My husband and I had this discussion with our son last night. He's 26. His two siblings are married and we have one grandchild. Charlie was arguing that maybe we shouldn't encourage our granddaughter to believe in Santa Claus since she'll find out some day that he doesn't exist. We both told him that we do believe in Santa and all he stands for and my husband asked him whether there was any proof that someone who grew up not believing in Santa was any stronger or healthier and he said that fantasy was a part of mental and social development. Oh, well, this editorial says it so well.
Oh, it's such a simple formulation! I explained to my daughters that kids who don't believe in Santa only get clothes for Christmas.
It worked until they were twelve or so, when they started wanting clothes for Christmas!
By the way, I believe!