Macy’s teamed up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help encourage their sixth annual Believe Campaign. The concept is that for every letter someone writes and is mailed out of Santa’s believe mailbox across the country, Macy’s donates $1 dollar to “make a wish” for children who have life threatening illnesses. Every $1 adds up to one million dollars to help save children’s lives and dreams, and so far Macy’s is celebrating their total of one hundred million wishes since 2003.
Macy’s created the Santa Project to help children keep the imagination of Santa Claus so it can build an enduring and positive effect on their creativity, family traditions, and morals. Santa Claus supplies the world with purity and kindness, and his loving characteristics bring the whole family closer every Christmas day.
Believing is a vital part of someone's childhood because there are so many benefits to it. When kids start believing in something, it encourages them to grow their imagination. This causes critical thinking that is strengthened when trying to figure out who Santa Claus is, just like a riddle that needs to be thought through and solved.
The Huffington Post wrote an article by Jacqueline Woolley entitled, “Why the Family Benefits When Kids Believe in Santa.” Woolley stated in the article that, “Believing in Santa also exercises children’s deductive reasoning abilities and their use of evidence,” she said, “We discovered in a recent study that older children might be better able than younger children to use, for example, the half-eaten cookies on Christmas morning as evidence for Santa’s existence.”
Woolley also mentioned about the fact that Santa is able to have nine reindeers fly his heavy sleigh across the sky, along with millions of presents he needs to drop off to each child's house throughout the world. Yet, is that even possible for one man to do that all in one night?
“The kind of thinking involved in imagining how nine reindeer could fly through the sky carrying a heavy sleigh may well be the same kind of thinking required for imagining a solution to global warming or a way to cure a disease,” Woolley said, “This kind of thinking-- engaging the border between what is possible and what is impossible-- is at the root of all scientific discoveries and invention, from airplanes to the Internet.”
Along with Woolley’s curiosity, NHS senior Lindsey Gallagher was also intrigued by how Santa is able to do these mysterious things without a valid reasoning, such as having reindeer fly a sleigh through the sky. She indicated that children should have the benefit of believing in anything they want so their imagination can grow and turn into reality when they are older.
“There are benefits to believing in Santa Claus, as it offers so much to a child’s development. Children benefit from it because it causes them to use their imagination and thinking skills. How can Santa’s reindeer fly in the sky? How does he know if you’ve been naughty or nice? This creative thinking can help children in the long run, perhaps when they have to think outside the box in school or in the job world,” she said.
However, NHS senior Haley Taylor said that she thinks there are both benefits and non-benefits to believing in Santa for a couple reasons.
“For kids, it’s something to believe in and something to look forward to and do stuff for, like baking cookies. For parents, it’s a good threat if their kid isn’t being good to say that Santa isn’t going to come. Yet, in the religious aspect of Santa, he sadly isn’t in the Bible,” Taylor said.
On the other hand, not only does believing in Santa Claus good for children, but also for the whole family. From hanging up stockings to decorating a Christmas tree with homemade ornaments, Santa helps inspire families to come together and celebrate this amazing holiday. Woolley also observed that, “Just because children get all the presents, do they also reap all the benefits of believing in Santa? Maybe. But maybe not, because engaging with cultural myths allows adults to vividly recall their own childhood sense of wonder and to create fun opportunities for their loved ones,” Woolley said.
In addition, Santa is a role model for children, so should keeping his story alive through the modern age important for both the child and their whole family? Gallagher agreed that Santa’s story should be told every year in order for children to experience his tradition and how he changed the world with his Christmas spirit.
“I do think it’s necessary to keep the history of Santa Claus and his story alive. We wrote him long letters, baked cookies for him, and left out carrots for his reindeer. He was one of the most important aspects of Christmas. Sharing and spreading Santa’s story has been an annual tradition for most families, so we can’t just take that away in today’s society,” Gallagher said.
ABC News featured eleven year old Katie Secord from Toledo, Ohio, who was diagnosed with cancer. During this heartbreaking time, Katie faced nine rounds of painful chemotherapy, and her only sanity was doing things that kept her mind occupied rather than thinking about her illness. One of the things she dreamed of doing was to bake a cake with Cake Boss Buddy Valastro. So, with the help of Macy’s Make-A-Wish Believe Campaign, Katie received a special message from Buddy, who offered Katie and her family to come down to his bakery and spend a day with him. Katie’s wish became a reality, when days later she arrived at his famous shop and was able to bake a cake with Buddy and his family, and awarded her own baking equipment so she can do the same at home. In regards to Katie’s dream come true, she completed all her rounds of chemotherapy and is now cancer-free.
With just one letter sent to Santa through his believe mailbox in any Macy’s store or online, people will change millions of children's lives forever, and make their life worth living without the thought of their illness.
Image Courtesy of ABC News