I rarely lie to my children. I always encouraged my children not to go around saying "there is no Santy/Santa". But at the same time, I really resent the omnipresent peer pressure from other adults to actively maintain the lie for their precious one's benefit. They would never expect their Muslim/Hindu friends to so this, but as an atheist, all you get is disapproving looks.
It's a game, one I don't play, but if you ruin kid fun of course you'll get eyerolls... regardless of your background.
My recovery is just to own it, and say that I may not believe anymore, but "I'm proud of you sweety for believing". Kids won't take that as condescending cause the notion of Santa disbelievers is built-in.
I think my kid flat out told their friends at pre-school that Santa Clause died. Which lead to some very interesting conversations. We watched the cartoon film Klaus on Netflix (would recommend) and that's how they internalized it. =)
