Santa is our culture’s only mythic figure truly believed in by a large percentage of the population. It’s a fact that most of the true believers are under eight years old, and that’s a pity.

Van Allsburg contrasts modern culture’s general skepticism toward myth with the unusual persistence of belief in Santa Claus. By calling Santa the only widely “truly believed in” mythic figure, he highlights how contemporary societies often relegate myth to entertainment rather than lived conviction. The observation that most believers are very young underscores how quickly rationalism and socialization erode imaginative faith. The closing “and that’s a pity” signals a value judgment: he laments the loss of wonder, shared ritual, and the capacity to inhabit stories as meaningful realities—an attitude consistent with his fiction, which often treats the marvelous as something adults have forgotten how to see.