santa 4 muslims?

[xtml]

I'm wondering how other other-faith families deal with Christmas and Santa? I realise that living in Australia, my son will be exposed to the cultural celebration of christmas, which is great, and soon he'll be old enough to understand the concept of Santa, so we'll either have to perpetuate the fairy tale or explain why Santa doesn't come to our house. We don't really want to lie to him, but we can't exactly tell him that there's no Father Christmas and that all the other kids are being lied to by their parents. HOw do other families deal with this? I figure we could celebrate both muslim and other-faith occassions, but it sort of feels wrong until i can get my head around it. any suggestions?

[Phteven]

The only reason that I hesitate to tell my children that Santa isn't real is because I wouldn't want my children to spoil the magic for other children.
So I plan on saying that Santa doesn't visit Muslims because we already have 2 Eids while the non-Muslims only have one Christmas so it wouldn't be fair if we had Christmas too. Now that Yasin is old enough to care we put up fairy lights and so on for Eid. They get spoilt rotten on Eid and also they get gifts so it's a big deal for them.

[xtml]

i think i get it, Santa is not applicable, as opposed to not real, and instead emphasise the occassions that do count. Thanks! I will give it some thought and discuss with my husband: he's been brought up muslim but is doesn't really observe/practice much, although he believes. I'm still learning and don't have much guidance, so i really appreciate your advice.