We were looking through a Bronner's catalog, picking out some ornaments for Mari and for Hailey and Micah and she completely threw me for a loop. In our family we don't really make a big deal about Santa. I don't use "Santa is watching" to threaten them into good behavior. We don't spend a lot of time discussing Santa, but I haven't just come out and told them the truth either. We allow Santa to take credit for the kids' stockings. So the big man handles the socks, underwear, and pajamas...as well as a few small surprises.
I know that this is a big issue for some people and a non issue for others. I am still sort of on the fence about the whole thing. I don't see any problem with my kids knowing the truth; I just wouldn't want them to spoil anything for anyone else's children. We chose to just do stockings because I knew money would always be a challenge and I was hoping to discourage the dream that Santa could bring them anything.
So when Hailey asked, I turned the question around and asked her what she thought. She told me that she thought the presents were from us (her parents). I told her she was a smart girl. And then a beat later she was talking about Santa coming down the chimney. Gotta love kids!
Here are some of the ornaments on our list...
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| Instead of Jenna it will say Mariana (we all have one with our name on it) |
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| Micah's choice for his collection |
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| Hailey's choice for her collection. |
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| The annual ornament - a new series (I'm hoping) 12 Days of Christmas. |
I was glad to see you write about this. We're on the other end of it. This is really the first year that John will "get" Christmas and the parents are not in alignment on what role Santa will have. We do agree we want to minimize it, I'm just not sure I want to start it at all. Part of it feels like lying to my kids. But another part agrees with you that I don't want him to ruin it for other children. We do try to minimize the gifts, since they are blessed with so much already. John opened about three gifts last year then was ready to play. He ended up having a full blown meltdown, so we took him and the opened toys into the living room, then tucked the rest away in his closet for introduction at later dates.
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