Santa Claus is Coming to Town
YOU BETTER WATCH OUT
Last newsletter of 2023. We’re ending the year with a curveball as Santa has been on my mind. Five as-short-as-I-can-make-them notices:
First, and foremost: thank you for reading the newsletter this year, and for the comments, emails, and the anonymous Sprig feedback (that feels like a no-holds-barred place for spilling your soul). I’m going into year four of The New Fatherhood as excited as ever about this thing.
For many, the holidays can be a particular trigger for mental health issues. If you need help over the next few weeks there are resources out there: if you’re in the UK, you can call the Campaign Against Living Miserably on 020 3854 2161 or Mind on 0300 123 3393; if you’re in the US, you can call the Mental Health Emergency Hotline on 988 and they’ll route you to someone who can help you locally. If you can wait, the therapy fund will be online again in January. And everything I’ve written on mental health will always be available here.
If you’re a Disney+ subscriber, here's a PSA: There’s a new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie called Cabin Fever. Watch out! I’ve had a few reports from parents up in arms about it destroying some of the Christmas magic with their kids.1
If you’re looking for a new holiday movie to fall asleep to after eating too much turkey, The Holdovers is a delight. Paul Giamatti gets back together with Sideways director Alexander Payne to forge a future Christmas classic. Highly recommended. Common Sense Media says aged 15+, but imo that’s a little conservative.
For those searching for last-minute presents for a father in your life, I have two. London and Manchester dads can take advantage of a Self Space gift card valid for a session of talk therapy. For anyone else, The New Fatherhood gift subscriptions are available: give a dad you know the gift of more great dads in their life.
Finally, for reasons that should be fairly obvious, part of this essay is going behind the paywall. This week runs a little longer than usual—around 3,000 words, along with a bumper crop of Christmas tweets. Regular service will resume when TNF is back in January. Enjoy the holidays, and see you next year.
— Kevin
I grew up with an ever-present and all-knowing God watching over me, whose constant vigilance pushed me towards being a good boy. Those raising children with religion have moral support structures available all year round. But for the rest of us, we can only tap into them in December: because Santa Claus is imminent and—just like that other white bearded man—he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good. For goodness sake.
We teach our children never to get into vehicles with strangers, before opening the Uber app and doing it ourselves. We tell them to stay off busy roads, then delight in running down them once a month thanks to schemes like Obrim Carrers in Barcelona and Play Streets in the UK. We make sure they go to sleep safe and sound in their beds, certain there’s no monster in the wardrobe, then we spend the entire month of December getting them excited about a man who is going to break into the house in the middle of the night, who will eat their cookies and help himself to a wee taste of whatever tipple Santa favours in your house.
When you take a step back and look at it objectively, it’s all a little strange …