The Skinny on Santa…do you tell your kids or not?

Do you remember how old you were when you stopped believing in Santa Claus? Did someone tell you, or did your parent do something that gave it away? There has been much debate about when parents should reveal the truth about Santa Claus to their children. Some kids grow up not believing in Santa at all. 
My Santa bubble was burst on Christmas day at my grandmother's house when I was six years old. My cousin, who was nine, took me into Grandma's bedroom on the pretense that he had something important to tell me. It was his opportunity to tell me Santa wasn't real. When I told him didn't believe him, he said I should stay awake on Christmas Eve the following year to find out for myself. 
The next year I went to bed on Christmas Eve and I pretended to be asleep. My mom peaked in my room to check on me, and I laid perfectly still. Then she went to our basement and came back up with my Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers. 
I was a little disappointed, but my reaction wasn't as dramatic as some of the stories I've heard about from other people. So there was no Santa. Mom had been pretending so I would believe in him. That was okay with me.
Whether you teach your children about Santa or not, the true importance doesn't lie in whether they believe a man in a red suit flies all over the world delivering gifts on Christmas Eve. The important concept is to teach children to believe in something they can't see or touch. It's called faith.
In the 1947 version of "A Miracle on 34th Street", Fred Gailey, Kris Kringle's attorney said, "Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to." Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." 
The Santa question is still up for debate. The decision may be different for each child. But teaching them to have faith will give them immeasurable opportunities. "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1 

The Birth of Jesus

2 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. ² (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. ⁴ And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. ⁵ He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.

⁶ And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. ⁷ She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.