More of Dawn’s questions answered. (By the way, Nicole, I’m getting to your awesome questions too, it’s just that some of yours are very thought-provoking and kind of draining for me to think through and write – a good thing, I assure you. And Christmas is on my brain right now. But I can’t wait to get to ‘em, I promise!)
This one is addressing how we deal with the glut of Christmas – embrace or limit.
Both.
I’m so helpful, right?
My husband and I really struggle with this. We inevitably go back and forth every Christmas. We want to shower our kids with their every desire and yet don’t want to foster that view of the season or even life for that matter.
First off, we currently “do Santa”. We didn’t for the first 3 years of having children. I’m the one with the problem with Santa. I worry that belief in something unseen and unreal will confuse and dismay them about the real unseen. I worry a lot. And I have not good memories of finding out the truth when I was young. But my husband, a firm believer in Jesus long before I was, said he never had issues with the 2 being separate in his mind. His parents did something right in distinguishing and yet allowing the magic icon of Christmas to not interfere with their very real faith. I can only hope we will do the same. But it wasn’t worth the risk and I swayed Matt into not doing Santa for years. And then on that 3rd Christmas 3 days before the fateful glorious day our oldest, then a tender 3 years old, said mournfully, “Mama, is Santa going to bring us presents too, like all the other kids?” And in that moment my heart simultaneously melted and grew 3 sizes and said emphatically, “Yes, baby, he sure is!” To which my husband leaned his head out of the kitchen and said, “Do WHAT?” And so, like everything else in our lives we stumbled into what we do and hope it will turn out right. We don’t plan or stick to plans well. But this post is not a debate forum for the mythical clown in a red suit, yo? It’s a lead-in into what we’ll be doing this year.
Pictures are all from the small town Christmas parade and the fun we had waiting on it.
So, Christmas is getting more and more complicated. And more and more expensive. We keep adding kids to the mix. We shop for each child. Doing the last minute “even up” of gifts and perceived balance of gifts. Then we have to divide what we’re giving versus what Santa is giving. And when my children’s desire to give gifts to each other came out we would squelch it because we have so many children and not so much money and we were already giving them so many things we couldn’t possibly find the money to spread out like that. Stupidity + gluttony = an uneasy feeling.
This year we prayed about it and discussed it. We (Matt and I) will be giving one gift to each child. We’ll be filling one small stocking for each child with candy, nuts, and a couple dollar gifts. That stocking will be the only thing from Santa this year. I like that “his” portion is being reduced, though it’s never been the crowning jewel of our celebration anyway. Then we’re going to allow each of the four older children to choose one $20 gift for each of the other 3 older kids. They will each get to choose a $5 gift for the Baby (almost 14 months old as of right now). The kids and I will be making and buying dollar gifts for friends and family, as in the past. So, the Baby will receive in all from us: 4 older kid-chosen gifts, a small stocking, and one gift from us (the parents). Each of the other kids will receive 3 kid-chosen gifts, one small stocking, and one gift from us. Santa is reduced, we get to pick something, the kids get the joy of giving, we limit the money spent, we’ll be teaching how to choose gifts for others and not just buy what’s on a list of wants, and we get to spend time alone with each child to pick out gifts for the others. I hope this will work out well. We’ll let you know. Of course, for the gluttony side of it all we have grandparents that will spoil them just as they should!
So, now I want to know how you do it? How do you handle Christmas in your house, especially if you have a larger than normal family?
