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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.
It will never be explained why all the presents appearing without anyone buying or wrapping them is not considered convincing evidence in these settings. Quite often it doesn't seem to happen; even though Santa is making deliveries all over the world, no one ever gets any extras unless it's a plot point.
Compare Real After All, How Can Santa Deliver All Those Toys?.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Subverted in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Nanoha tells Fate about Santa, hoping that she might believe in him for a little while, but is unsuccessful when Fate begins questioning certain aspects of the Santa fairytale, like how he can fly. Nanoha notes that few kids believe in Santa in their modern society, that Arisa and Suzuka never believed him, and that her older sister Miyuki believed in him until 4th grade.
- In The All-New Tenchi Muyo!! manga series, Washu goes to great lengths to make sure other kids doesn't destroy Sasami's perspective of Santa - mostly by teleporting items (or the other girls). In the end, it's all for naught: Sasami still believes in Santa, knows there are kids who don't - she says that's why the parents give kids Christmas presents instead of Santa!
Comic Books
- 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.
- And then there's the Marvel story Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santron, where Gadgeteer Genius Virgie Hanlon, a young woman who never got over being told by classmates that Santa wasn't real when she was 8 decides to build a robot Santa. Unfortunately, unknown to her, the parts she used belonged to Ultron and "Santa" unsurprisingly immediately runs away to attack the Avengers. Luckily, Virgie's programming compels "Santron" to eat cookies and thus he is easily defeated. It ends on◊ this◊ Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
Film
- Miracle on 34th Street, based on the famous editorial. The kid in question doesn't believe because her mother thinks that it's not proper to believe in someone that she doesn't think exists.
- The Santa Clause has elements of this. Scott Calvin pretends to believe in Santa for Charlie's sake, but once Santa actually shows up, he desperately tries to find a more plausible explanation for what's going on, breaking the ruse. Later, Charlie's mother and step-father get to discover for themselves that Santa is real.
- In Santa's Slay, Santa says "yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" to a woman surprised by him breaking into the house.
- Interestingly enough, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians averts this from the start - Santa's existence is a known fact, and the movie even opens with a reporter visiting the workshop and interviewing him. This isn't a good thing, because Aliens Steal Cable...
- Likewise, The Nightmare Before Christmas also averts this by having Santa's existence be an known fact, even cancelling Christmas when Santa can't be found.
- So why didn't they know about his Halloween equivalent, Jack Skellington?
- "There are few who'd deny, at what I do I am the best\For my talents are renowned far and wide . . . To a guy in Kentucky, I'm Mister Unlucky/And I'm known throughout England and France!" They know about Jack, all right, they just didn't realize it was him taking over Christmas.
Literature
- The classic children's book The Polar Express (recently made into The Film of the Book).
- Parodied on the back of O Ye Jigs And Juleps
- Subverted in Superfudge, where Peter has never believed in Santa (he caught his parents stacking presents under the tree when he was three) and only humors Fudge under orders from their parents. Fudge goes into ecstasies over his new bike on Christmas morning, thanking Santa "wherever he is", but confides to Peter that he's never believed, either.
- The Ingalls family had to do a lot of explaining to their kids about whether Santa Claus was going to make it out to whatever new, barely-settled territory they were living in that year, and if so how, and how much to expect. In one book, when the upcoming Christmas is looking pretty sparse, Ma tells Laura and Mary that they should have realized by now that Santa can't be just one person who goes around to each individual house — but he's omnipresent and magical and manifests in unselfishness, so she thinks it would be nice if this year instead of presents for themselves they only wished for new horses for their father. In the end they do get a little candy along with the horses and their presents for each other.
- 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...
Live Action TV
- Family Matters
- The George Lopez Show
- The Nanny did it in the Christmas episode at the hospital. I don't know which kid believed...
- Have I Got News for You, covering a somehow uniquely depressing Christmas story, about a "Lapland forest" attraction for children that was so sordid and cheap and grimy that parents starting attacking the performers and demanding their money back.
Andy Hamilton: The Sun was very irresponsible, though, because there was a very alarmist headline, which said, Santa and Four Elves Beaten Up. And I think we should say, to any small children watching, Santa is okay. Paul Merton: Yeah. He won't be able to deliver any presents this year, because he's recovering in hospital... Andy: He is okay, and he definitely exists, by the way. Paul: Definitely exists. Andy: Yeah. David Mitchell: Otherwise, how could he have had the shit kicked out of him?
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Simultaneously inverted when it has to be explained to Will that Shaft was never a real person.
Magazines
- 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.
- The article, a man telling a young girl, in the sweetest way, that there is indeed a Santa Clause when other adults would just have thrown such a foolish letter away because it's not a matter for a newspaper to answer, is a Crowning Momentof Heartwarming and a Tear Jerker. The article made this troper remember what Christmas really was.
- Spoofed in Just Shoot Me!: "Yes, Maya, there is a J. Crew!"
- Spoofed by alt.horror.cthulhu: "Yes Virginia, there is a Great Cthulu!" (link)
- The Straight Dope takes on the question here.
- Oh, and Pogo reverses this at one point. A bear is dressed as Santa Claus just as the cast start discovering that there's a Georgia in the (then) Soviet Union. Afraid that the Russians stole a state, the bear reveals he's from Virginia, leading to 'Yes, Santa Claus, there is a Virginia!'.
Video Games
- A very sick version appears in Roadkill. On the radio, a shock jock is talking about the time that he got a scatter gun for Christmas... and describes, in detail, how he used it to kill a "hobo" in a red suit with a bunch of deer who was trying to break into his home through his chimney, thus "saving Christmas".
Web Original
- Done in a very unusual manner in the SCP Foundation. One of the SCPs is a little girl with the power to bend reality. Someone tells her about Santa, and then someone else tells her that Santa isn't real. As a result, there's now someone running around with all Santa's powers, and the Foundation can't catch him because he's 'magic'.
Western Animation
Real Life
- Some parents are so determined to instill belief in Santa Claus in their children and preserve that belief that they'll not only tell their children that he exists, but they'll do certain things to "prove" this to them. For example, they'll leave cookies for him and eat them, write a thank-you note supposedly from Santa, look at their childrens' letters to Santa and get the specific things on the list they asked for. And if their children show signs of wavering in this belief, they'll (in some cases) up the ante on this.
- Norad tracks Santa.
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