Fear of darkness is prevalent in childhood, yet how children explain it remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate how preschoolers make sense of fear of darkness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted through Zoom with 4- to 5-year-old Russian children (n = 31; 13 girls). Reflexive thematic analysis revealed that preschoolers made sense of fear of darkness by appealing to the various entities that inhabit it, the bad things that can occur while in it, and its inherent nature. Preschoolers also spoke to making darkness less scary through people, objects, actions, and qualities of the world, like light. These themes are discussed relative to Russian folklore tradition as well as children's ability to differentiate fantasy from reality.