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Santa Claus isn't real. Not in Real Life he isn't. But in fiction, he's very, very real, and anyone who doesn't believe in him is either evil, a Grumpy Bear, or just confused.

This is a Christmas Trope, of course.

In an episode with this plot, one character (typically a child or very naive/innocent person) will believe in Santa. At least one other character will try to prove to them otherwise, but by the end of the episode Santa's existence is confirmed.

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Examples:

• The famous newspaper response, "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
  • It should be noted that that newspaper response did not verify Santa as a living, breathing creature with a red suit and reindeer that goes "Ho Ho Ho". Rather, that his spirit of goodness and generosity embodies the people of Earth around Christmastime every year. Read for yourself.
• Family Matters
• The George Lopez Show
• Miracle on 34th Street
• The Adventures Of Jimmy Neutron
• Spoofed in Just Shoot Me: "Yes, Maya, there is a J. Crew!"
• Spoofed by The Onion: "Yes Virginia, there is a Cthulu!"
• Recess, "Yes Mikey, There Is A Santa Claus" - Mikey is the only one of the gang who still believes in Santa.
• Rankin-Bass's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, where the nonbeliever is told with a straight face that he ruined an entire town's Christmas for having an opinion.
  • Well, he did write a nasty letter to Santa Claus as a joke in a way that made it sound like it came from the whole town ...
    • He genuinely believed what he wrote (which should make the rest of it moot), and misworded the letter unintentionally. Santa couldn't tell who really did it? He's Santa!
• Spoofed in a four page story in the DCU Infinite Holiday Special: Superman reads a child's letter asking for Santa and decides to dress up like Santa to prove he's real. Batman stops him and tells him how silly that is and that he should be helping people...which is all a ruse so he can dress up like Bat-Santa! It ends with Superman decking Bat-Santa.
  • Wow...that just says so much about Superman.
  • A better example happens in an issue of DC Comics Presents, where Superman tries to foil one of The Toyman's plots on Christmas Eve but temporarily loses the power of flight. He runs into Santa Claus at the North Pole, who gives him a ride and helps defeat the villain. In the end, it seems it was All Just A Dream... and then Superman finds his favorite childhood toy, that was destroyed when Krypton exploded!
• Spoofed in Hogfather: '...yes, Twyla: there is a Hogfather.' Of course, the Hogfather does exist, and Susan's preceding speech was about how people are credulous and childish anyway, so this is something of a subversion...
• Danny Phantom has this trope between Jack (who believes), and Maddie (who doesn't). Their bickering over Santa around Christmas, got to the stage where it actually made Danny hate Christmas.
• A segment of Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. Naturally Goofy is an adamant believer, while bully neighbor Pete not only denies the existence of Santa, but also installs doubt into Goofy's son Max. In a reversal of the usual situation it's the child Max who gives up hope while Goofy the father continues to try and convince his son otherwise. Naturally, Santa is real, Max becomes a believer, Goofy proves that somehow he is always right in these situations, and Pete gets his.
• The obligatory Christmas episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Though Christmas is a fairly new holiday in Bikini Bottom, everyone is certain of Santa's existence, especially Spongebob...everyone except (you guessed it) Squidward. Santa of course turns out to be real...and he's scary cheerful.
• Classof3000 Kam argues that Santa simply cannot exsist, but it turns our he does! and gives Kam a lifetime membership to the Bigfoot Watchers Society.
  Mrs. Claus: Poor child, he still believes in Bigfoot.
• In Santabear's High Flying Adventure, Santa sends Santabear to deliver presents to the South Pole, where people have trouble believing in Christmas, let alone Santa. Santabear's mission is slightly thwarted by Bully Bear, who wants revenge on Santa for an earlier slight, and plans to deliver broken presents to completely squash out any belief in Santa.
• The classic children's book The Polar Express (recently made into The Film Of The Book).

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