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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/20779
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I believe that the traditional sense of the term fairy tale is used for a fairly concise story that is written to appeal mainly to children. The general context of a fairy tale would be the standard "Once upon a time.... and they lived happily ever after, THE END"

Generally these stories involved magic, fantasy characters and creatures, and were meant to teach a lesson, but not always.

Merriam Webster's dictionary defines fairy tale like this 1 a : a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (as fairies, wizards, and goblins) —called also fairy story b : a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy%20tale](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fairy%20tale)

Fantasy can include all of these, but is generally perceived to be a longer work of fiction and may or may not be geared toward a younger audience. You can have works of Fantasy that follow parallels of a fairy tale type story, but do not fit the traditional definition of a "fairy tale". Hope that helps.

Original score: 9