These Celebrity Parents Have Shared How They Do (Or Don’t Do) Santa

One of the biggest holiday-related decisions parents have to make is how to navigate the magic, myth, and lore of Santa Claus. Every parent knows Jolly Saint Nick isn’t just a Christmastime subject of conversation — kids bring up the big man in red year-round. Because of his omnipresence, moms and dads have to figure out a narrative that works for their lives and also lines up with the global storyline that other children know to be true. It’s always interesting to learn about how fellow parents choose to present Santa (or not!) to their little ones, and a few celebrity mamas and papas have gotten real about their own tactics.

Like most parents, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard let their two daughters believe in Santa Claus — but they’re unwilling to continue the charade once their girls start asking suspicious questions. When their eldest child, Lincoln, began exercising her critical thinking skills in relation to the legend of Saint Nicholas, neither Bell nor Shepard were willing to tell her to ignore her gut feeling. They gently told her the truth — with the help of a fantastic book — and plan to do the same with their younger daughter when the time comes.

Navigating the Santa conversation is especially difficult for people of color, and because of the nuances involved with the mainstream lore of Santa being a white man, some parents are unwilling to let their kids believe in the fantastical narrative. Gabrielle Union-Wade opened up about her husband Dwyane Wade‘s very valid perspective: “[M]y husband is like, ‘There’s no way in hell I’m letting these kids think that old white man is sneaking into our house and doing anything for them.’”

For more on how Bell and Shepard, Union-Wade and Wade, and other celebrity parents have chosen to do — or to not do — Santa, read on.

George Clooney

In 2020, George Clooney confessed he’s no different than any other tired parent trying to get their kids to behave around the holidays. During a virtual appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the Ocean’s Eleven star said, “At 3 years old you’re just trying to keep your kids in line in general. … So I devised a way to get them to behave.”

Clooney explained, “When they’re asleep in the morning and then I can hear them start — they sleep in the same bedroom — they start to make noises and it gets really fighty, you can hear the two of them getting at each other or something. And I stand outside the door, and I go, ‘Oh, hey, hi, Santa!’ And then you hear Santa is there, he’s like, ‘Ho, ho, ho!’”

The actor said the impression continues with “Santa” saying he’s just stopping by to make sure the kids are being good — “And you can hear them saying: ‘We are, Santa! We are!’” Clooney concluded, “And then he leaves and they come out, and they’re unbelievably well-behaved.”
Kristen Bell

Image Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic.

In 2019, Kristen Bell shared her experience with answering the “Is Santa real?” question from her eldest daughter. During an interview with Women’s Day, the Frozen star recalled, “[Lincoln] said, ‘I’m just not buying this whole Santa Claus thing. There’s no way he would be able to make it to every single house. You said there’s billions of people on the planet.’”

“At that moment, my heart kind of sank,” Bell admitted. She decided to handle the situation through the lens of how it might impact her daughter in the future. “I pictured her in a more adult situation where she had a sinking feeling in her gut and wanted to ask the question,” the Gossip Girl alum explained. “Was I going to pat her on the head and go, ‘Stop thinking about that, I already told you, it’s fine, believe me?’ Or would I want to produce the kind of person who goes, ‘I’m sorry, I really do need more information on this?’”

Bell told Lincoln, “[I’ll] be honest with you if you’d like me to,” and upon her daughter’s agreement, the actress gently told her Santa Claus is “an imaginary game we play because it’s really, really fun.”

The mom of two shared she used the book The (Wonderful) Truth About Santa to help Lincoln understand the giving spirit of Saint Nick, and she said she’ll navigate the conversation with her younger daughter Delta the same way when the time comes.

‘The (Wonderful) Truth About Santa’ by B.K. Gendron & Jessica Jansen

$15.99

on Amazon.com
Dax Shepard

Image Credit: Araya Doheny/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize.

