It’s been a good week for ... lying

For the record: Santa Claus is real and works his magic every Christmas with the help of his flying reindeer and unerring chimney scaling skills.

But what if he weren’t? Would it be wrong to peddle a Santa myth to your children. And how would they react if they discovered he was a big fat red-and-white beardy lie?

According to Kristen Dunfield, a developmental scientist at Concordia University in Montreal, such fantastical beliefs are not harmful and are actually linked to positive developmental outcomes.

Writing for The Conversation, the specialist in children's trust explained that research in the field of developmental psychology suggests that such beliefs can exercise a child’s “counterfactual reasoning skills” and boost emotional development.

So don’t feel guilty on Christmas Eve when you leave out that tray of mince pies, a glass of milk and a carrot for Rudolph. It’s good for your children’s mental elf.

It’s been a bad week for ... children’s animation

Cartoon characters, on the other hand, can be unhealthy. Peppa Pig has had a roasting from a GP who claims the children’s favourite is encouraging inappropriate use of doctors’ appointments.

Dr Catherine Bell, who regularly tunes in to Peppa’s TV exploits with her toddler, believes the Pig family's prolific use of the doc for their porcine health problems could be copied by fans.

The family's GP in the animation series, Dr Brown Bear, provides the Pigs with unparalleled medical attention, even for minor ailments such as coughs and colds.

Bell says this fuels unrealistic assumptions in the medical service.

Writing for the British Medical Journal, the Sheffield GP writes that “exposure to Peppa Pig and its portrayal of general practice raises patient expectation and encourages inappropriate use of primary care services”.

Such concerns over the influence of children’s TV characters may well have far-reaching effects.

Does Bob the Builder raise unreasonable expectations on the construction industry? And should he have been put in charge of building the Scottish Parliament, the Edinburgh Trams network and the Queensferry Crossing?

Does Fireman Sam turn up the heat on the fire service, and does the impossibly cheerful Postman Pat put pressure on posties to resolve any problems their customers might have? And perhaps Thomas the Tank Engine raises a false hope of reliability in our railways.

It’s all very worrying. Just as well cartoon characters aren’t real like Santa.