I absolutely LOVE Christmas
time. It's been one of my favorite times since I was a kid. I loved
coming into the living room with the tree and seeing the HUGE pile of
gifts below it. I loved going to my grandparents home for a HUGE
breakfast, and I loved all of us coming back to our house to show off
what we got and start playing with everything. I remember having a
friend growing up that was a Jehovah's Witness and it boggled my mind
that she didn't get gifts and was okay with it!
That being said, having kids makes me wonder how many gifts we REALLY need to be giving them. Not only does it make me worry they'll have issues remembering it's about giving more than receiving, but also because they are at an age where too many gifts can be overwhelming and they get sick of opening them. I saw an "episode" that The Bucket List Family (on YouTube) posted showing their Christmas in a cabin, and when they came downstairs the kids only got one gift from each of the parents and siblings and I thought that was SUCH a great idea. I love the idea of being more minimalist with gifts and the idea of them helping pick out gifts for each other helps learn about the giving part.
I also learned this year about a "Want, Need, Wear, Read" concept, where everyone only gets one gift for each category. Now we plan on having only one more kid (no more after that) so if we did one gift from each person then we'd all get 5 gifts, if we need the want, need, wear, read then we'd only get 4 (I'll still do some small things for stockings though) and I'm trying to decide which is best for us. One thing to know is Larry and I don't like the idea of our kids thinking Santa brings gifts because we feel that once you know the truth about him, it ruins the magic. I'd like to throw in a couple family gifts (maybe a big toy for the kids and something for the house for us? Maybe a family vacation? Something along those lines) or something that the kids don't know about so that there is a bit of a mystery with it, but I'm still working out the kinks.
I will say not relying on Santa can be complicated. For one, there's SO many movies and songs that talks about Santa bringing gifts. Then there's visiting Santa for our annual picture (why would we do that if we don't believe he's real?). Finally, there's the issue of when relatives or friends bring him up or ask what they are asking Santa for. I wish I had all the answers for handling this, but so far the best I've been able to come up with is to neither confirm or deny him for our kids. I will not say Santa brought gifts, I will not say he doesn't bring gifts. I'll let my kids figure out what they want to believe on their own. If they ask, I'll ask them who they think brings the gifts and why and see if they can make a story up on their own. And I hope they'll be able to keep a hold of the excitement and magic for as long as possible. If they ask about Santa specifically, I may lean them to more him being a character of Christmas (like Frosty or Rudolph)...we'll see how well that works out.
Anyways, these are my many thoughts, feelings, and hopefully good traditions/ideas on how Christmas will go down in our home. I hope it's as great for my kids as it was for me...and not because of the loads of presents under the tree.
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