Convincing children to believe in a mythical white man who bestows gifts on those he deems worthy is brainwashing, be it Santa or Jesus. And that's why I did something revolutionary with my daughter, I told her the truth from the very beginning...

o ya nice pic - just proves santa is an anagram for something much wrong

The 'Spirit of Christmas' is very real, I feel it every year :).
My five year old is enjoying that vibe today, though has already begun questioning the 'official narrative'. I'm so glad I had those 8 or 9 years of Santa in my life, and (like most of us) understood as I got older that it was more about the joy of being with family and friends than anything else.
Sterilise their lives if you must, but I won't.

Not real? ......... You've got to be kidding me.

65% admitted to playing along with the ruse - and the remaining 35% aren't admitting to it!

As a parent the main point of keeping them believing in Santa is to get them in bed early enough on Christmas Eve for you to wrap all the presents that you somehow failed to wrap earlier.
As regards finding presents, it's easy enough to explain that Santa just brings one present. Coal.

Heck, I'm 70 and still believe in Santa Claus. He must exist. He keeps giving me gifts every year!

I don't care what "they" say, giving kids high-minded, positive-life-image, supernatural-or-not stories is good for them and good for us. It's not good to teach only reality. Mystery, wonder, creativity, and curiosity are excellent traits for kids to nurture while growing up. It opens their minds and gets them thinking on more than one level.
Guz and suga, COAL FOR YOU AGAIN THIS YEAR! Frank's family is enjoying wondrous family time, complete with magical stories of goodness and altruism. Bless you, Frank, for making the world a better place.

Telling a kid Santa is real to teach them a lesson in skepticism is counter productive. They'd be in a much better position to understand that a common myth isn't real if things are explained up front.
I think that Kids are good enough at pretend play to be able to accept Santa (or the tooth fairy, etc.) as a game, and play along.

I hard a difficult upbringing when I was little and the idea of God made it harder. "What does god have against me?" isn't something a 5 or 6 year old should have to ask themselves. Something we have tried to do is give our kids expensive gifts from mom and dad rather than from Santa. In theory this is so poor kids don't have to wonder why Santa didn't get them anything they wanted while Santa got other kids everything they wanted.