Growing up, I was not a big fan of Christmas for reasons I won’t get into here. Suffice it to say it was a stressful time and I didn’t usually enjoy it much once I realized there was no Santa Claus.
It’s different now that I have children. It’s hard not to be excited about Christmas once those little ones believe in Santa and get all jazzed about getting gifts. Christopher already asks me every day, “Is tomorrow Christmas?”
But, I struggle with how to handle what Christmas is about with them. Jim and I agreed before we had kids that we would never go overboard, getting them a ton of gifts and spending too much money each year. So far, we’ve done pretty well. They received no more than five gifts each. They also receive gifts from Grandma, Aunt Mary and Aunt Regina (and Aunt Chris when she was still here) so don’t feel too badly for them… they have had plenty of gifts to open each year!
Last year was the first year that both boys were a bit more aware of the whole idea of Santa and the gifts they would get. We still kept it to a minimum. Each boy got five gifts from Santa and one extra gift. The new bikes were from Mommy and Daddy. This year they started talking about Santa before Thanksgiving! They even made a Christmas list for the first time. We got one of those sales ads in the newspaper that was all about the toys. I sat with the boys and each of them had a pen. We went through the ad and they marked a “J” or a “C” next to the toys they want. (Remember getting those store catalogues in the mail when we were kids? I marked the heck out of those things with what I wanted!)
This is also the first year I’ve ever done my shopping online. It was nice getting all of that done in less than two hours! It was also more difficult to stay within my five gift limit. I sat there looking at my “cart,” trying to decide how to cut back the ten gifts each I had picked out for them. Then it hit me. They are only little once. They only believe in Santa for so long. Shouldn’t they be able to have at least a Christmas or two of a bit of overindulgence? I wasn’t breaking the bank and I wasn’t using credit that I was going to have to struggle to pay in the New Year. If I’ve learned nothing else over the last couple of years it is that life is too short. I hit “proceed to checkout” without looking back.
Now, the fun has really started for me. I get online to check my email about every thirty minutes to see that Amazon email saying, “Your Amazon order for blah, blah, blah has been shipped!” I love clicking on “Track this item” to see where it is and reading that “Expected Delivery Date” to see when I will have to run outside and hide the box before the boys see it. I am so jazzed about Christmas now. This evening, I got the first package! I feel like I’m ten years old again… even though I know what’s in the box!
Yes, there will come a time when I will have to explain to my boys that Christmas isn’t about all the gifts you get. There will come a time when we will cut back on the number of presents they receive each year and we will make sure they understand why. We have already put a lot of the focus on what the season is really all about. We are teaching them all about the birth of Christ and we are teaching them that it’s about giving and helping others as well. They love putting that money in the Salvation Army bucket every time we go to the grocery store.
They will also learn that it’s about family and spending time with people we love.
But, for now, don’t they deserve to just be young and excited about all that loot under the tree that Santa has left for them? I’ve decided they do. They can be grownups when they grow up. (And I get to be a kid again with them!)