Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell never lied to their kids about Santa: “This is going to be very controversial”
Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell subscribe to the parenting rule that they don’t lie to their kids (well, unless it comes to birthdays, in which case Bell will fudge her daughters’ birth dates if it means celebrating on a Saturday instead of a Wednesday). So Christmas in their household is a little different. Instead of breaking the “lie” rule to indulge their kids in the Santa Claus fantasy, Shepard and Bell’s daughters Lincoln and Delta have always known that Santa isn’t real.
“This is going to be very controversial, Shepard told Us Weekly on Monday, December 3rd, 2018. “I have a fundamental rule that I will never lie to them, which is challenging at times. Our 5-year-old started asking questions like, ‘Well, this doesn’t make sense, and that doesn’t make sense.’ I’m like, ‘You know what? This is just a fun thing we pretend while it’s Christmas.’
Delta and Lincoln still love Santa though, they just don’t think he’s actually going to slide down their chimney on Christmas Eve. “They love watching movies about Santa, they love talking about Santa,” Shepard added. “They don’t think he exists, but they’re super happy and everything’s fine.”
Last year, Bell told Today that they didn’t want to perpetuate the Santa myth because it’s a “crazy story to tell your child.”
"We have to tell our kid that one night a year, breaking and entering is OK and that a dude in a jumpsuit is going to come down the chimney and is going to rifle through our stuff but it's OK because he's going to leave us gifts?" Bell said at the time. "That's a crazy story to tell your child."
Bell and Shepard also use Disney Princess stories to deconstruct consent for their daughters (“Don’t you think that it’s weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission?” Bell would ask them), and while some may find their parenting style “controversial,” we hear their philosophy and understand it.
