I prefer Fed-ex. I like how you have acknowledge the reindeer struggle. Though I do not celebrate anything throughout the Christmas season I understand your point and like how you merge some science concepts into your perspective. Some fairytales seems to deceive or confuse. I wonder the outcome of a child's life based on these various stories he or she is introduced to and actual level of belief and quality of life overall. In a child's mind it can latch on to some concepts and not others. Instead of using a 3rd party or higher power to take the pressure off of parents who cannot clearly watch everything unless they record it but still trying to have the child well behaved, I often think maybe it would be best to just be honest with the child. I would be interested in seeing the results on the topic. Myths vs facts in child development and the long term benefits and consequences of it. Very interesting.
This is very interesting topic, but the problem lies within conducting studies. Since we are talking about children there is plenty of restrictions, parents reluctance etc.
Quick mention: According to Piaget, a child before the age of 6 does not distinguish between lying and making fun.
I could post some stuff about children and their perception of the world since I have access to interesting and quite reliable research, let me see what can be done :)
I can also think about many other topics from what you mentioned, like parenting or consequences of using 3rd party as authority.