The Santa Dilemma

Growing up I don't remember a time that I believed in Santa. I remember thinking as early as 5 or 6 years old that other kids were crazy to believe in him. Didn't they realize that it was physically impossible for Santa to make it to all those houses? Especially with all of those presents! Even magic couldn't help him with that because didn't they know that magic wasn't real either? I had some pretty convincing arguments and got into many heated debates with my fellow students which often led to me being taken aside by my teacher and told to stop telling the other kids that Santa wasn't real (this is similar to what happened when my class was learning about The Big Bang Theory). 
I often wondered why parents would lie to their kids and tell them that Santa was real. Did they think it would be more special for their children to receive presents from some man they didn't know? Or were they looking for an out just in case their presents were a disappointment? Personally, I thought it was way more special to receive presents from my parents who I knew loved me. Santa didn't love me. He didn't even know me. Apparently he saw me when I was sleeping and knew when I was awake but that only seemed creepy. Plus he wasn't real. 
I soon started to really dislike Santa. To me, even as a kid, he was a distraction from the real meaning of Christmas. He was a scary dressed up man in the centre court of the mall that made a lot of kids cry. (It was only a couple years ago that I got brave enough to even look at Santa in the mall. Up until then I always averted my eyes and tried not to even look in his general direction because I was worried he would 'get me'.)
I'm not sure when things changed for me but now I sometimes think that it would be fun to make Claire believe in Santa. To talk about being on the naughty or nice list. To bake cookies and leave them out with a glass of milk on Christmas Eve. To make up stories and get creative when answering questions like "How does Santa get in our house if we don't have a chimney?" and "How does Santa read all the letters kids send him from all over the world? Does he understand every language?" But I also realized that it is quite a commitment and that at some point I will also have to explain to Claire why I lied to her for all those years and why it is never okay to lie except about Santa?