To Santa or not to Santa

I feel a lot of parents who chose not to tell their kids Santa is real, get a bad rap. We sometimes get judged and told we are bad parents. Recently I had a conversation about doing Santa or not. In the group asked, we were the only ones that said no. We don't judge anyone who does the Santa thing, and I don't think differently about them. We all want what's best for our kids and only us as parents know that about our own kids.
In this situation though I felt like the outsider. I've never really had a conversation with anyone as to why we tell our kids Santa is not real, maybe because we never encountered a crowd to feel the need to defend our reasonings. I feel that no matter your side their are reasonings. So here are ours:
(DISCLAIMER: In no way am I trying to start an argument with anyone or say our way is better. I don't intend on this to come between my friendships at all. We all still love Jesus but can agree to disagree at times. Much love!)
Neither Mark or I remember growing up believing in Santa. We grew up in the church and believing in Jesus was more important I guess and celebrated on a higher scale around Christmas even though we knew who Santa was, our parents never pushed it.
We decided that we don't feel the need to instill false hope into our children. What I mean by that is this: If I want my kids to believe anything in life it's that Jesus came as a baby to die for our sins, rise again and now He lives in Heaven waiting for us to join Him. That is the hope I want them to live with daily. Not to say that if you tell your kids Santa is real you can't still have that hope, but ultimately we feel it puts that hope in question when your kids do finally find out Santa is indeed not real. How will they know Jesus is real if they've been believing both Santa and Jesus are real and you finally drop the bombshell about Santa. Understand?
Some kids will take it hard and realize that if you lied about Santa their whole life what else have you lied about and how can they ever know you are telling them the truth again? Some kids would be totally ok with knowing he's not real, and move on with life. We are not willing to take that risk of disappointment in our kids faces when finding out the truth and potential mistrust they could have in us as their parents. So again, you decide what's best for your own children.
We don't feel we are taking away the magic of Christmas, their imagination or their childhood. Our kids have great imaginations, to which I want to point out an article I read about how we'd all imagine a different Santa if we indeed needed to use our imagination to believe in him. We know everything about him so there is nothing left to imagine, you see? The real "magic" of Christmas, I would say, is the fact that a virgin conceived a baby! I'd rather answer the question of how that happened instead of how Santa gets down a chimney (especially if you don't have one.) Their childhood has and will continue to be filled with plenty of other memories, events and traditions that they will look back on and maybe even carry on to their own kids. (If they chose to do Santa, that would totally be ok too. Their choice as parents)
Lastly, it's hard enough to earn your kids appreciation in this day and age and to give credit to Santa for a gift they've wanted and thank him for instead of you would be harsh. I'm a giver, so I fully look forward to getting things for my kids and seeing the look in their eyes and the pure joy on their face, letting them know that I love them, that they didn't do anything to deserve or earn it or have good behavior most of the year. I don't want some guy in a suit to take that away from me!
This may be a little straight forward, and I know people can parent their kids however they like. So we choose to tell our kids the truth. Remember, they will believe anything you tell them.
Jesus is the reason for the season. Why take anything away from that by making them believe in something that doesn't exsist? Doesn't that take the focus off of Jesus' birth and the real celebration?
You may think we are bad parents but is it really so bad to not want to lie to our kids? We want them to trust us and to come to us for things when they are conflicted and aren't sure what to believe and know that we will be honest with them and tell them the truth. That is what we would want from them right?
This is just my honest opinion on the subject. Again, I don't feel differently about you or judge those who do push that Santa is real, (I hope you don't feel that way, I'm sorry if you do) I just hope that you realize why we (and others) decide not to, and respect that as I respect that you chose to.
This year we will have to take more initiative to talk about St. Nicholas and what he stood for and that it's ok that others believe in Santa if they chose to.