;
- decorate the house. A grown-up child and the debunking of a myth is not a reason to refuse a holiday. The New Year, in fact, is interesting to people because a fairy tale lives around it. Choosing a Christmas tree, decorating a New Year's beauty with balls, preparing festive dishes, making wishes to the chiming clock - all this is the magic that we are waiting for the whole year. Get together with the whole family, make unusual decorations, decorate your home with them - this is a great way to spend interesting family leisure time. Maybe one day you will find a snow-covered trace from a staff or felt boots of Santa Claus near the Christmas tree! Whether or not a good wizard actually happens is already a mystery for you from the child himself, who decides to prepare such a surprise for his parents!
Does Santa Claus really exist: evidence and real cases of people meeting with this character, which many consider to be fiction. The mythology of Santa Claus did not arise from scratch - a lot was said about this kind donor back in pagan times. If you believe the primary sources, then the age of Santa Claus exceeds 1100 years - and the first proof follows from this: not a single legend without a real basis could have existed for such an amount of time. All fictional pagan deities are long gone, or are supported by small groups of worshipers of the ancient Slavs, but Santa Claus, as it existed, still exists, and his image has practically not succumbed to evolution over the centuries.
So, the evidence for the existence of Santa Claus can be distinguished as follows:
- Chronometric - the history of the character exists for more than 1100 years;
- Physical - in chronicles and modern sources there are cases of meetings with a certain creature;
- Literary - since 1800, since the heyday of writing, Santa Claus has been actively described by Odoevsky, Nekrasov and other authors;
- Psychic - people with paranormal abilities talk about how they feel this character from December 25 to January 13.
Of course, there is still no evidence of the existence of Santa Claus in the photo and video, but there are contacts with this creature recorded in the annals and protocols. Thus, during the siege of Moscow in 1238, the Laurentian Chronicle bears evidence that in mid-January, starving children mysteriously did not feel hungry. Moreover, one boy saw a grandfather in a red robe with a white beard gliding like an inaudible shadow between the sleeping children. In the morning, the children found all kinds of delicious food in the left things.
During the revolution, Mikhail Frunze's assistant, the red commander Maxim Mirsky, wrote about a mysterious incident that happened to homeless teenagers in 1919. Children were caught on the streets of Moscow on New Year's Eve, but since the general distributor was busy, they were placed in a former warehouse. Due to the abundance of work and inconsistency, the authorities forgot about the children for a week, for the entire period of the New Year holidays. What was the surprise of the responsible persons when the children not only did not die of hunger, but also actively ate food unprecedented for that time: rich rolls, stroganina, kalachi, sweets, montpensier. When the children were asked where they got such dishes from, they said that on the eve of the holiday, a translucent grandfather suddenly appeared out of the darkness with a large bag, from where he immediately began to get food packages. Hungry homeless children immediately pounced on food, no one saw where the old man had disappeared. According to the children, they searched the entire basement, but Santa Claus fell through the ground.
Real cases of meeting with Santa Claus in our satisfying time are quite rare. But many parents can testify that their children saw this wonderful character. About 20% of children regularly talk about meetings with Santa Claus, and in such details that they could not know about.
There is no doubt whether Santa Claus really exists, because there is real evidence that he visits the children who need him most.
If you ask preschoolers about this, then, most likely, the answer will be a unanimous “Yes!”, younger students will begin to shake their heads doubtfully. Adults will agree with the hero of Alexander Green, who said: “I understood one simple truth. She's been to miracles..."
These words of Arthur Grey, the hero of the Scarlet Sails extravaganza, became winged.Parents take on the role of good wizards on New Year's Eve to please their kids, impatiently hurrying to the Christmas tree in search of long-awaited gifts.
On the other hand, you can see a fabulous grandfather with a white beard at every New Year's holiday, get a gift that he will take out of his huge bag, and take a picture with him. Here he is - alive, real! That's what kids think. With age, they understand that there are many such wizards, and a doubt arises in the children's heart: is there really Santa Claus?
