to Santa or not to Santa?
As new parents, the hubster and I have had to make a ton of decisions around what we want life to look like now that we are a family of three. Going it as DINKs (Double Income No Kids) for 7 years of our marriage there were certain discussions we did not have to have. It is assumed that adults do not believe in Santa Claus. If you do you may want to stop reading. Now we have a child, and we have to decide things like "do we do Santa".
Before I get into this, I promise this isn't turning into a mommy blog. It just so happens that my life is consumed (gratefully) by my most favourite toddler in the world and it's going to have an impact on what I write. Disclaimer done, hopefully I haven't lost you.
Any conversation around Santa always starts with "what did you and your parents do?" Every family has a different culture and it's important to understand and respect that culture. The hubster and I are quite unique in that we are BOTH from families of 8 children. It is rare to be from such large families, but in answer to the burning question, I'm small-town Catholic, and my husband's fam is French Canadian.
Oddly, we found each other, kids from huge families, that came together to have a teeny family of our own and now have to decide if we will do Santa or not.
The hubster is in the middle of his siblings. They didn't do Santa. They got sugar cereal from Jesus on Christmas Eve. It only seems odd because you weren't raised doing the same thing. It's genius, breakfast was covered for the following morning and the parents could rest until it was time for brunch. Maybe my son will also get sugar cereal from Jesus.
We both unwrapped presents from our God parents on Christmas Eve. And we both got stockings on Christmas morning. In his family you had to wait and go through them all together. In my family, we got to open our stocking as soon as we woke up. I think that was my parents' replacement for Jesus cereal, we got to satiate our desire to rip open presents with our stocking at 4 am if we so desired.
I grew up the youngest of 8. We definitely did Santa, in fact my dad dressed up as Santa numerous times for our small town Christmas parties. Now, we got stockings and presents from Santa, but I was the youngest of 8. I'll pause to let you connect the dots... By the time I was at an age where Santa would have been a thing my siblings were all much older than me and we all just knew better.
I remember one year my sisters tried to convince me that there were elves in our kitchen. I was around 12 and though I appreciated the gesture I was also slightly concerned about them and who would clean up the glitter they were sprinkling all over the counter.
There are 3 things that really stood out in my mind that Santa was truly just my dad (but really my mom because let's face it, mom's do the Christmas thing!):
1. My brother and I were clinging to the last bit of our childhood in an attempt to conjure up feelings of infantile belief. We went to put out cookies and milk. My mom is a true pragmatist and we were never allowed to waste anything (a trait I have picked up and it nearly killed me the first few times my son didn't eat all of his meal). I went to pour a glass of milk and my mom asked what I was doing, I replied "putting milk out for Santa", c'mon mom, what else? And she said, "Santa is lactose intolerant". Spoiler, so was my dad.
2. Our presents were always wrapped in the same paper, no matter who it came from. Parents and Santa - same paper. When I questioned my parents on this they said they talked with Santa and he coordinated wrapping with them. Yeah, because he has time for that between rushing from house to house.
3. My mom got creative one year and we got presents from the dogs. I remember thinking, ok I know Santa's not real but Hannah and Heidi did NOT buy me a present. That clinched it.
My brother and I were chatting on the phone about this the other day and we agreed that we wanted to believe in Santa but simply didn't have the opportunity to. I watch Christmas movies about Santa and get all excited but, like my mom, I'm too practical and it is simply not feasible. She must have told me at a young age that the spirit of Santa was one of generosity and kindness because I remember spouting that off in the school yard. Not wanting to crush the other children's hopes and dreams but also really wanting them to have the same reality check I got.
It's Christmas Eve and we begin our traditions with our son today. And I'm still not sure if we will participate in Santa, or the spirit of generosity and kindness. He's not at an age where we have to decide, friends gave him a present and he played with the bow. Gotta love toddlers.
Whether you believe or not, and most likely you don't after all of my hard facts, sorry if I've spoiled it for you, I hope you have a lovely Christmas.
That's all.
🎄
Before I get into this, I promise this isn't turning into a mommy blog. It just so happens that my life is consumed (gratefully) by my most favourite toddler in the world and it's going to have an impact on what I write. Disclaimer done, hopefully I haven't lost you.
Any conversation around Santa always starts with "what did you and your parents do?" Every family has a different culture and it's important to understand and respect that culture. The hubster and I are quite unique in that we are BOTH from families of 8 children. It is rare to be from such large families, but in answer to the burning question, I'm small-town Catholic, and my husband's fam is French Canadian.
Oddly, we found each other, kids from huge families, that came together to have a teeny family of our own and now have to decide if we will do Santa or not.
The hubster is in the middle of his siblings. They didn't do Santa. They got sugar cereal from Jesus on Christmas Eve. It only seems odd because you weren't raised doing the same thing. It's genius, breakfast was covered for the following morning and the parents could rest until it was time for brunch. Maybe my son will also get sugar cereal from Jesus.
We both unwrapped presents from our God parents on Christmas Eve. And we both got stockings on Christmas morning. In his family you had to wait and go through them all together. In my family, we got to open our stocking as soon as we woke up. I think that was my parents' replacement for Jesus cereal, we got to satiate our desire to rip open presents with our stocking at 4 am if we so desired.
I grew up the youngest of 8. We definitely did Santa, in fact my dad dressed up as Santa numerous times for our small town Christmas parties. Now, we got stockings and presents from Santa, but I was the youngest of 8. I'll pause to let you connect the dots... By the time I was at an age where Santa would have been a thing my siblings were all much older than me and we all just knew better.
I remember one year my sisters tried to convince me that there were elves in our kitchen. I was around 12 and though I appreciated the gesture I was also slightly concerned about them and who would clean up the glitter they were sprinkling all over the counter.
There are 3 things that really stood out in my mind that Santa was truly just my dad (but really my mom because let's face it, mom's do the Christmas thing!):
1. My brother and I were clinging to the last bit of our childhood in an attempt to conjure up feelings of infantile belief. We went to put out cookies and milk. My mom is a true pragmatist and we were never allowed to waste anything (a trait I have picked up and it nearly killed me the first few times my son didn't eat all of his meal). I went to pour a glass of milk and my mom asked what I was doing, I replied "putting milk out for Santa", c'mon mom, what else? And she said, "Santa is lactose intolerant". Spoiler, so was my dad.
2. Our presents were always wrapped in the same paper, no matter who it came from. Parents and Santa - same paper. When I questioned my parents on this they said they talked with Santa and he coordinated wrapping with them. Yeah, because he has time for that between rushing from house to house.
3. My mom got creative one year and we got presents from the dogs. I remember thinking, ok I know Santa's not real but Hannah and Heidi did NOT buy me a present. That clinched it.
My brother and I were chatting on the phone about this the other day and we agreed that we wanted to believe in Santa but simply didn't have the opportunity to. I watch Christmas movies about Santa and get all excited but, like my mom, I'm too practical and it is simply not feasible. She must have told me at a young age that the spirit of Santa was one of generosity and kindness because I remember spouting that off in the school yard. Not wanting to crush the other children's hopes and dreams but also really wanting them to have the same reality check I got.
It's Christmas Eve and we begin our traditions with our son today. And I'm still not sure if we will participate in Santa, or the spirit of generosity and kindness. He's not at an age where we have to decide, friends gave him a present and he played with the bow. Gotta love toddlers.
Whether you believe or not, and most likely you don't after all of my hard facts, sorry if I've spoiled it for you, I hope you have a lovely Christmas.
 |
| Photo by zainab mlongo on Unsplash |
That's all.
🎄
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