I blame this board . . .
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I blame this board . . .
| Wed, 07-15-2009 - 7:57am |
. . . for getting me into the Christmas mood in JULY!!!! LOL
I noticed some talk about Christmas, and a certain poster's Christmas gift ticker (

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Jax,
That's a good idea that I can use if anyone else tells little one. Luckily, my big boy wants the little one to believe as long as possible and seemed to like being my co-conspirator these past two years. - He helped wrap his brothers gifts and since I hate to wrap that was an awesome bonus for me.
Lissa
Yep, I wish 'Santa' hadn't ever started wrapping presents at my house but now I'm stuck with it. Our Santa wraps all presents for each kiddo in the same type of wrapping paper. The kids like it because it's easy to know who gets what and originally I liked it because there's no handwriting for them to recognize. They just each pick a present (with a little help from me) and open it, decide if it looks like it's for the big boy or little boy and then have at it for the rest of the presents that are in the same paper.
I never knew anyone who didn't get wrapped Santa gifts until after I had my oldest child and he associated Santa with wrapped presents in paper he hadn't seen me using. Since I hate to wrap, I really wish I'd known that not everyone's Santa wrapped. I'd have definitely gone with that and only wrapped family presents! I think I'll start telling my DS 12 that if he's ever a parent he should consider unwrapped gifts and when the little one is older I'll try to convince him too. Maybe they will grow up and have less hassle.
My dilemma is mostly about how for each $100 I spend on the 12 yr old it only buys a present or two (3 at best if all I get is DS games) but the same 100 buys so much more for the little guy - because he's my imagination boy who loves playsets and isn't into electronics at all. I worry that either the little one is going to see the imbalance of gifts and think Santa likes him more than his bubby, because more is better to a 6yr old, or that my 12 yr old will feel a little let down with so few presents to open and wish he'd selected less expensive items for his wish list.
Plus, I have no realistic clue how much is 'reasonable' to spend on Christmas gifts for each child from a household with my income level (about 50k a year before taxes) let alone factoring in the amount of debt I have that I'm trying to get out from under. I'm grateful to have a job with that income, around here there are households where it takes 2 working parents to make 50k. However, most of those households don't have college loans to pay on. My little sister thinks I deprive my kids, she gives hers so much more than I do, all year round they have brand name clothes, play in the 'right' sports leagues, go to the 'right' parties, keep up with the 'right' people etc. She thinks that because I make as much money as she and her hubby do (and since I'm alone there's only 3 of us, not 4 like her) that I should automatically be much better off than her. However, neither of them have student loans, they work in town and I commute, my son's medicines cost $100 a month with my insurance, not to mention all the co-pays I have for doctor visits, I had to pay full time daycare from birth to kindergarten for both my kids plus before and after care at the elementary school (she had hers free from Grandma) etc. She doesn't get it, gives me crap and has gone so far as to say stuff about it in front of my oldest - encouraging him to think I'm stingy or trying to be mean to him.
Whew, that whole line of thinking took me way off track on the Christmas thing. Sorry.
Lissa
I have 3 kids, ages 15, 12 and 9. Last year my little one figured it out by knowing my handwriting. No one told him, he just figured it out. But my standard statement is "If you don't believe in Santa, no presents". Wanna see how fast they believe in Santa?? LOL I have a set amount(money wise) for each kid and whatever that brings in is what they get. No matter how uneven it looks and the little one ALWAYS has more to open than the older ones because the presents for the older ones costs more than ones for the little kid.
Kelly
But my standard statement is "If you don't believe in Santa, no presents". Wanna see how fast they believe in Santa??
What kind of message is that?
Yep, I know what you mean about smiling and saying "Well, for our family, Santa brings presents to the people who believe". I always make sure to get one small thing from Santa for me because after all, "I still believe" too - both boys get a kick out of it even though older DS knows it's me. I'm careful to add the bit about 'in our family' because not all the people we hang with have the same beliefs, desire and/or ability to finance "Santa". I'm glad the difference in volume hasn't been a problem at your house, I'll keep my fingers crossed for myself. (While casually dropping reality-type info about it to older DS.)
I have a little sister six years younger than me and someone ruined Santa for me in Kindergarten so I kept the pretense a looonnnggg time for her. Plus, I have nieces and nephews as well as my older DS who already know. We've pretty much always encouraged the 'magic' of Mother Nature, the tooth fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa etc.
However, at the same time they experience what we 'know' about nature/weather/geology/history and what ours and other religions and atheists 'believe' about Easter and Christmas as events or nonevents. When they were old enough, or when schoolmates told them, we enlisted them in the 'in the know' excitement of helping create fun for others.
Reality is sobering enough, it's nice to let them have some whimsy when they can. Luckily, even though several people in my family have IQ's above the 'gifted' benchmark and are plenty clever, we've always tried to set the mood as "oh, the excitement and wonder of it all!" From "Wow, look how vast the universe is" to "you have to have hope and believe in good things and be willing/open to good things coming your way". Without that, my son who wants to be a scientist would be really morose...He told me when he was 7 that he was going to create a "bomb of chemicals" (at which point I almost wrecked the car until he finished his thought) "that could be sent into the ozone layer to fix it - since human factories and machines and chemicals mostly ruined it we should fix it and I hope they do it soon but if not I'm gonna work on it mommy" All said in his rushed, excited, run-on way!
Without a little 'whimsy' and positive outlook, his smart and rational mind could easily be skewed toward the 'what's the use' end of things as he grows older and continues to get kicked in the teeth by life. Oops, this started out as a reply to you but I can see it was influenced a lot by my thoughts about the 15th msg in this thread. Hope that's ok.
Lissa
Edited 7/16/2009 9:03 pm ET by lissa3g
See, I figured it this way. If they are old enough to figure it out that's it me doing the Santa thing, then they are old enough for the line of "if you don't believe in Santa, then no presents" line. I did hold off on acknowledging who Santa was for as long as I could (basically last Christmas morning.) It was my SON who figured it out and that is that. I do believe in the whimsy of the holiday but we don't go out of our way to celebrate it for various reasons. We do the normal baking cookies Christmas eve, stuff stockings and put presents under the tree Christmas eve. Heck, I even do St. Nick's Day (another stocking stuffing holiday that was part of my childhood). I'm sorry if you all took that line WAY TOO SERIOUSLY and felt that you had to EXPLAIN it to me. My thoughts are my thoughts and I shouldn't be EXPLAINED or TALKED to like I'm 12.
Kelly
LOL, You've got a cooler head then I do cause I totally ended up on a tangent about that post (from Marie I think?) when I was replying to you. Hehehe, if I'm gonna be so quick to go down that road maybe I should go check in at some of the debate boards. :)
-Lissa
I'm editing the above post to add this after I saw your upset message to me: I knew you were kidding and the got spirit of where you were coming from. I was trying to express my agreement and show support and my post ended up being more of a backhanded comment about the remarks of the OP who said "flame away". It was not at all meant negatively toward you and I thought I explained that. Must of done a lousy job. SORRY
Lissa
Edited 7/16/2009 8:53 pm ET by lissa3g
Edited 7/16/2009 9:05 pm ET by lissa3g
Lissa,
Nope, you didn't do a lousy job, knew where you were coming from. I wanted to prevent someone else from yelling at me for what that comment meant. No harm no foul.
Kelly
~Jackie, BookCrossing Member & Warming Families Volunteer
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