When my kids were younger, I didn't really do the Santa Claus thing. Money was so tight that there was no way I was giving that dude in the red suit any of the credit for the gifts under the tree.  We generally did a small exchange, and I always gave them a budget for selecting things for their wishlists, as I explained in this article about managing holiday expectations.

But then I found out that there really was a Santa.

One year was particularly fraught with financial difficulty. I'd recently bought a house, and money was even tighter than usual, what with intermittent layoffs at work. It was the same year I'd been in a custody battle, so you can imagine the expenses that had piled up with a legal case. The local women's shelter had contributed some legal assistance to my case, so they knew our circumstances were rather dire.

It was about a week before Christmas when the doorbell rang. My daughters were about 6 and 11 this year, and the gifts under the tree were sparse.