Santa exists! taught to 7 in 8 Japanese kids
Bah humbug! To get you into the Christmas spirit, or to give you something to grumble about this festive season, according to a survey from iShare into Santa Claus many (far too many!) Japanese teach their kids about Santa.
Demographics
Between the 3rd and 8th of December 2009 541 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the sample were male, 31.6% in their twenties, 31.4% in their thirties, and 37.0% in their forties.
Regarding Q3SQ1, I think I became aware due to a combination of playground talk and discovering Santa’s present stash hidden in a cupboard. I wouldn’t want to teach my kids about Santa and would probably try to combine the event with the existing Japanese tradition of Otoshi-dama, presents of cash at the New Year. I’m not sure about Q3SQ2 – do Japanese parents regularly dress up to hand out the gifts to kids? My parents always sneaked in when we were asleep, and I always imagined that was standard behaviour.
I’ll be out myself for an evening on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day after work, but we’ll be trying to avoid the Christmas menus! My wife’s off to the dentist, in fact, this Christmas Day!
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