I guess I liked to keep the magic of Christmas…and all the “seasonal” holidays we celebrated alive as long as possible. I don’t consider it “lying”, I consider it allowing the imagination of a child to have free rein. (Real life sets in sooner every year anyway, which is a shame.)
If a gift was delayed…especially if it was from Santa…I would leave a letter addressed to my child…with a return address from the North Pole (and probably I would make some letterhead on the computer marked “Santa’s Workshop” because I am like that…)
Dear Liliboo (or whatever),
I hope you are having a Merry Christmas! I want you to know that there is still a special gift (gifts) that are coming to you. Unfortunately, when I was flying over Denmark, a few gifts fell out of my sleigh! And some of yours were in that bag. However, my elves are on top of it, they are busy making some new ones for you and they will be coming in the next few days (weeks). So, no naughtiness now because you still have gifts coming. One of my elves will come by and leave them when you least expect them, probably near the chimney, so you will have to keep checking, okay? Sorry about the delay….next time, I am going to have to strap the gifts in a lot tighter and tell Rudolf to take it easy around the higher clouds!
Lots of love, Santa
This gives Santa some time to make those extra gifts!