Parents should stop lying to children about Santa Claus. There is no justification for lying to children about a man who lives in the North Pole and who will bring them presents on Christmas Day – presents made by elves and delivered with the help of a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer, if you go with the full lie. The time, energy, and creativity that goes into supporting the Santa Clause lie should be redirected to helping very real, but less fortunate, children, adults, and animals over the Christmas holidays.

There are various arguments that attempt to justify the Santa Claus lie, but all of them fail. One argument is that lying about Santa Claus adds a magical element to Christmas. If parents did not lie about Santa Claus, Christmas would fail to be a magical time for children. I do not see why this last claim is true. Children seem to enjoy their birthday parties, and look forward to them, and look forward to getting birthday presents, without the need for a lie about a man who brings them their birthday presents. Most of the things that we look forward to over Christmas ­– the holiday from school or work, meeting up with family and friends, eating and drinking together, the exchange of gifts (other than Santa Claus presents) – do not involve telling lies. Indeed, if children were not lied to about Santa Claus, it might be that these other aspects of Christmas would become more central to the holiday.