*Totally not bashing anyone who raises their children to believe in Santa*
But this is one of the reasons why I will not teach Santa to my daughter or any future children. I imagine that would be hard to explain to a child...why some kids aren't getting gifts from Santa.
We were pretty poor growing up. I remember one year we got presents from the Angel Tree. My gift was in a huge box, maybe as tall as my knees. It said from "Santa". I was really excited about it. I opened it on Christmas morning, it was completely full of newspaper with a cheap Christmas ornament suspended in the middle
. It was easier for my mom to explain that sometimes people are really mean than if I really thought Santa brought it. (I guess this is why they now require the gifts to be unwrapped when you turn them in).
We grew up believing that Santa was a part of Christmas just like the tree and the songs, but we knew our mom and grandparents searched for gifts they knew we'd love. It just made us love them more. I plan to raise my daughter the same way.