My kid is 4 and Santa is hitting hard this year even though we don't play up the Santa stuff. The level of pervasiveness of Santa in American culture is huge. What I've started saying to her is: "did you know that anyone can be Santa? Sometimes mom is Santa, sometimes Dad is Santa, or grandma and grampa, and one day you'll get to be Santa too."

She gets all her ideas about Santa from media and other people. It feels almost impossible to avoid.