A belief in Santa Claus could have a detrimental effect on parent-child relationships. A recent study in the medical journal Lancet Psychiatry suggests that a child’s moral compass could be permanently damaged by what is normally part of the Christmas tradition: lying about Santa Claus.

The darker reality is that lying to children, even about something fun and frivolous, undermines their trust in adults and leaves them open to “abject disappointment” when they discover that the magic isn’t real. If we are asked to believe in things that we cannot see and our parents lie to us about the mystery, it may lead to an unhealthy glorification of materialism and a potential loss of faith in everything else.

The authors of the study concluded that there is potential for children to be harmed by these lies. “The Santa myth is such an involved lie, such a long-lasting one between parents and children that if a relationship is vulnerable, this may be the final straw. If parents can lie so convincingly and over such a long time, what else can they lie about?”

Indeed, some parents even use Santa Claus as a tool of control and punishment for children under the stress of the Holidays. It’s probably not the best parenting tool. You’re talking about a mythical being deciding whether your children receive presents or not.

Instead of lying to our kids about Santa Claus or anything else – invisible deities, angels, demons, saviors rising from the dead – it would make more sense to instill early in children an appreciation of knowledge, all forms of life, good health and the natural beauty that is all around us, before it’s too late.

But of course for some reason people need to lie to their kids about Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Stork; Jesus/Allah/Buddha/Jehovah/whatever. Turns out you can re-frame any old bullshit and still be OK with it.

The authors of the Santa study are convinced that the “collective lie on a global scale” persists because humans have a strong tendency to conform, even when their behavior is illogical. The evidence suggests that most adults have a strong urge to escape reality through make-believe. Unfortunately this desire never seems to leave.

Still, manipulating children’s behavior through fanciful stories about an all-seeing, all-powerful mystical being called God has arguably had an even more catastrophic impact than the Santa Claus myth, because the God story retains traction well into adulthood. This enables the manipulation to continue on to the next generation.

It’s the first big lesson in life: your parents lie to you; your teachers lie to you, clergymen lie, your friends lie, everyone lies; so it’s okay for you to lie. TRUST NO ONE.

But there are still some folks who say, “Oh, come on. What’s the harm in Santa Claus, for God’s sake?”

There are two levels of harm: The first is the unhealthy vision of childhood as being some kind of precious state where illusions and make-believe have to be maintained before kids grow up someday and learn the ‘harsh realities’ of life: Peter-Pan, Cinderella, Tinkerbell and all the rest…

So this skewed vision of childhood is amplified by constantly feeding kids absurd fables so the adults can sit around and say, “Oh, isn’t that cute: the gleeful children believing all these silly things we’ve made up!”

How jaded and cynical we are, and how pure and innocent are they! It must be quite a shock when kids find out how easy it is for grown-ups to lie to their faces. What a revelation that must be!

The second danger is the principle of teaching kids that what is wonderful and precious and beautiful in the world is only imaginary, and that illusions and fantasy make life more interesting and exciting than boring old mundane reality.

Yet there is no need for made-up stories of wonders and magic when every day we are surrounded by real, tangible – and not so tangible – wonders. All that’s needed is a little intellectual curiosity and the will to explore and to discover that knowledge is endless. There is so much more mystery and wonder in the real world than we could ever imagine. That’s what we should be preaching to our children.

So let’s drop all this Santa Claus nonsense, shall we? Instead, be Father [or mother] Christmas to your children, as our parents were to us, and as we were when we grew up. For us kids in my family, it was clear that the presents under the tree came from mom and dad or grandma or whoever.

That was more than enough.

It was a lot more fun that way and much more inclusive. I never had to lose any childhood illusions or end up being scarred for life to learn that those I trusted had been telling me lies for so long.

Like my dad.