Hero of Slavic mythology Frost
The prototype of the modern Santa Claus can be called the hero of Slavic mythology, the deity who was "responsible" for the onset of winter cold. Different Slavic tribes called it in their own way: Zimnik, Snegovey, Treskun, Karachun, Studenets and, by the way, Frost. It was he who froze rivers and lakes, sent cold and icy winds with snowstorms, covered the earth with snow. Like any deity, Frost could not be too favorable to people: he froze the winter crops, and the barn could get cold, and he fettered the wells with ice, and covered the roads with impassable snowdrifts.
In a word, in character, he did not look too much like Santa Claus, familiar to modern man. But outwardly he was similar: the Slavs represented him as a tall and strong old man with a long beard. This image can also be found in literary works. Such, for example, is Moroz Ivanovich in V. Odoevsky's "Frost" and the hero of A. Nekrasov's poem "Frost, Red Nose".
So, if we consider Frost the spirit of cold and winter, as the Slavic ancestors did, then we can say that he really exists: after all, colds come every year, frost binds the earth and covers it with snow until next spring. The laws of nature are constant, and the forces responsible for them act invariably.
Santa Claus - a revived fairy tale
But what about a familiar character? As a giver of gifts from the forest, the old man Moroz began to appear at the New Year and Christmas holidays in Russia at the end of the 19th century, but did not manage to win wide popularity. There was a revolution, and for more than a quarter of a century New Year and Christmas were banned. It was believed that Soviet Russia did not need such holidays.
In the 1930s, the party decided to return to children the tradition of dancing around the New Year tree (of course, they did not remember Christmas).
The first Kremlin Christmas tree was held in 1937.It was then that this half-forgotten fairy-tale character arose from oblivion, behind which the name of Santa Claus was firmly entrenched. He became the protagonist of children's holidays, handed out gifts to children and became noticeably kinder. The guys also fell in love with his assistant, the Snow Maiden, who gradually turned from his daughter (for example, in the fairy tale of the same name by N. Ostrovsky) into a granddaughter.
Now it is difficult to imagine the New Year holiday without Santa Claus. A kind old man with a staff and a long beard can come home to congratulate the kids. And in 1999, he acquired an official "registration". Grandfather Frost's residence was opened in Veliky Ustyug. Now, excursions are held there all year round, during which kids and their parents can walk through the fairy forest, watch a fascinating performance, walk through the rooms of his tower and, of course, get to know the kind wizard himself. And there is no doubt: Santa Claus really exists!
Santa Claus exists!
Of course, we are all used to the fact that Santa Claus is a fairy-tale creature, and he cannot be a man in any way. The way it is. Let's figure it out.
I think each of you had to visit Santa Claus at least once in your life (at a matinee or at home for your children). And I am 100% sure that when putting on a red “fur coat” and a hat, and even more so when giving a gift, for a second you get the impression that you are the real Santa Claus. It would seem, where does a second touch to a fairy tale come from when giving a gift?!
And the answer is simple. Santa Claus exists. He is a spirit, and each person can “let in” this blessed spirit into himself, having a desire to bring joy to another person.
Let's turn to Orthodoxy. I think you have heard of the term “eternal life” or “come to my grave and talk to me as if I were alive. Let me remind you that Matryona of Moscow and Seraphim of Sarov said so. The fact is that by dying in the body, the saints acquire eternal life, that is, they change the bodily shell to the spiritual one. Thus, they can help many people at the same time. The main thing is to believe in them and turn to them.
Who was the first Santa Claus 
Here is the image of St. Nicholas of Myra (Nicholas the Wonderworker). Long ago he helped the family. In this family
there were 3 daughters "marriageable", but there was no dowry. Because of this, daughters could be sold into slavery. But St. Nicholas threw 3 bags of gold into their house to help them. By the way, St. Nicholas was not much, not a little, a bishop.
Perhaps this served as a New Year to give gifts imperceptibly. 
And the name of our "Santa Claus" does not remind us of St. Nicholas, most likely because of the Soviet government, which fought against Orthodoxy.
Who lives in Veliky Ustyug?
In Veliky Ustyug lives the main among Santa Claus people, but we already know that.
Does Santa Claus exist? Does he really come to people?
Of course it comes. In the form of a spirit that helps people give gifts, break away from worldly fuss and cheer up! And most importantly - to give children a feeling of pure and kind!
