How to talk to your kids about... Santa … and other awkward Christmas conversations
Christmas seems to bring up some rather unnerving discussions in my house. I thought this might ease up as my children grew older, and once they were able to appreciate how heavily Santa relied upon my annual donations to the North Pole, but it turns out I was wrong.
In my experience at least, the awkward conversations you’d far rather wriggle out of don’t suddenly disappear once the Santa debate has been cleared up. With young adults come thornier festive issues – can the new girlfriend come over for Christmas dinner, can we ditch the silly stocking stuff and hand over a bit more cash and, by the way, we’re going out with our mates on Christmas Eve this year. (I once heard myself shriek, ‘But that’s when we watch Elf together!’ while brandishing a potato peeler in a not-altogether-festive fashion.)
The secret to navigating this part of parenting? Don’t avoid difficult conversations. Avoidance rarely works
