When my kids where young, all 'big' gifts came from mom and dad, and small ones from Santa. I didn't want my kids to talk about how Santa got them an occulus or iPad, when the kid in the next chair in class, in a worse economic condition, got a much smaller gift, and start feeling left out...
Kids are excited about the magic, not what they get from whom.
If big gifts come from parents, then at least kids can understand the dynamics of "my rich friend got rich friend stuff from their rich parents", which is a different sort of unfair but more understandable.
Their mother and I didn't ask ourselves "should we do this?" -- we just did. Not everything in life is (or has to be) a rational decision.
Rather than becoming disillusioned by learning that reality is so mundane that Santa doesn't even exist, one can become empowered by learning that whether or not the world feels mundane is something we can control ourselves.
Most kids won't be able to come to that conclusion on their own, of course, so it's a bummer that it seems like nobody was able to convey that to you and that you just felt pointlessly betrayed instead. I hope you've found other ways to teach your own kids the underlying lesson.
I put presents under the tree with recepients addressed, but no from field.
When the children got old enough to actually ask me directly about it I told them the truth (and got some flak for it from my partner). Fortunately by that time other conversations I'd had with them about dragons, ghosts, and gods allowed them to integrate this knowledge in what I believe to be a pretty healthy way, but I've always felt uneasy about this casual dismissal of children's agency.
https://www.abc.net.au/education/digibooks/dust-echoes/10173...
http://thedreamingstories.com/
etc.
Where does this concept of Christmas parenting originate I wonder!