Is Santa real? In an age of AI and misinformation, he's the one real thing we can cling to.

With artificial intelligence, deepfakes, an explosion of fake-news websites and seemingly effortless lying from politicians, it is – right now, at Christmastime in the year 2023 – harder than ever to tell truth from fiction.

That coincides with a time of year when many young minds are wrestling with a specific truth vs. fiction puzzle: Is Santa Claus really real? Or is he, as some older kids invariably posit, make believe?

As to our broader attempts to preserve facts, to limit misinformation and hold fast to the truth, I certainly don’t have all the answers. We paddle on against a current of manipulative forces, and pray sanity prevails.

Is Santa Claus real? This journalist believes so.

But to the latter issue, the seasonal quandary facing our kids and one day their kids and all kids who celebrate Christmas yet to come, I have some thoughts. Maybe not a solution, in the purest sense, but thoughts, at least, and I’d like to share them with you in the hope you’ll consider sharing them with questioning young minds in your midst.

Let’s start with the top-line question: Is Santa Claus real?

In my view, as a person who has devoted his career to facts and sifting truth from lies, the answer is simple: Yes.

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Do I have empirical evidence to support that belief? Do I have photos to support my claim? Are there copies of emails or texts between me and St. Nick I can share as incontrovertible proof?

No. None of the above.

You won’t find a person on this earth who can definitively show you that  Santa Claus exists. That, I believe, is by design. A bit of faith is required.

St. Nicholas has been with us far too long to be a fluke

The earliest references to a St. Nicholas date to a monk of that same name born somewhere around A.D. 280 in what is now Turkey. Kind, giving and a protector of children, the Dutch called him Sinter Klaas. Clearly, the world needed him, and the man – or elf or jolly spirit or whatever he truly is – has stuck around while his name and the legends that surround him have grown.

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That’s proof point No. 1: Santa has staying power. Made-up nonsense is fleeting and fades.

Proof point No. 2 is simple: Every Christmas Eve, across the world, children who celebrate the holiday dream, whether asleep or awake, about Santa Claus. There’s a joy that comes with him, something that can’t be captured or replicated. It’s wholly unique. It sticks with you. You grow older, but you remember that feeling, always.

How could something so powerful, so widely shared, be fake?

Why would anyone want to think there is no Santa Claus?

For me, the third and final point that renders questions of Santa’s existence moot is this: Why would anyone want this figure, a symbol of kindness and generosity and hope, to not exist? Does Santa – whether it’s the real fellow himself or just the idea of him – not make the world a better place? Is he not a net good for us all?

We need a shared set of facts to function as a society. Truth is inevitably what binds us together. But where there is not hard evidence, there can still be proof.

According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, “The burden of proof is met when the party with the burden convinces the fact finder that there is a greater than 50% chance that the claim is true.”

The three points above get us way past that 50% mark. People young and old can quibble and claim Santa Claus isn’t real all they want. The facts, I believe, are on the side of those who believe.

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A Christmas Eve tradition built on faith in a universal good

As of this writing, I am 52 years old. On every Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember, no matter where I happened to be, I have stepped outside for a few moments and looked up into the sky, just as I did when I was a little kid hoping to glimpse a reindeer or hear the sound of a far-off sleigh bell.

I’ve never seen a thing. I’ve never heard a thing. But I’ll be back out there this Christmas Eve, ears peeled and eyes to the heavens.

Some find that ridiculous. Some make fun of my tradition.

I don’t care.

In an age of misinformation, let's believe this one good thing is real

Santa Claus, whether a red-and-white-clad visitor or a spirit of kindness and goodwill, remains real as long as your eyes and ears and heart remain open.

That is a truth I will cling to through whatever storm of lies and fabrications this world spins up.

Merry Christmas.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Santa real or not? Here is the proof in three parts