Santa doesn't come to our house. Despite the fact that Santa came to my house as a little girl, and he brought us very fantastic things and was a fun part of Christmas, and I suffered no emotional distress when I discovered he was not real, for some reason I just can't do it with my own kids. Santa is seen by our kids as a symbol of giving and love and making other people happy at Christmas. We read stories about him, we love movies about him, but our kids know from the time they can walk that he is just pretend. Mark's parents didn't do Santa when he was a kid, either.
Our kids don't get shafted in the gift department, though. They still have a pile of presents waiting for them when they come down the stairs on Christmas morning. The only difference is that our kids know that Mom and Dad worked very hard to buy those presents. Not some myserious man who doesn't even know them. The only problem is when the kids are about 5-6 years old and discussing the nature of Santa Claus with their contemporaries. Our kids have orders to not tell other kids that "Santa is a phony" (Noah's favorite description). But sometimes they just have to say something. Savanna got into some pretty intense discussions with her friend this year. I've had parents get really crabby at me for not perpetuating the lie about Santa and forcing them to make up a story to cover for whatever my kid said. I say Bah, Humbug! You were feeding them a bunch of lies anyway, what is one more?
One of our employees has a son who said all he wanted this year was a Wii. She could not find one to buy, and she told him that it was very hard to find one. He begged, and promised that was the only thing he wanted for Christmas. The mom said, "Well, it would be the ONLY thing you get if we can find one." The little boy said, "That's OK, Mom. Santa can bring all the other presents."
Another friend as a child wanted something really expensive for Christmas. The parents nicely tried to explain that was just too much money and they could not get it for her. She stormed out saying, "I'll just ask Santa for it. He loves me!" That year, Santa started bringing their family socks and underwear.
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