posted
There were three of us very close in age to one another. If Santa brought one child something big, it was because we all got it. But he started getting creative as we got older, so we wouldn't catch on. Like the year my sister under me had a stereo under the tree. I was a bit resentful, as I had wanted one, but repented when I discovered mine in the garage where I would see it when my father asked me to go fetch something.
I think Santa wanted to be sure the peace was kept in our home.
I don't remember much else, but I'm sure we had some of those events. I think if that happened, we were all close enough that the item got shared, whether the owner wanted to or not.
posted
Is your name Robert, and your brother's Ray?
I'm hypersensitive about keeping things even with my kids. Too much so, I admit it. In fact I'm heading out to find one last gift to balance the scales today.
Posts: 4325 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I have no recollection of every buying into the existence of the man.
The thing that really sealed it for me was the obvious "good boy" disconnect.
When the most badly behaved children seemed to get the best gifts (because their parents were rich), and the best behaved boy (that would be me) didn't, I knew the whole thing was a sham.
Unfortunately, developing the ability to evaluate empiricle evidence at such a young age has turned me into a bit of a curmudgeon. Posts: 8601 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
My senior year in high school I wanted a cedar hope chest like all the other girls..... I got a homemade one my dad made. It wasn't cedar but it was bigger. I was disappointed but as I grew older I started to love it. I feel so bad now that I was disappointed because my dad put a lot of work and love into it. It is one of my prized possessions that will be handed down to my daughter when I pass. It means so much to me now that my dad has passed on. "Santa" really got it right. I needed an attitude adjustment.
quote: I'm hypersensitive about keeping things even with my kids. Too much so, I admit it. In fact I'm heading out to find one last gift to balance the scales today.
My philosophy is totally opposite. I do NOT try to "balance the scales." My kids always knew that I would not tolerate present counting, and that things were always more or less even, and if they weren't even this year, it would even out next year.
When my kids were little, I read a book that made sense to me when it said parents who "keep score" teach their children to "keep score" and that comes back to bite the parents who can't possibly keep things even all the time.
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posted
Then there was the year I sat on Santa's lap in the JC Penney store and begged for a horse. When Santa finally convinced me that I could not - - - absolutely could not - - - keep a real horse in my bedroom, I said ok. He could bring me a grand piano instead. I got a stuffed dog.
Posts: 103 | Registered: Feb 2008
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posted
When we're talking about a small number of presents, it seems more important to keep the number and value the same, or close. On child getting 2 presents and another getting 3 just doesn't feel okay. But I'm willing to consider that I could be wrong.
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posted
My kids knew to trust me to keep it close. Two more expensive presents might equal three or four less expensive ones. And since I often found things at steeply discounted sale prices, it was a lot of work to do the math to try to keep it "equal." I refused to use a calculator or spread sheet to keep things even. And I found that even if I really tried to make it as fair as possible, the gifts they got from others (grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and miscellaneous members of the ward) often messed up the balance again anyway.
For instance, one year, a generous member of our ward bought my oldest daughter a new flute when she heard her play in sacrament meeting on a leaky old student model. (I have no idea how much this cost, but I believe it would have been at least $750!) There was no way I could possibly do anything for my other three kids to make that Christmas "fair." Instead, we all celebrated the amazing generosity of that sweet sister by listening to my daughter play her new flute and talking about how someday we would be able to do something like that for someone. That was about 12 years ago. If my kids had been taught to keep score, three of them would still be sending me invoices every Christmas.
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posted
Santa totally got it right one year when he brought me a purple coat, with matching purple scarf, hat and gloves. I couldn't have been happier.
The thing with santa is that he never brought us what we asked for. We would go through the catalogs and make lists of cool toys, and on Christmas morning, we would get some totally random thing. But they were the best things! The surprise was always more fun.
The other thing about Santa is that he tried very hard to keep it even. I had 7 siblings and there would be 8 blow dryers inder the tree, or 8 electric blankets, or enough new school desks for each room to have one.
The most annoying gift moment I had was when my primary teacher brought me Barbie clothes for my birthday. I informed her--as nicely as I could--that I didn't have a Barbie. She said "That's ok. These clothes will fit any doll." And I told her I didn't have a doll, at all. She wiped away a tear (or so it seemed) and told me she would get me something else. She never did! I was jipped!
