The Glade 4.0

PARENTS should not lie to their children about Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but instead let them in on the secret, an Australian writer claims.

Dr Joanne Faulkner, a Sydney academic, says children can still enjoy the magic of Christmas and Easter, even if they know the truth.

In her new book, The Importance of Being Innocent, she says parents "should not create a fantasy where children are not given any basis for knowing what's real and what's pretend".

She told the Herald Sun the popularity of such figures as Santa and the Easter Bunny merely fuelled an adult desire to recreate the past.

"It's also because we adults feel vulnerable to all sorts of things that we can't control," Dr Faulkner said.

Dr Faulkner has two children aged nine and 17.

"The Christmas and Easter stories are nice but I regret ever having let them believe in that," she said.


"My oldest daughter was extremely upset when she found out about Santa. She felt like she had been lied to and it's an awful feeling."

In the book, released last month, Dr Faulkner argues the insistence that children are always innocent "does not serve their interests well".

She concludes anxiety about any loss of childhood innocence is an "imaginary problem".

But Daniel Donahoo, Melbourne author of Idolising Children said Dr Faulkner was "heading in the wrong direction".

"There's something about imagination and the spaces that kids take themselves to that is important to respect," he said.

Yes, I know some who felt that way.


Let me put it to you another way:

Out of the millions (perhaps billions?) of children who have been told Santa exists, do you not think that it affected any of them negatively?'

Not believing in Santa never hurt anyone.

Do ever want to just grab someone and say...WTF is wrong with you?

The sooner you stop believing in imaginary elves, the better.

And the belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree is any better?

I am sure in the billions of children in the world that there are some that feel they were lied to about the existence of Santa...I just don't believe that it is the majority of children.

if some people can have their invisible friend who offers them something worth infinitely more than a PS3.... I do not see how a fat Blood with Reindeer is hurting anyone.

I've never said it was a majority. I'd be surprised if it had a noticeable effect on a significant fraction of kids. But why risk it when we don't have a reason to celebrate this holiday? What is the "reason for the season?" To celebrate the birth of a god one doesn't believe in? To feed the commercial machine and spend and consume? Perhaps to taint the celebration with all the pagan trappings it is wrapped in today?

I sorta like that last one. But even when I celebrated Yule, I didn't make this a special season. I never really thought there was much point to it. To anyone who thinks this is somehow depriving a family of joy, it's not that we don't celebrate for other reasons. And--believe it or not--the population of the world that celebrates christmas is a minority.

Do ever want to just grab someone and say...WTF is wrong with you?

But, then again, that's what debate is, I guess.

Out of the millions (perhaps billions?) of children who have been told Santa exists, do you not think that it affected any of them negatively?'

You said "A LOT". Backpeddle all you like. Believing in Santa never hurt anyone statistically significant proportion of the population.

I guess we shouldn't bother teaching kids science until they are ready to hear the truth about Santa, or perhaps have parental permission forms for kids to be taught science. As long as children believe Santa brings them presents, they have an extremely weak understanding of science (and criminal law). One of the first lessons should be explaining how it's impossible.

Why? My knowledge of science is what made me declare shenanigans about Santa.

Here's a recent article...

http://www.couriermail.com.au/lifestyle ... 5970665355

So I'm gonna use the rythm method, AND not spare the rod (lol). Score two for the bible! Science backs it up so it's gotta be best!

As strange as it seems, I still have a fairly clear memory of how I figured out on my own that there was no Santa....

We were spending Christmas at Grandma's in Ventura CA. Mom and Grandma (Nana) had been out shopping earlier in the day, and I was snooping around the house and found a new, unopened skittle pool game under Nana's bed.



I somehow managed to suppress the urge to drag it out and start playing with it, and just kept my find to myself. A few days later, on Christmas morning, it showed up under the Christmas Tree, tagged "To {me}, From Santa".

I remember being feeling a little sad. Not about the fact that I had been lied to. More because I somehow knew that Christmases would never be same. I eventually took it as a sort of 'you're a big boy now', 'right of passage' sort of thing. My big brother and sister were relieved they didn't have to worry about being the ones to spill the beans. And then I was saddled with the responsibility to not blab my new found secret to my other same-age friends....

I don't have any recollection of feeling betrayed, or deceived, or lied to at all....

You said "A LOT". Backpeddle all you like. Believing in Santa never hurt anyone.

This is like saying it's ok for children to skip half their classes because they can figure stuff out on their own.

Speaking for myself, my impetus isn't that the lie is harmful, but that there are no real benefits. Why spend the effort hiding the truth when eventually they're just gonna figure it out? No one's childhood happiness will be ruined by not believing in Santa. It's mostly for selfish reasons. ;P