About the time my son turned 3, he and I started a tradition of leaving a plate of cookies out for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve (as countless families do).
As part of the tradition, I told my son that we also had to leave a few carrots on the plate for Santa’s reindeer because the deer would be famished from their long journey around the world delivering presents. And before my son woke up on Christmas morning, I would be sure to take a few bites out of each cookie and eat three-quarters of each carrot.
Now 13, my son has long since stopped believing my white lie about the reindeer having actually eaten the carrots we left in our living room on Christmas Eve, not to mention Santa eating the cookies.
My Christmas tall tale is just one example of the — sometimes downright hilarious — white lies that parents tell children. Whether it’s to create magic around the holidays, discourage unwanted behaviors (we’ve seen you tell them your sweet coffee drink is “spicy” and they wouldn’t like it), or encourage a child to eat a particular food that’s good for them, parents regularly employ colorful lies to get the job done.
Here are seven amusing examples of the white lies parents tell — and some thoughts from experts on whether these tales are as “harmless” as we think they are.
