to despise lying to children?

[TimeWasting]

I hate that it's the main wondrous magical part of Christmas for them, about receiving stuff rather than giving and that it's a basic lie.

I think it makes Christmas shit.

summer

juggling Christmas stocking satsumas are the BEST!

I think it's quite funny when I hear staunch atheist parents relate how they make Santa's footprints with talcum powder, chisel reindoor toothmarks in the carrot and even go as far as to make reindeer poo on the lawn. Yet these same parents would have a heated debate with me about Jesus.

Also when parents go nuts about the threat of children such as mine, telling their children in the playground that there is no Santa, yet I happily tolerate children telling mine that God and Jesus don't exist and they are stupid for believing in them.

My kids have never spoilt the magic for other kids and never would. Because from an early age they have known that other children have different beliefs and cultures and they must tolerate ALL of them and never force their own beliefs onto others.

Some children hear Santa's sleigh bells on Christmas Eve, but say that this sound disappears when they no longer believe. I'm lucky enough to have had a similar experience with my beliefs that occured at times when my faith was shaken. So I know the magic is still there every Christmas, just in a different way to most.

Chocolate Jesus' in my stockings; quite hard to juggle but fun to try.

I always had a satsuma/tangerine in my stocking and always put one in my dcs.
strangley it was the one thing that reassured me "Santa" had been!
Summer-that is real heavy stuff. I tell my dcs what meat is, it is then their choice as to whether they choose to eat meat or not. My dd (9) cannot bring hersels to eat lamb or rabbit but she is quite ok eating chicken!
I don't think parents are doing anyone any favours by telling children the police will come. What happens when they realise that actually the police don't give a rat's arse whether you go to bed or stay up all night.

Chocolate Jesuses! Oh, where can I buy some??

Oohh, reindeer poo on the lawn Cliff - now there's an idea

I like to think I'm pretty honest with my kids but that doesn't preclude (get me !)
a bit of story in their lives

Scarlett - back of church? They sell glow in the dark ones so why not chocolate ones?

Juggling, yeah just have a dump outside and then blame it on the reindeer

Slightly

Then ... LOL

Well it has to be authentic looking, right? And dog poo ain't gonna cut it.

In many ways my magical world was a blessed relief from my childhood.

I that that is the big difference. I had a wonderful childhood so magic added to it, it wasn't an escape.

I would never lie to DCs about what they were eating-from the earliest board books we had pigs, pig noises and sausages etc! We went to the farm shop and saw the lambs in the field and the lamb on the butchers block. We all quite happily eat meat. When I was a DC if we had chicken my aunt went out and killed one.
I would never lie about how long I was going to be.

If you want to call FC a lie it is entirely different.
Maybe if you have parents you can't trust or who are abusive you can't see why it was done.

it is healthy and normal for children to gradually start questioning their parents and this is a process that should have started by the beginning of junior school. I often wonder if the "keep their innocence so as not to ruin their childhood"-school of parent is not partly influenced by a fear of losing their position as sole purveyor of the truth

I agree with cory.
The FC is a very good start to questioning things at a young age and the first people you should question are your parents. They are not always right! At a very young age you get 'my mummy says' as if she is the oracle.By 8 yrs they should have worked out that she isn't and they have a free will and they can say 'you may think...... but I think.......' and still live happily together!

Ah well you see that's where spirituality also comes in useful. It helps to deal with the grim reality of life.
But I don't want them to think that I've been lying to them as you should be able to trust your parents. I do tell them that we don't know everything and that our reality may be very different to someone else's. So who knows what magical realm may be present?
I've never seen a ghost for example, but I don't discount the idea. However I can honestly say that I DO discount poor old FC. For as the OP says, for me it represents commercialism now and the concept that receiving is better than giving.

Each to their own though!