My mom didn't become a jw until I was 12, and she made believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy so special that my belief in them carried me through some very traumatic times and disappointments as a young child. She was a single mother in the late 60's before the ERA movement and enforced child support, so times were tough.
The first visit from the Tooth Fairy that I remember involved finding a note written on a paper plate apologizing for running out of quarters by the time that she arrived at my house and that she would return, (ironically enough) right after Mom's next payday with my quarter. I don't remember getting the quarter, but to this day, I remember how honored and priveleged I felt about getting an actual note from the Tooth Fairy!
A few years later a teenaged babysitter told me that Santa wasn't real, and I was beside myself with grief! Of course, Mom let me in on the secret that Santa was only real to good kids like me and my brother, and that parents of spoiled, hateful kids like the babysitter had to buy their Christmas gifts, because Santa wouldn't stop at their houses. Although there were times that I didn't get what I wanted for Christmas, I never was disappointed but instead felt honored that Santa remembered me.
My brother and I figured out that none of it was real when we found Easter candy stuffed in a closet one summer. Mom must've hidden it and forgotten it was there. I wasn't traumatized, becuse she lied. Actually I really appreciated everything she did to make the holidays special despite being broke all of the time. And she never failed to make us feel special.
I really miss her. She became a different person when she became jw. She's shunned me for 20 years.