Jews don’t give their kids presents from Santa Claus. Or candy from the Easter Bunny. And they turn out OK.
It’s fun. I am unclear as to what the problem is with having fun with your children.
They’re children, let them believe in magic for a little while longer. Life has enough ass-kickings as it is. A little magic and wonder lightens it up. It’s good for you.
Honestly, the people crowing about how Santa hurts “critical thinking” need to engage in a little critical thinking themselves, because I personally am pretty skeptical that Santa Claus robs people of their capability for logical thought.
My two cents: If you tell the kids the presents are from Santa, then you know that any love and appreciation you get as a parent are because of who you are and the love you show, not for the presents you bought. It gives us a chance to spoil our kids a bit without forcing them to feel obligated to show gratitude to us. They grow up to appreciate what you do, but the toddler years are not when they’re going to show it well. I think the Santa myth keeps us from being disappointed when the kids don’t smother us with thanks and appreciation.
We’ve done this sort of thing before, and I was inspired to go back and find some of the previous threads on Santa Claus.
No , VIRGINIA, there is no Santa Claus
Santa Claus: To Perpetuate the Tale to Children or Not?
I find myself liking and agreeing with what I said back in those threads. (Plus, one of them links to the Straight Dope on the existence of Santa).
So: I believe in Santa Claus, in the sense I explained in those older threads.
I had an interesting talk with my 4 year old at 6 am this morning. She woke up, crying, because “we can’t sleep at Grandma’s at Christmas because I won’t get chocolate in the sock in the morning”.
6 am is not my strong point, and I’m not a fan of lying (we made it clear with my older daughter that santa was just a fun story, and now was the time to do so with her, too). So I said, gently, “Santa is a very fun story, and it’s great to pretend, but it is really Mommy and Daddy that fill your stocking. If you want to still pretend, that’s fine, when we see Santa at the mall, you can tell him you will be at Grandma’s, instead of at home”. She looked at me, questioning, and said “so Santa brings the presents under the tree?”. And I said, “not so much, Mommy and Daddy do those too. But as I said, we can keep playing pretend. It’s fun to think about Santa coming”.
Then she glared at me, with that look that means she thinks her mommy is so wrong, and triumphantly presented her evidence: “but mommy, no STORE is going to sell a chocolate penguin with smarties inside, and that’s what I get, so there HAS to be a SANTA”.
There’s no arguing with that 
(and now I need to distract her whenever we walk past these in the store http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarties-Penguin-11cm/dp/B005SOIYZ6 )
My older sister, as a spoiled six year old, got a whuppin’ for not being 100% grateful for the eleventy-billion tea sets Santa had given her one year. Maybe she would have kept her mouth shut if she’d known they were gifts from our parents and a myriad of far-away relatives.
I don’t think Santa is psychologically damaging when employed by good parents. But for parents who already have questioable parenting skills, watcch out.
I don’t question your story but I do think it’s strange that relatives would mail presents “as Santa”. In my household (child and adult) the parents did the Santa stuff and gifts from Grandma were gifts from Grandma, gifts from Aunt Jenny were gifts from Aunt Jenny, etc.
I’ve got a 7 year-old at home and this is pretty much our approach. I figure he’ll learn the truth from a combination of his peers and critical thinking.
For the past couple years when he asks “Is Santa real?” my response has been “Well, what do YOU think?”
He gives an answer that he’s come up with on his own and he explains to me his rationale. Observations and talking to friends, relatives, etc. For the past few years it’s been “yes, because…” and my answer back is a non-commital “Okay then.”
I figure he’ll catch on sooner or later and he’ll come back with the answer “no because…” and I can again reply “Okay then.”
“When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn’t turn me on. Easter Bunny didn’t turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned me on.”
—Patti Smith
FWIW I am Jewish and grew up Jewish but my family celebrated Christmas. Just the secular parts of it of course, i.e. Santa, Stockings, Presents, Candy etc.
It started before I was born. My family lived in a town with few other Jewish people and my parents wanted my older brother to not feel left out. Plus, the holiday is a lot of fun. Who wouldn’t want to take part 
So growing up I always celebrated Christmas and still do with my siblings now that both my parents are gone.
It’s far from universal but I know my family wasn’t the only one.
No, but I had two close (and admittedly gullible and oversensitive) friends growing up who bought so wholeheartedly into the Santa myth their parents kept nurturing that they ‘believed’ until they were 8 and 10 and felt extremely upset and betrayed when they finally realized their parents had deliberately lied and misled them. They are still gullible and sensitive now as adults, but who knows how much of that is learned vs innate to their personalities? Though both did have parents who seemed overly invested in ‘keeping them innocent’ rather than assisting them in growing up well.
I think Santa is harmless and soon over for most kids. I just don’t really understand the point of constructing and perpetuating a fantasy like that as a parent. My parents didn’t and I certainly won’t. At best, it’s insulting to waste a child’s time and ability to absorb real knowledge by deceiving them in such a way. JMO obviously.
And yet in two thousand years we can’t grow out of another ridiculous and infinitely more harmful myth. Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, indeed… 