Santa's Whiskers

Adults Do (Some)

One interpretation of the four stages of life goes like this:

 First you believe in Santa Claus. (as a child)
 Then you don’t believe in Santa Claus. (after age 10)
 Then you are Santa Claus. (the grandparent)
 Finally, you look like Santa Claus. (old age)

 Sounds easy. Wait long enough and eventually you will again believe in Santa. Probably not. But there is evidence to suggest that some adults do actually  believe in Santa.

 Public Policy Polling, known partly for their creative and not terribly useful polls, examined America’s attitudes toward Christmas, including belief in Santa Claus. They found that nearly half of Americans do believe. http://news.msn.com/offbeat/here-is-the-american-adult-most-likely-to-believe-in-santa-claus

 The Siena College Research Institute does regular public opinion surveys in a wide range of areas, varying from politics to business to culture. They found that 30 percent of their respondents did not say no to the question “Would you say you believe in Santa Claus”. They also found that “women are far more likely than men to believe in Santa. Folks that are 65 years of age and older are far more likely than people who are 18 to 34”. http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/23474/20131212/hundreds-of-adults-say-they-believe-in-santa

 In 2012, Nineteen Sixty-four, a research blog for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University (a non-profit research center that conducts social scientific studies about the Catholic Church), found that of those that were asked “How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa Claus,” over 3 percent said they still believe. http://nineteensixty-four.blogspot.com/2012/12/santa-claus-to-believe-or-not-to-believe.html

 In 2013 the “Mirror News” (Great Britain) reported on a study that showed nearly one is six adults still write to Santa every year, and that nearly a third of the 18-55 year olds still hang their stocking out, and 18 percent visit Santa and his elves in their grotto. The survey of 2,500 adults was carried out by the National Trust. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/adults-believe-santa-one-six-2867973

 The Public Policy Polling’s annual holiday poll in 2013 found that more than 40 percent of Americans said that they believe in Santa Claus. http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/war-on-christmas-poll

 The Ipsos Reid poll, conducted on behalf of CTV News, in Toronto, found that more Canadians (29%) in 2013 believed in Santa Claus than in 2012 (25%). https://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=6369