It irks me, I must admit, that I have spent so much time in the last month reading toy reviews, ordering on amazon, squirreling away packages, ditching the kids long enough to spend some time browsing toy aisles, making sure child A gets no more than child B or C and keeping it all a secret. Every time some random adult sees my kids, they ask, "So, what is Santa Claus bringing you this year?" and every time, they receive a totally different answer and I make mental notes while wishing I could give a different answer.
Nothing, kid. Santa is bringing you not a dang thing.
It isn't that I don't like the magical aspect, just that being Santa to three is a lot of work and, frankly, I like getting credit for doing a lot of work. It isn't like I'm hunting down rabid robotic rodents or anything; they fortunately have no idea what a Zhu Zhu Pet is. I haven't (yet) entered the rankings of crazy moms buying toys at 400% markup on ebay or assaulting people in malls, although finding the fourth Barbie and the Three Musketeers doll (yes, there are four of them) was making me a little twitchy.
I've decided to mix it up a little this year and make one aspect of it easier: buying for the girls. See, I have two girls who are the same age and, although they are not biologically twins, they are identical in their interests and share a room, so nearly everything they own is communal property.
This year, Santa will NOT be getting distinctive presents for Thing One and Thing Two. In the wee morning hours, she will be setting all the toys out on Oma's rug, ready to play with. No opening, no designating. Just open the door and enjoy without worrying if you got the purple one but your sister got the pink one and that's the one you really really wanted and why didn't santa know that?
There will still be stockings for each one, of course.
Which brings me to my other sore point. You know what really bites about being an adult? I now fill my own stocking. If I had the money to simply fill it with the things I really liked, it might be fun. As it is, it becomes yet another thing for mommy to do.
I do have a very sweet story I need to tell about our first married Christmas, but I'll get to that in a later post. For now, I just want credit.
3 comments:
sorry--no credit--Santa does it forever.
oma
We have managed to completely skirt the Santa issue at our house. There are no letters to Santa, no lists of what you want. You get what you get for Christmas. You don't ask for things, for Christmas or for your birthday or for any other event. You are grateful for what comes your way. The unwrapped presents under the tree? Well, there is no real explanation as to how they got there. Yep, we're lazy parents who are trying to balance the sacred and the secular by dodging as much explanation of the secular as possible.
And yep, I want the credit, too.
Yeah this Santa thing is getting a tad overrated... only seven more years till I get the credit...
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