I'm really torn. I feel pressure to keep up the myth of Santa Claus and...on some level, I even buy into it -- taking my kids to get photos with Santa and, of course, using the Santa threat (hey, Santa's watching you!) for a good month or two.

But, I don't know how long I can keep it up. I will not buy separate, secret wrapping paper for Santa's gifts, or have someone else sign the tags (lest they realize Santa and I have the same handwriting).

For now, I'm playing along. We'll put out cookies and milk, we'll toss out the "reindeer food" on Christmas Eve, but I'm not going to any great lengths to make my kids believe there's actually a big, fat man in a red suit who rides around on a sleigh pulled by reindeer, delivering gifts (made by tiny elves in the North Pole) to all the "nice" children.

Someday I'll explain that, no...Santa does not really exist. It's mommy and daddy who buy you those gifts...and who work hard to earn the money to buy them.

A co-worker tells me that I'd be destroying the "magic" of Christmas for my kids.

But, really, what is magic? It's an illusion. At the core, it's nothing but deception ... a trick.

Why do we insist on lying to our children? We all do it. I do it. I play the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. But..why? Who's it really for? Them...or us? Or...because retailers have forced us all to play along?

Aren't we just setting them up for a fall? Aren't we just priming the pump for major disappointment down the line?

The bottom line -- for me -- is that the only story that is important my children know about Christmas is the birth of the Christ child. Period. All the rest is just window dressing. An illusion...a distraction... (albeit a sparkly, pretty, fun one).

P.S. I fully acknowledge that there are some that would argue that God is nothing more than a different kind of magic/illusion as well. I have no answer for that. Faith is, really, completely unexplainable.