Santa deemed a good mentor for kids

LONDON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A British psychiatrist says knowing Santa Claus is watching their every move helps children develop a sense of right and wrong, Sky News reported.

Writing in December's Psychiatric Bulletin, Dr. Lynda Breen said teaching children about Santa "encourages their moral development as they believe he knows which children are good or bad."

However, when the inevitable happens -- when a child determines Santa is fictitious -- Breen said her studies show it's not the child who suffers.

"Most of the evidence suggests that children are actually quite positive when they find out the truth and it is actually parents who mourn the loss," Breen wrote.

In the same psychiatric journal, Dr. Mark Salter bemoaned the fact Santa's image "is being destroyed by a society which holds rationality above anything else," and cited how every negative thing that happens is followed by an inquiry, rather than childlike acceptance.

"If Santa died, we would hold a serious incident inquiry, and if we had any sense we should ask the Tooth Fairy to chair it," Salter said.