“If you don’t believe in Santa, he won’t bring you any presents.”
That’s what I tell my 10 yr old so he won’t spoil the magic for believers (i.e. little kids, especially his little sister). It was before Christmas last year that someone at school ruined it for him. Grr. Why don’t all parents tell their kid’s the same thing so they don’t ruin it for someone else?
My little girl told us in the car yesterday that so-and-so at school said Santa’s a fake and it’s really the parents that bring us those gifts. “That’s ridiculous,” I said. “You know better that there’s no way I would spent that kind of money on those Zhu Zhu Pets you got last year! Only Santa would’ve done that.” She agreed whole heartedly. Phew.
Another tidbit about Santa and our house: he gives each child three presents as a reminder of what Christmas is really about… Jesus’ birth. Jesus received three gifts from the three wise men when he was born. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for our kid’s.
The other thing about gift giving is that our kid’s have varying price tags with their Wish Lists. The 10yo has more expensive taste (video games, electronics, gadgets) and the 7yo is happy with yet another stuffed animal she fell in love with at the store (just like her mom as a little girl). That’d be a LOT of stuffed animals to equal the price of electronics.
A gift shouldn’t be about how much it costs,
it really just needs to be thoughtful.
Like the time a friend gave me a bar of soap for my birthday. That it cost less than a cup of Starbucks wasn’t the point, the point was that she knows ME and how much I unhealthily ADORE Yardley of London Flowering English Lavender soap (thanks to Carrabba’s Italian Restaurant; it’s in their bathroom…can’t wash my hands enough when I’m there).
So instead of coming up with a price to spend on each child, we have a ceiling budget to stay under and get them three gifts each from both of us. They get plenty gifts with all the family we have, so it’s not like they’re lacking. However… it IS hard to limit myself to just three. Sometimes I package a few of the same thing together to make one (2 Lego sets in one box or put together with one ribbon; several books go in one box) or try to make stuff I couldn’t resist buying fit in their stocking.
Oh, our other trick is that we don’t have cable TV anymore, so we aren’t getting bombarded with commercials telling us what we want. Like the dreaded Zhu Zhu Pet disaster of 2009. (Can you tell I hate those things? Let me know if you want to buy any of the accessories we have that were played with for a total of 20 minutes.)
We have REAL, LIVE PET RATS (I should show you how cute they are)! Why on earth do we need fake one’s?
P.S. The photo’s? That’s me on the left about 8yrs old with awesome orange bell bottom pants and me again on the right this week with an awesome orange sweatshirt. Guess I like orange, eh? And I love that I still clip my hair on the same side after these few years ;)
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We do the three gifts thing too. And I love the clip.
I’m glad Santa didn’t stop coming when I stopped believing in him, otherwise I would have been one very sad 2-year-old. Honestly, I don’t ever remember really believing in Santa Claus, but I never would have dreamed of telling any of my friends (good thing I didn’t have any friend when I was little, because apparently I did tell my older sister the sad and sorry truth when I was 3 and she was 5 and she cried–I don’t remember thatj). In our house the rule was when you stopped believing in Santa you got to start being Santa, or at least a helper, and help fill the stockings (everyone else’s of course, not your own) on Christmas Eve. That made it way fun to keep the secret. Not that you’re doing it wrong. I’m just saying…. Merry Christmas!
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