Yeah, you're right that to a large extent Santa is a cultural story in which everyone participates, and I can see the appeal of the fantasy (as I said, I really *wanted* there to be a Santa for poor kids, and that movie in which the kids save the North Pole from oil barons? was totally my favorite Christmas movie for years). The idea of actively lying to your child just really squicks me, though. What I keep coming back to seems to be that stories can be powerful and wonderful, but there's nothing wrong with presenting them as powerful and wonderful stories (which people can choose to inhabit as true for a time if they so choose -- after all, don't we talk about getting sucked into a book, feeling like we're living in it and no longer in our own lives at all?) whereas presenting lies as fact bothers me a lot.

And yes, the commercialization of the season definitely detracts from any spiritual, narrative, or other power it might have.