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.