Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade are into celebrating Christmas with their children like many other parents, but they don’t tell them that Santa Claus is real, which the actress revealed in a new interview.
While speaking with Tamron Hall for OprahMag.com, Union said it was her husband’s idea to remove the idea of Santa from their Christmas celebration.
The couple, who have been married since 2014, have a 10-month daughter named Kaavia James, and Union is stepmom to the retired NBA player’s three boys Zaire, Zion and Xavier, who are 17, 12 and 5 respectively. Wade also got custody of his nephew Dahveon Morris in 2014, who will soon be 18.
“I’ll say to my husband, ‘Let’s tell the kids their Christmas gifts are from Santa,'” Union explained. “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.’ Because he didn’t grow up believing in Santa Claus.”
“We have these conversations when it comes to raising our children about where to draw the line between fantasy and ‘Hey, that’s not how life works,’” she added.
Hall, whose talk show “Tamron Hall” began on Sept. 9, said the question of whether to raise children believing in Santa is a topic that she wants to cover on her show. She also wants to talk about the families who tell their kids that St. Nick is black.
Union and Hall are said to be close friends, who bonded over their struggles with infertility. In April, Hall announced that she gave birth to a son named Moses.
“Modern parenting is especially difficult for parents of color — we have to talk about not only are we gonna say Santa exists but also is Santa Black?” Hall explained. “Again, this is exactly the conversation that we want to have on the show. Because some families might not even realize this is a thing. So we want all perspectives.”
