Lying to Children about Santa Clause

Here is an email I received from a friend. He gave me permission to post it up.

I have a little girl named Lily who was a huge liar. She always lied and I always caught her lying. I then told her that lying is wrong and now she has stopped.

My wife told me a few days ago that Lily is old enough now to be told about Santa Clause. My wife is telling me to lie to my child about Santa Clause.

I am afraid because as Lily grows up she may learn that Santa Clause is not real and if she realizes that I lied to her then she has no reason to believe anything I say. Using me as a role model, she may even begin to lie again thinking it's perfectly okay because I did it.

I told my wife that I planned to tell Lily the truth, that Santa Clause is made up but my wife and the rest of my family were all horrified at me.

Since my wife thinks lying is okay then I plan to lie to her and tell her that I am not going to tell Lily that Santa is fake but I actually will and I will tell Lily to keep it a secret. Is this a good idea?