I know this has been discussed in years past, but now that Keira is getting older I am having serious mom guilt over "lying" to her about Santa. I KNOW I KNOW KNOW. It's all in good fun and you never read of any children being damaged for life when finding out he doesn't exist. But still. This age is so impressionable and I am trying to lay a strong foundation for morals and values and I feel like that totally contradicts everything I am going for. Yes, we will do Santa. DH won't have it any other way, and I'm not against it. But I do feel totally guilty, especially since she hangs on to every word I say.
Re: The Santa issue
I actually feel the same way. And so far, I've gotten by with not saying much about Santa at all. I acknowledge the "character" of Santa, and even when we see someone out who looks like a traditional santa claus, I'll point him out. But, so far, I have refused to get into the whole "santa brings toys" thing. Nate somehow knows that Santa brings toys (maybe from a movie or from daycare?) but I have never told him that. If he brings up Santa, I'll have a neutral conversation with him about it.
I haven't really figured out how I'm going to handle it as Christmas gets closer this year. We have an additional challenge of being a non-Christian family, so I'd probably ditch the whole holiday if I could get away with it (but that's pretty much impossible right now). As much as possible, my plan is going to be to continue as I have... if DH wants to tell Nate about Santa, that's fine. And I won't contradict him, but I also won't reinforce it. I plan to stay as neutral as possible about the whole thing.
ETA: I'm sure my comment about ditching Christmas sounds kind of awful. I actually love Christmas, in terms of decorating, spending time with family, all the food, and I loooove giving gifts. But it feels contradictory to me to celebrate a holiday that I don't believe in. We don't celebrate Easter for that reason (though I don't stop other people in the family from giving Nate Easter baskets if they want to).
Blog
I'm nearly in the same boat. DH does not celebrate Christmas, I grew up in a Christian household. I don't really want to push the religious aspect of Christmas because of DH. I also don't agree with the whole Santa thing - it just feels wrong to me. There is no way I would want to skip Christmas, I do love it. But I agree I feel a little contradictory in celebrating.
I saw this on another board a while back and bookmarked it.
https://www.cozi.com/live-simply/truth-about-santa