Is there an elf causing havoc in your home? Would it surprise you that we have one – given that I am always talking evidence and facts? In my home, we have fairies, elves – it’s all good because I have young children. Oodie showed up when my eldest was around 2 years old.)

Magical thinking is a normal part of child development, and studies show that this thinking and rich imagination is good for children long term, especially for creative thinking and problem solving. It starts to disappear around age 10 – though some aspects stay with many adults forever (like all those superstitions, from lucky socks to spilling salt to breaking mirrors). 

Letting your child believe in some magic does no harm. When they are ready to outgrow it though, spend some time preparing for that conversation so you can reframe this belief in a number of positive ways, such as embracing ideals such as giving.

What about adults? “Magical thinking” for most healthy adults is just superstition. But is it harmful? Researchers have found that it may actually help people who believe in superstitions related to good luck! It can increases the belief that they can do something or do something well, by boosting confidence or reducing anxiety in certain situations — like wearing those same lucky socks every time you play football. However, only applies to superstitions that someone applies to only themselves, willingly without stress, and is not harmful to themselves or others.

When is skipping the science not magical or harmless whimsy?

• “magical thinking” can be a feature in certain types of mental health problems in adults. If it can’t be controlled or starts to be stressful or harmful, it can sometimes be associated with things like OCD. If you are concerned, talk to your GP to start.

• When the practices cause harm to yourself or others:  Intense beliefs that magical rituals can cure serious disease instead of seeking qualified medical help, for example.

• Believing too hard in something harmless – like a lucky keyring or lucky pencil – may mean stress or even bad performance on something like an exam.  It doesn’t truly affect you – because science – but the distress and lack of confidence will impact your performance and how you feel about things.

When should adults seek help?

• Your belief is causing stress or affects daily life.

• You can’t control it.

• Your magical thoughts are about hurting yourself or others.

• The thoughts and feelings are really unusual and/or wont go away.

Need more on the magical side of childhood at Christmas.?  In 1897, an 8 year old girl in the US called Virginia O’Hanlon wrote the New York newspaper The Sun.  The response written by Francis Pharcellus Church has since become the most reprinted newspaper editorial in the English language:

Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say that there is no Santa Claus. Papa says “If you see it in the Sun, it is so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia,

Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.

All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to our life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus? You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your Papa to hire men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove?

Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.

Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, or even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond.

Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else as real and abiding.

No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, maybe 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of children.