How does Santa roll at your house? Does the big guy bring all the gifts or just a few select items from the letters to Santa?
Our tradition in our house is that the really good gifts come from us. That’s just how it is. So far, they never asked for anything ridiculous from Santa, usually small, easily attainable things so there was no issue in giving them their requested gift from Santa, and then bigger, cooler presents from mom & dad. First of all, this helps us regulate Christmas – they don’t just get whatever huge thing they ask for. And some years the gifts from mom & dad might be bigger and some years they might be smaller. They’re also not running around at school saying “Santa’s elves made me an iPad” when the other kids might not have gotten an iPad or a TV or whatever ridiculous thing I ended up splurging on.
Also, sorry but I like to have the credit for coming up with amazing gifts! Call me selfish, but no Santa doesn’t do that for you, I do it because I LOVE YOU DANG IT!!! Am I weird?
This year I bought three VERY big ticket items. Three iPads. My kids don’t have iPads so when they popped up on Black Friday I went for it. After that when we saw Santa and they asked for small gifts, those were pretty much the only other gifts they got. I didn’t have to try to keep track of who-got-what or make sure there was an even distribution. As usual socks and a crapload of candy got stuffed in the stocking and we were all done!
Plus, the guaranteed flippin’ satisfaction on Christmas morning was so satisfying – AND they were SUPER SURPRISED. Parenting WIN! I am already thinking about next year though, because it’s kind of hard to top (plus I’ll still be paying them off, methinks).
-Jen
#ThatSurreyMom
@jenxrobbins