Santa and Me

So I am not a father yet but, my Wife and I have been discussing having kids over the last few months. So this time of year got me thinking about what I will tell my kids about Santa. I am an Atheist and my wife is a little more on the fence when it comes to religion and god. With all our talk about having kids I was thinking the other day what will I tell them about Santa Claus and the story of Christmas. I can't ignore the holiday it is just to much a part of society and my family, to not deal with it. I have a few ideas as to how I want to handle Christmas, but it would not be just my kids effected by my decisions. All the kids they know at school would also be subject to my opinions and actions through my kids, and the last thing I would want is to piss off an evangelical mother (done it before, don't want to do it again).

This is such a touchy subject as a atheist living in America.  Many people view us as a horrible group who have nothing better to do then get mad over the smallest mention of god.  So I am looking for input from other as to how to handle this situation.

Now lying to my kids I have issues with.  However, at the same time, I don’t want my kid tell all the other pre-school kids or their kindergarten class that Santa is not real and ending up with a bunch of angry phone calls.  So I am not sure how to handle this part yet.  I think I will deal with this by leaving the interpretation of the reality of Santa up to them.  Leaving the story ambiguous enough for them to try and draw their own conclusions and let the little imagination take control.  I know by second grade though I was 90% sure Santa was not real and I had folks who use to ring bells in the middle of the night to make us think he was in the house unpacking gifts.  So this is something that I will not have to deal with for too long.

Next would be the story of Christmas.  Now the Santa story is free enough from the Jesus birth story that I can easily separate the two explaining to my kids that Santa is/was a man that gives/gave presents to good children and we celebrate this on December 25th.  And later when they are older and more able to understand explain the Jesus story and why it is tied to Christmas, and where I stand on organized religion.

My biggest goal in all of this is to allow my kids to live a normal life without sacrificing my beliefs or their childhood in the process.  I don’t want my kids when they are older to feel like I took something from them growing up.