Kristen Bell’s husband Dax Shepard also spoke about their decision to tell Lincoln the truth about Santa when she started questioning his existence. During an episode of his podcast, Armchair Expert, the Without a Paddle star said, “I was basically forcing her to ignore her critical thinking. And then I jogged my own memory and I don’t ever remember believing and yet I loved Christmas.”

The dad of two continued, “I also thought, ‘Is Christmas about Santa and whether or not he’s a real guy?’ No! It’s about getting together with family and showering them with love and affection and presents. That’s what’s great about Christmas.” Shepard concluded, “At a certain point, I couldn’t just keep telling her to ignore the clever part of her brain that was calling [B.S.].”
Gabrielle Union-Wade & Dwyane Wade

Image Credit: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company.

During a 2019 conversation with Tamron Hall for Oprah Daily, Gabrielle Union-Wade explained Dwyane Wade’s very valid mindset when it comes to Santa and his kids.

The Bring It On alum began, “I’ll say to my husband, ‘Let’s tell the kids their Christmas gifts are from Santa.’ And my husband is like, ‘There’s no way in hell I’m letting these kids think that old white man is sneaking into our house and doing anything for them.’” Union-Wade added, “[H]e didn’t grow up believing in Santa Claus.”

Hall related to the couple’s approach to the fictional character. “Modern parenting is especially difficult for parents of color,” she said, explaining, “[W]e have to talk about not only, ‘Are we gonna say Santa exists,’ but also ‘Is Santa Black?’” The talk show host added, “It might sound small, but these are the everyday things we’re thinking about.”
Joey Fatone

Image Credit: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images.

Joey Fatone shares two daughters with his ex-wife Kelly Baldwin, and their considerable age difference is a major factor in how the family keeps Santa’s spirit alive.

The *NSYNC singer told Us Weekly that he and Baldwin tell Briahna, 18, and Kloey, 9, “If you don’t believe, you don’t receive.” He explained, “‘If you believe in it, then you know that Santa will come. If you don’t believe in it, Santa won’t come.’”

Fatone’s eldest is an adult and has been fully aware of the truth behind the magical figure for some time, but Santa is still very real for his youngest. The musician shared, “[Briahna] will still get some gifts from Santa and some gifts from Mom and Dad. Due to the fact that Chloe’s nine, she’s still involved in it so we want to make sure that [Briahna] is still doing it and keeping the tradition alive.”
Chrissy Teigen & John Legend

In 2018, Chrissy Teigen admitted she and husband John Legend weren’t sure how they wanted to go about the Santa of it all with their kids. During a Q&A at a New York City event, the cookbook author shared, “[Luna is] just learning about Santa. I didn’t even know if I wanted her to believe in Santa.… I had no idea which way I wanted to go with it.”

Ultimately the couple decided to simply follow their kids’ lead. “John and I are just like, ‘I don’t know, we’ll figure it out when she asks, I guess,’” Teigen concluded. In the years since, the couple has documented several holiday activities involving Father Christmas, so they seem to have fully embraced taking the traditional route with their four littles.
Kate Hudson

Image Credit: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Max Mara.

“Every year, Santa comes and leaves presents for the kids out in the open,” Kate Hudson revealed in a 2016 blog post for Fabletics. “Sometimes Santa likes to wrap a couple of them but usually, he leaves them open so the kids can see what they are.”

The mom of three added, “The first thing we all do is look in our stockings and look at what Santa’s been noticing about our year. Santa is very clever, he’s very funny so he likes to give the adults very funny presents! And we usually leave Santa something every year.”
Angelina Jolie

Image Credit: Karwai Tang/WireImage.

Though Angelina Jolie hasn’t spoken firsthand about the traditions she upheld with her six kids when they were little, she was once spotted taking them on a Santa-inspired outing. In 2012, the family lived in England while the children’s dad Brad Pitt was filming World War Z. Around Christmastime, the Eternals star and her brood stopped by a rural post office to mail letters to Santa.

Post office assistant Fiona Lindsay told People, “It was so cute. All the children sent messages to Father Christmas and were absolutely beautifully behaved” (per Entertainment Tonight).