If you’re going to con a small child you’ve got to make some kind of effort. According to my mum, my sister has been phoning up my dad and telling her daughter (my niece) that she has Santa Claus on the line. Maisie picks up the phone and tells Santa (my dad) that she has been a good girl and that, for example, she didn’t even cry at swimming when mummy was combing her hair. (I‘d have cried. It’s big hair.) My dad doesn’t even bother to disguise his voice, with the result that, last time Maisie visited my mum, she told her baldly, and probably in complete puzzlement, “Granddad is pretending to be Santa Claus.” Apart from her slight problem with meaning of the verb “to pretend”, that girl’s not stupid.