OP - I am with your husband!
Cos if you want to teach your children not to lie, you are on very dodgy ground if you start off by telling them lies yourself?! Be consistent!
What I personally hate about the FC lie is that while most ppl in the UK do it (or used to) there is a horrible amount of pressure imposed on the rest of us who don't want to tell our kids any lies.
Because if we want to be honest with our kids, we are (illogically) supposed to tell THEM to LIE to their classmates? (To not say that they know FC is not real.) Ridiculous!!
If someone made up a story about dinosaurs living at the bottom of the garden, (or whatever), must we all join in just cos their kids love it?
When I had young kids, we were living in a Muslim country/city. We are atheists with a Christian background. I didn't want to do FC. But as we were part of an expat group (with a British-run school), the other Brit mums made it very clear that I shd not let the side down.
But how to explain to little kids that FC is nice/brings good kids lot of gifts when the kids down the road don't know anything about it? (And don't get anything.)
In today's multicultural Britain, by all means celebrate your festivals how you want to, but don't expect other ppl to tell LIES to THEIR CHILDREN just to please YOU?
Even if (as is often insisted) this is a fun lie, it is still untrue and makes children confused when FC is seemingly not equally nice to all families.
Eg I remember I got a brand new bike from FC while my friend next door got an obviously used/2nd hand bike. It didn't seem fair. It was awkward. The only logical explanation (which was obvious to me as young as I was) was that her parents were poorer and they also had more children than my family. (So they all got fewer gifts and less expensive ones.)
I worked it out for myself (over time) and was then blamed for enlightening me younger brother.
And yes I was confused and disappointed in my parents when I realised I/we had been lied to. (And maybe that's when I started to think God wasn't real either!)
I wish ppl would just have a nice (charitable) Christmas with some gifts for the children, without going down the FC route. Just say the gifts are from who bought them? It's easier and kids will still be happy.
Pretty sure FC was (originally) a clergy man who probably gave food to really poor ppl/kids - not Xboxes and pyjamas to kids who have everything already?
It's all gone too far now, and become a binge of excesses. (With the risk of getting into debt to keep up appearances.)
Why can't we be free to celebrate Christmas (or to not celebrate Christmas) the way we want to and not be bullied into this FC madness.
For non-Christians, it is really just a mid-winter feast to celebrate the coming of longer days/road to spring and to get together with friends and family? (With no place there for the FC myth.)
I am happy to decorate the house and to eat, drink and be merry with family and friends! I am not a misery!
Jesus (Christ) seems to have been largely forgotten these days anyhow? (Sidelined completely. So I call in Xmas.) And praying to God to protect us is out too. Now it's all about lists of wants to FC and commercial consumption. Sad.
Traditions change - and I think that FC is no longer relevant in a multi-cultural society. So time to stop the pretence? Please!