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My mom was a little kid when the depression was on. She prayed for a dolly with eyes that opened and closed. She got an orange. She was three and she cried until she saw her mother crying, too. That was a hard year for her. For Santa, too.
Fast forward 75 years. Picture a little white-haired lady walking around the house on Christmas morning smiling like a three-year-old. Santa brought her a beautiful baby doll with frilly clothes and shiny shoes. She's crying, but not from disappointment. Sometimes Santa's a real genius.
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posted
Santa only stuffs stocking at our house, no other gift.
He got it right last year. Because he got it right last year he is going to get it way wrong this year.
Gavin asked Santa for a monster truck last year a day or so before Christmas. Santa managed to find a small one and put it in Gavin's stocking.
This year Gavin asked for a nintendo DS. He is not going to get it. When I tried to soften the blow, "You know, you might not get a DS" Gavin told me that he asked for a monster truck last year so he was sure he would get a DS this year. Ug.
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posted
I never remember thinking of Santa as real real. He was a wink wink, nudge nudge in-joke at our house (for instance, at my dad's house things were sometimes from "Sandy Claws," the friendly Christmas Crab.) (The Tooth Fairy, on the other hand, I totally and completely believed in.) I of course had my share of Christmas disappointments anyway...
In our home, Santa stuffs stockings and brings one gift per child, too.
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quote: Fast forward 75 years. Picture a little white-haired lady walking around the house on Christmas morning smiling like a three-year-old. Santa brought her a beautiful baby doll with frilly clothes and shiny shoes. She's crying, but not from disappointment. Sometimes Santa's a real genius.
These kind of moments make the holiday for me. There is no greater more wonderful more splendid satisfaction to have gifted someone's inner need--and totally surprise them as well. In my life,because I have been blessed with the ability and occasion, I have designed and constructed all sorts of garments, fancy and plain. Not just for Christmas-but- I have helped brides glow, actors create characters, donated white gowns to personalize a sisters first temple visit, made little princesses/faeries faces light up. All very worth while; special memories. However, it is the beribboned and beruffled flannel nightgowns especially designed for my tiny crooked hard to please mother that are the works of my hands that give back the most joy to me. The thought that this year's model may be the very last makes her joy of it poignantly intensify my pleasure in her delighted acceptance.
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posted
jana, that last sentence was filled with a lot of big words, and I am an English teacher of sorts!
I remember really crying when I was between 17-19 when my parents didn't get me a used car for Christmas. That was all I wanted. I didn't care if it was mashed up, banged up, or what have you, I was really upset.
I am usually disappointed on Christmas because I am never surprised (by my husband). And I am a snooper so half of it is my fault. After knowing me for twelve years, and being married for six, he should know not to keep ANY present in the house.
Posts: 666 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I've never had extremes of emotion one way or the other. Prezzies from Santa were always fun, and so was Christmas. Giving was (and continues to be) a greater generator of joy than receiving.
The Printer's union Christmas Party Santa gave me a doll one year - boy was my dad angry.
I wasn't especially traumatized when I stayed up late to watch my parents fill the stockings.
I'm having a huge kick raising kids. Every year, we figure it's the last year my oldest will believe in S. Claus, but she's still holding on. I talk a lot about the spirit of Christmas.
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Santa got it right this year!!! We ended up with a last minute situation of a family we know, that we felt needed our help at Christmas..... they did not even have a tree. Because of the last minute frenzy of it, we put their Christmas together in our living room. We wanted our 8 year old daughter to be a part of the magic of helping, but in the process she was deeply disappointed that a few days before Christmas she came to realize that "Santa" was different than she had imagined. I struggled with it a bit, because her helpfulness with putting things together was so genuine and thoughtful, but her disappointment at the thought of not being able to anticipate flying reindeer could not be hidden.
As everyone knows..... Santa is very busy on Christmas Eve, and so it was much to our surprise when he showed up on our doorstep, with his rosy round cheeks, and jolly laugh to thank the children for being his helper, and to wish them a Merry Christmas!
It was a magical Christmas!! Santa got it just right. Posts: 1065 | Registered: Oct 2006
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These kind of moments make the holiday for me. There is no greater more wonderful more splendid satisfaction to have gifted someone's inner need--and totally surprise them as well.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
