It's December 27. I feel that sense of accomplishment that only comes from completing lots of projects. My husband is great at getting all the Christmas decorations out the weekend before Thanksgiving. He pretty much single-handedly decorates for Christmas. It may not be exactly what I would do, but then again, I didn't have to do it. We were very deliberate about what we bought for the kids this year. During October and November, I cleaned out and freecycled about half of their toys and other things. I didn't want new toys going into an already over-filled playroom. Michael got a batcave, Scooby Doo figurine set, reversible Lego table, and a Home Depot tool bench. Hannah got a bike, karaoke machine, MP3 player, and clothes. She really wanted a puppy....
We (Frank) made a magnetic chalkboard in the playroom. It took about 3 coats of magnetic paint and 5 coats of chalkboard paint. They can't write on it for a few days so we'll see if all the effort was worth it. Having snow the day after Christmas was great! The kids played outside, had a snowball fight with Dad and made a snowman. The best part of the day for me was getting all the decorations back in the attic.
So I'm wondering what exactly I am teaching my kids about Christmas. We know the reason we celebrate is Jesus' birth. But truly what have we done in our Western culture?
We have an Elf on the Shelf who arrives on Thanksgiving Day, watches the kids all day, flies to the North Pole every night to report to Santa. It is fun watching the kids look for Sugar's new hiding place every morning. (It is one more thing to remember before I go to bed). The last few days before Christmas, Hannah started crying every night because she was so sad that Sugar was going back to the North Pole with Santa.
We don't put any presents under the tree until the kids are asleep on Christmas Eve. Then we wrap the small things, assemble things, and put it all under the tree. This sounds simple, but trust me, it takes a few hours and a couple glasses of wine.
Hannah woke up at 4:00 am Christmas morning. We tried letting her sleep with us for a few hours, but she had already been downstairs and seen the loot. So we let her go downstairs and watch Netflix on the ipad until 7:00. She kept coming into our room so excited that Santa had come and she had a new bike. By 7:30, she woke up Michael. The real torture was that we made them wait until Grandma was up and ready so we could video-skype with her to let her enjoy watching the kids open presents. Mission accomplished! The kids loved all their presents and have pretty much played with everything since Christmas.
Now back to my issue with the whole thing. I love the magic of the Elf and Santa and how creative I have to be in answering their questions about said mythical characters. I just hope that once they realize elves and men in red suits aren't real that they'll still believe in Jesus. Honestly, they are all unseen things. They have evidence that the elf is real because he is a new hiding place each morning. Santa must be real because of all the presents.
What am I worried about? Kids are way more resilient and much smarter than we give them credit for being. They'll be fine. They will be able to discern fact from fiction. So for now, the magic of Christmas with Santa and the gift of eternal life from Jesus will all be celebrated in December.
Happy New Year!!!
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