This is gonna sound silly, but I've never taught my daughter that there was a Santa. But when she lost a tooth, we did put money under her pillow! She knows there's no tooth fairy, but she knows that when she lost teeth, she'd wake up and cha-ching! Also, whenever someone would ask "Did Santa bring you lots of toys for Christmas?" she would answer yes. I was so scared a few times, because I thought she was going to correct them and say "No! My mommie and daddy brought them!"
I feel ya, Sistahgreek BlueReign about children having too much reality at their hands. These days, it seems like they're growing up much too fast, and they don't have the simple joys and pleasures and carefree attitudes when I was growing up just a few short years ago!
