you know you always have to tell your children the truth. We stretch it sometime with them like at xmas and easter etc, but when they ask us is santa real, or the easter bunny, then we have to tell them the truth, and say that we weren't really lieing,

it's just a fantasy, but they still turn around and call us a liar, and we call it a fantasy, what do you do?

Our family has always been huge on xmas and love nothing more than getting into the spirit (lol not the beverage) i always made sure that i told my kids about saint nicholas  http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/xmas/around/stnicholas.html and when they came up and asked if santa was real then i would simply  remind them that even though saint nick is no longer alive his tradition lives on in all of us and that if they believe in the spirit of santa and xmas then it is real to them. they have always been happy even as they got older they never accused me of lying to them. i also tell them how important it is to enjoy time with each other.