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the way i grew up, if you don't believe you don't receive. i'm sure i believed in santa as a child, even though i may not recall those memories as well as others.
to me, santa is a personification of values that my parents wanted me to learn. they did that through a story, as humans tend to do. how many of us grew up on stories like the boy who cried wolf? couldn't our parents have just said, don't tell stories to get attention or be funny cause someday someone won't believe you even if you are being honest? sure...and that would have gone in one of my 4 year old ears and right out the other. the little story made the lesson fun and interesting to me as a child.
for those of us who enjoy continuing the myth of santa (or whoever), i think part of it is also because we enjoy not only the element of tradition, but also the magical and fantastic energy it brings to holidays and events. children thrive on magical fantasies--why do you think disney is such a success? why do so many children want to talk to their pets? why do they pretend to be their pets? the myths we share about santa (easter bunny, tooth fairy, whatever) also help to foster that imagination.
as to how it impacted my ability to accept religious beliefs, i don't know that i can answer that entirely accurately since i was only raised one way. i don't think it made it difficult for me to have faith. i rejected the christian faith i was raised in based on things other than doubts about the existence of jesus or god.
do i believe in santa? not as a real person, but i still believe in the values that he personifies. while i didn't choose christianity as my spiritual path in life it wasn't because i found out santa wasn't "real" so jesus couldn't be either. before rejecting christianity, i did consider that the bible was simply a modern book of fables and myths. would that belief have impaired my ability to still have faith in the values and morals the bible teaches? imo, it didn't. i could still believe that jesus was a living man who did great things and i could still believe in the existence of god without agreeing that the bible was meant to be taken literally.
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