This holiday season (for the record, I am referring to it as the holiday season because Christmas does not start until December 25 and it seems a little too narrow to refer to it as Advent), I am doing just what I said I would not.
Well, I am doing what I said I would a few weeks ago, which is embracing the season. I listen to Christmas music every day in the car (mixed in with some sports radio, of course). I am trying my best to be extra pleasant to people while waiting in long lines. More often than usual, I let cars in traffic get in front of me. I have worn my various Santa hats (PSU, Steelers, red) several times , including yesterday during lunch duty. I bought a gift for the angel tree at church and have given a donation to the food bank. And I finished my Christmas cards before Thanksgiving and painstakingly waited to send them out until November 29 (just could not wait until December 1).
The thing that I did not want to do was get caught up in the presents, which is exactly what I am doing. Finances are tough this year, and yet I still feel intent on buying Jordan over a half dozen things, even knowing that her one grandma will have at least 15 to 20 presents for her to open up.
I am loathe to admit this, but I felt bad last year (even though Jordan did not seem to) when Jordan saw that Santa brought her what I remembered as only four or five things. When I saw those items under the tree Christmas morning and watched her pick them up and look at them, which took all of a few minutes (Santa does not wrap gifts in this house), it seemed like a letdown.
Believe me, I emphasize the Christian aspect of Christmas. Jordan talks about Jesus and God. She plays with her Little People Nativity set. She willingly donated her piggy bank money for a gift for a less fortunate kid. She has only three items on her Christmas list! In some ways, the kid is probably more religious than I am.
But I just can't help thinking that I am slighting Jordan on the secular, Santa part. Sadly, as I am sitting here tallying up what I spent on her and other relatives, I looked at my list from last year. Jordan actually ended up with seven or eight things. Why is it that I remembered only a few? More importantly, why does it even matter?
Am I alone in this? Believe me, I have no desire to spend hundreds of dollars on my kid; and I don't, nor do I begrudge those who want to do just that. So why is it that I am so focused on the wrong things?
Well, I am doing what I said I would a few weeks ago, which is embracing the season. I listen to Christmas music every day in the car (mixed in with some sports radio, of course). I am trying my best to be extra pleasant to people while waiting in long lines. More often than usual, I let cars in traffic get in front of me. I have worn my various Santa hats (PSU, Steelers, red) several times , including yesterday during lunch duty. I bought a gift for the angel tree at church and have given a donation to the food bank. And I finished my Christmas cards before Thanksgiving and painstakingly waited to send them out until November 29 (just could not wait until December 1).
The thing that I did not want to do was get caught up in the presents, which is exactly what I am doing. Finances are tough this year, and yet I still feel intent on buying Jordan over a half dozen things, even knowing that her one grandma will have at least 15 to 20 presents for her to open up.
I am loathe to admit this, but I felt bad last year (even though Jordan did not seem to) when Jordan saw that Santa brought her what I remembered as only four or five things. When I saw those items under the tree Christmas morning and watched her pick them up and look at them, which took all of a few minutes (Santa does not wrap gifts in this house), it seemed like a letdown.
Believe me, I emphasize the Christian aspect of Christmas. Jordan talks about Jesus and God. She plays with her Little People Nativity set. She willingly donated her piggy bank money for a gift for a less fortunate kid. She has only three items on her Christmas list! In some ways, the kid is probably more religious than I am.
But I just can't help thinking that I am slighting Jordan on the secular, Santa part. Sadly, as I am sitting here tallying up what I spent on her and other relatives, I looked at my list from last year. Jordan actually ended up with seven or eight things. Why is it that I remembered only a few? More importantly, why does it even matter?
Am I alone in this? Believe me, I have no desire to spend hundreds of dollars on my kid; and I don't, nor do I begrudge those who want to do just that. So why is it that I am so focused on the wrong things?
Comments
Anonymous: The no-Santa deal is a holdover from when I was a kid. I think it was a combo of my parents giving us big gifts that could not easily be wrapped and their being too tired to wrap something like 30 gifts. My mom insists that Santa did wrap some, but I do not remember it that way. I am considering wrapping some this year. But my poor wrap job would probably give it away.
That being said, they, like your daughter, are very good about hearing "no" when they ask for something they can't have. But, like you, sometimes it's me who ends up feeling bad about it rather than them.