Family Talk - Christmas Lists

How do you as a family manage the Christmas List to Santa? The oldest little man is up to 6 pages this year, we think, we may have lost count, the middle little man wrote 5 things, and the youngest, well that’s all Mom and Dad writing that list. Now mind you, for the last 5 years, we’ve been immersed in the world of toy stores with the latest and newest toys at our fingertips and more often than not coming into our home and adding to the massive collection of cars, dinosaurs, RC’s, dolls, stuffies (oh lordy the amount of stuffies), action figures, art supplies, games, puzzles, books….. The list goes on and on and the playroom and bedrooms get messier and messier.

We had the discussion with the boys about a month ago explaining we’re going to focus on experiences and not things this year. Of course, Santa would still come, and they’ll get presents, just not the immense amount they’d gotten in previous years. There are still several gifts from last year that were never opened; but there are also those special gifts that have seen love from day one. Those are the gifts that are the focus this year, not the filler gifts, knee jerk ones, and last-minute kids saw a commercial and now NEED this gift.

The interesting navigation this year will be the fact that the middle little man will get everything on his list, but the oldest and his 6+ pages will feel like he didn’t get most of what he asked for. Thankfully, the spirit of Christmas is alive and well. The special cookies for Santa are picked out, Christmas dinner is decided, and the movies have already begun. The little men are over the moon excited to continue our tradition of family day the day after Thanksgiving, picking out our tree, cranking the Christmas tunes and decorating the house top to bottom for the holidays. The day always ends with a movie and the spirit of Christmas really starting to take over.  

And then there’s that dang elf door…. Stay tuned for that