I’m pregnant with my first child, and I never want her to believe in Santa but my boyfriend does..

The other day my boyfriend asked me how I found out Santa wasn’t real. I just stopped believing when I was 3 and when I was 5 asked my mom if he was real and she said no. I wasn’t hurt by this and my response was “Eh, I didn’t believe in him anyways.”

This led into a discussion about how I never wanted to lie to my child and say that Santa exists. My boyfriend and I are both agnostic atheists so I don’t see the big deal, but he really wants her to believe in Santa. Next christmas my daughter will be 8 months old and obviously I still want to celebrate christmas, but without the Santa aspect.

I just don’t find the appeal in Santa. Not only would I be lying to my kid, but I wouldn’t want her to be hurt because of the lie. My little cousin is SIX and gets made fun of constantly at school for believing in Santa and I don’t want my daughter to go through that.

My boyfriend says he wants her to be imaginative. I never understood that, in all actuality Santa is just a scare tactic to get kids to behave. “If you don’t behave then Santa will say you’re bad and you get no toys.” I think I’m capable of getting my child to behave without scaring her into behaving.

My boyfriend still won’t budge on this and wants her to believe and it’s just very stupid to me honestly, I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. I am dead set on never allowing her to believe in Santa but my boyfriend really wants her to and it’s a bit aggravating because I love him.