Momma Sandy Says - Thoughts on the Holiday Season

Momma Sandy Says

Thoughts on the Holiday Season

     It's mid December and I'm in the Christmas crunch.  I'm going to do a shorter blog tonight, talking about some Christmas traditions I'm familiar with and things to look for with them.

A coworker today talked about her family tradition of only opening one present on Christmas Eve.  That reminded me of how my family did that, and how I carried that on to my own family, once I had children.  It's a good way to defuse some of the tension of Christmas Eve.  As a parent, you need to pre-decide which one present each child can open.  New Pj's may seem like a good idea, but your children would probably want to be able to play with a new toy.

  This was a tradition that changed pretty rapidly as the kids got older and our families got more complicated.  When Christmas Eve was at my mom's house the expectation was that we would open gifts from them and their friends.  By the time we would get home it was often too late for a Christmas of our own.  There would be time to hang stockings (by the chimney with care, of course), baths, and then bed.

   Speaking of Christmas stockings, I'm a firm believer in them.  Currently hanging are 5 stockings from throughout my life.  Early traditions call for real socks to be used, but we never did.  All of the stockings I've had are unique and beautiful.  Stockings were not for big, expensive gifts,  There was always a toy-no matter what age!  Mostly it was for practical stuff.  Typically in my stocking there would be socks, a new toothbrush, bath stuff (hooray!), a little candy, and when I got older, some make up.  I was grateful to get all of that.  My kids grew up with the same concepts.  For us it worked.  Keep the cost down and keep it simple.  When our kids got older (and knew that Santa and mom were closely connected) we had them help.  Everything from helping choose the presents, to helping wrap, and once they were older, helping buy some of the presents.  As teens, having them invested in the process made the whole thing more fun.

   What to do about Santa?  This has become a much tougher issue.  We teach our children to be afraid of strangers, yet every December we encourage them to take photos with this strange, older man in a red suit.  I am not surprised that so many kids start screaming once they realize that they're supposed to interact with Santa.

   I raised my children to believe in Santa Claus.  To believe that there was a man and his support system (Mrs. Claus and the elves) that gave gifts to kids throughout the world.  He filled our Christmas stockings too.  Santa was a generous and loving man who had faith in people.

   Once our children were old enough to start questioning, we included each child-asking them to not tell the youngers.  It wasn't fair to spoil the magic for them.  But now that they knew, they could take part-become Santa's helpers themselves.  To know a good secret that a younger sibling doesn't is always fun.

   I hope that the tradition of Santa Claus can continue.  In our paranoid world it may not be possible, and that's sad.

   Finally, I want to touch on the religious elements of the season.  For almost every religion around there is some sort of tradition around the winter solstice.  This is the time when light overcomes the growing darkness.  Although Christ of the Christian tradition was probably born in the late spring or late summer, it works that we celebrate his birth near the date of the winter solstice.  Whatever your spiritual beliefs, embrace them during the winter holiday season.  Use the time to teach your children that loving and giving to others is a very good thing.  A child that learns the joy of giving has taken an important step towards becoming a good adult.

   And please, be tolerant of other spiritual beliefs.  My children had a Jewish step-grandfather and learned to enjoy the Jewish holidays as well.  Though I think they liked the food of Hanukkah the best.  That and the chocolate gold coins.

Have fun this holiday season.  Try to stick to your schedules so that everything gets done on time, but make sure you include time for yourself as well.