exist? there doesn't seem to be any viable reason for a person to do this.

Should we not tell our kids fairy tales either?

We should.

And, this is not the same thing.

we should probably tell them about fairy tales, but why also tell them the tales are true?

Well, both are likely to be believed until they aren't, if that makes sense.

Kids are going to believe things that aren't real. It's just part of growing up.

nothing is perfect. but that does not matter; why still tell them actively things we know are untrue?

*sigh*

Nevermind.

so you will tell them santa is real? i mean, if fairy tales are true, santa's looking pretty reasonable right now.

ah why not

because it's fun. because magic begins with stuff like this. you know, not being able to tell exactly what you're feeling but nevertheless you know you feel it and it's special?
watching or reading or being told a fiction is accepting to not be rooted in life's problems for a certain amount of time. i remember fondly the days when i was waiting for x-mas as a little kid. i somewhat ever knew that santa didn't exist but i played the game because it was a harmless and funny lie.
when you look at it with mature eyes you see that x-mas has become such a huge junk-fest so we all should quit at once to tell kids that anything is to be celebrated on dec25.
toothfairy is ok

Lying to kids is good for them; that way they never totally believe things.

Most people don't tell their kids that the characters in fairytales exist. Ceebs asked if you would tell your kids if santa existed. So to have a consistent position would be to tell your kids the story about Santa but not tell them he exists.

If you deprive a kid of his magical childhood, you are probably raising a humorless, misanthropic, overly rational, cynical beast of human. Us idealists in the world just want to read our Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings books and hug them.

That's true, but do they believe they exist anyway? Like WM said, that's just how kids are, and how I think they should be when they're young. I believed in all sorts of shit when I was young and I'm not deluded now, but I do have an excellent imagination still. It's not necessarily a bad thing.

Ceebs quest for truth and knowledge will surely rob him of his humanity.

well, even nobody says the fairy tales are true, but when you're really small you're still afraid of the Big Bad Wolf (poor wolves ..then you give your kids teddy bears...I know which one I'd rather meet in the woods!!).
Little kids have trouble making the distinction with fiction (and they don't really believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy that long, after a bit they pretend to just in case it'd mean they don't get presents ).

I know what you mean but at the same time, it's a cultural thing that they would be deprived of and would set them apart (like kids that don't have TVs). It's a rite of passage stopping to believe in Santa Claus. You EXPECT them to stop believing after a while and would probably be worried if they still did at 10.
Plus it's a good lesson: don't believe everything people tell you.

Fairy tales are cheap. I bet if you're a struggling single mom and your kids are hungry, they'd much rather die at 70 from believing fairy tales than at 7 from starvation.

Only in America.

If by not telling your kid that there's an easter bunny, you have deprived them of their magical childhood, then there wasn't much magical about it to begin with.

None of the things listed in the op are needed in order to have a "magica" childhood.

I'll take a little kid that believes in Santa and loves everything they get over older kids that don't believe and bitch they didn't get a pink Ipod.....fuck kids that don't believe in Santa.