I was taught to believe in Santa Clause by both parents (atheist father and catholic mother).
One particular year (I think I was five) my mother told to me to pray the night before Christmas to get everything I wanted for Christmas. And I did. And I got everything I wanted for Christmas. Awesome! This prayer thing apparently really worked. (I had also written a letter to Santa a few weeks earlier)
The next year, my dad suggested I write another letter to Santa. I said "nah, I tried this prayer thing last year and it worked pretty well." Dad said "um....."
I prayed, fully expecting to get everything I asked for. I got maybe a third of it.
That was when I stopped believing in God.
Well that little trick totally backfired on her. The road to (your mom's perception of) hell was paved with her good intentions.
This is an excellent anecdote to illustrate the value of ethical injunctions. Even though she (presumably) had no moral problem with actively misleading you on the power of prayer her dark arts ability is nowhere near the level required to consider all the possible consequences of her deception. She would have been better served by adopting an ethic for purely practical purposes.It may have delayed your apostasy a year or two.
I've long entertained a dubious regard for the practice of lying to children about the existence of Santa Claus. Parents might claim that it serves to make children's lives more magical and exciting, but as a general rule, children are adequately equipped to create fantasies of their own without their parents' intervention. The two reasons I suspect rest at the bottom line are adherence to tradition, and finding it cute to see one's children believing ridiculous things.
Personally, I considered this to be a rather indecent way to treat one's own children, and have sometimes wondered whether a large proportion of conspiracy theorists owe their origins to the realization that practically all the adults in the country really are conspiring to deceive children for no tangible benefit. However, since I began frequenting this site, I've been exposed to the alternate viewpoint that this realization may be good for developing rationalists, because it provides children with the experience of discovering that they hold beliefs which are wrong and absurd, and that they must reject them.
So, how did the Santa deception affect you personally? How do you think your life might have been different without it? If your parents didn't do it to you, what are your impressions on the experience of not being lied to when most other children are?
Also, I promise to upvote anyone who links to an easy to register for community of conspiracy theorists where they would not be averse to being asked the same question.