A Nephite Christmas!

Our ward's Christmas Social was a Nephite Christmas. The kids all got to dress up like Lamanites/Nephites and for us Karcherites. It was alot of fun! I'm so glad we didn't have a Santa there! If you ask my kids if they believe in Santa they will say "No, we don't believe in Santa. We believe in Christ." (hopefully that's what they will say, I've been stressing this alot the last couple of years)I feel very strongly that Santa is "an incorrect tradition handed down from generation to generation" They talk alot about incorrect traditions in the scriptures. I too use to celebrate the birth of our Savior with Santa. But in recent years I have had some experiences that made me really ponder about where Santa fits in. I have always told the kids that I would never lie to them. Well when Ariana was 5 she asked me "Mom Is Santa really real? I want the real truth." I paused not sure if I should keep up the ruse or if I should tell her. I could see that she was in earnest so I said "No he's not real" She immediately started yelling and crying " you Lied! You said you would never Lie!" That was the first time I really paused and thought "What am I teaching my kids?" The next time came when a friend of another faith who doesn't respect religions other than her own made the comment when asked why she was celebrating Christmas when it wasn't part of her faith "Santa is no one's religion." Needles to say I stood there staring at her with my mouth agape and had to agree. And finally when I was pondering what to do about Santa I was reading the scriptures in one of the Nephi's I don't remember 1st 2nd third...? And it was talking about these incorrect traditions and it struck me so clearly that this was a incorrect tradition. Santa completely over shadows Christ. Is this a ploy by the adversary? I believe so. I've tried to figure out if I can have my cake and eat it too. That is can we have Santa and Christ in the same celebration? And the conclusion I have come to is NO we can't. It's confusing for the kids. Some have tried to make me feel bad about giving up Santa. They say it will ruin Christmas for the children. I disagree. I as a mother feel much better about my children being excited about Christ's birth and exclaiming "I can't wait only ___ # of day's until Christ's Birth! I would much rather hear that then "I can't wait for Santa to come give me stuff!" I know I am opening a whole can of worms here and I'm going to hear all sorts of arguments against this train of thought. I can just see some reading this with the quiet shake of the head as they can't believe I would dare cut Santa out of Christmas... but truth is where is Santa in CHRISTmas?. I'm still working the bugs out of the way in which we will celebrate Christmas. Where to draw the line so to say. But.... I'm hopeful. I think we can make this work. Eradicating Santa from our home completely will take time. But I'm on the right path.