I feel sorry for kids at this time of year. It seems that every action is being monitored by this mythical man called Santa who will dictate whether they get their much wanted toy for Christmas or not.
Some mothers at nursery even seem to have his phone number and threaten to report things to him quite frequently.
It’s tempting to use any strategy available when dealing with toddler tantrums. But I’m not good at explaining Santa (on a par with explaining death?).
So my children’s presents will be from real people and will be give unconditionally. And that has to be a little closer to the real Christmas message.
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We had Father Christmas, he wasn’t a serious threat to our children and he would only leave a few token things in a stocking, while presents from everyone else were round the tree. My children gradually grew out of him, but my older ones loved buying stocking fillers for my little ones. Always found it a bit of a dilemma otherwise!!
Comment by Claire Starr November 22, 2007 @ 3:55 pmThat sounds very close to what I was brought up on too.
Comment by Morag November 22, 2007 @ 8:22 pmJust to complicate things with my husband being German, there is the St Nicholas tradition on 6th December to introduce too. Mind you, if there is chocolate involved, kids are wise enough not to ask too many questions!
I think all these traditions are fun and magical, I remember our oldest being so in awe of Father Christmas and just the magic of it all. I must admit though I used to worry, how do I tell the children Father Christmas and the tooth fairy don’t exist but God does!! (we have a very absent minded tooth fairy called Gumbelina who always forgets to come and collect the teeth, we have another tooth fairy called Bernard, who was very reliable, but he doesn’t seem to have us on his casebook anymore!!)
Comment by Claire Starr November 22, 2007 @ 9:55 pm