The santa clause myth is lib shit, and I have no plans to teach my kid that santa clause is real. I don't want my kid obsessing over the amount of shit at the bottom of that tree on 12/25, or trying to manipulate their behavior a few days/weeks beforehand to increase said amount of shit.
But, I'm not really sure how to approach this. The kid is only 2, so nothing to worry about for a few more years. Should I just be direct? There is no Santa, holidays are about family?
Anybody here already cross that bridge?
I think the way my parents explained it was pretty good. They told us that Santa Claus is based on a real person who lived a long time ago and was famous for helping people and giving gifts, and at this time of year we like to remember him by giving gifts to each other and donating to charities like food pantries. Some families like to pretend that Santa is real, and it's just a game and that's OK. We don't pretend as hard as they do, but it's fine for families to do different things. It isn't nice to tell the other kids at school that Santa isn't real because their family is playing the game differently than we are, and again, that's OK. It's fun to pretend, and you can pretend that he's real if you want to.
We went to the mall to get pictures with Santa and did all the normal Christmas stuff, but I always knew it was just a fun game and never had a crushing realization that none of it was real. I still enjoy Christmas a lot and get real pleasure out of picking presents out for people that I think they'll enjoy, so never believing in Santa certainly didn't "ruin" anything for me, at least.