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Growing up, my mom was super anal about where our Christmas ornaments go. Big ones HAS to be on the bottom, medium ones in the middle and little ones on top. The good ones on this side. Balance out the colors...GAh, it got to be where it was such a chore to decorate the tree.
I was determined not to put my kids through it so I let them decorate it nilly willy. It drives my mom batty when she comes and sees our tree and tries to "fix" it but is under orders not to touch or remark on it.
I don't allow the TV on during holiday dinners. I grew up "watching" TV rather than enjoying the company of the family around me.
What do you do different around the holidays from when you were growing up?
probably the only thing I changed was, Christmas morning we would run down and tear open all the gifts asap. Now I like to make breakfast and shower and dress then open gifts.
Santa Claus
I never liked the entire thing anyway. I love it when you ask my son "who lives at the north pole" his response - "SUPERMAN" cousin asked "what about Santa Claus"
"no -its too cold, Just superman"
heh
Quote:
Originally Posted by momtothree
Growing up, my mom was super anal about where our Christmas ornaments go. Big ones HAS to be on the bottom, medium ones in the middle and little ones on top. The good ones on this side. Balance out the colors...GAh, it got to be where it was such a chore to decorate the tree.
I was determined not to put my kids through it so I let them decorate it nilly willy. It drives my mom batty when she comes and sees our tree and tries to "fix" it but is under orders not to touch or remark on it.
I don't allow the TV on during holiday dinners. I grew up "watching" TV rather than enjoying the company of the family around me.
What do you do different around the holidays from when you were growing up?
Santa Claus
I never liked the entire thing anyway. I love it when you ask my son "who lives at the north pole" his response - "SUPERMAN" cousin asked "what about Santa Claus"
"no -its too cold, Just superman"
heh
I forgot about that one! Yes, we don't do the Easter bunny or Santa Claus. My mom does bring a "gift" on their behalf but the girls just humor her. I don't confirm or deny their existence but I don't talk about them either.
I forgot about that one! Yes, we don't do the Easter bunny or Santa Claus. My mom does bring a "gift" on their behalf but the girls just humor her. I don't confirm or deny their existence but I don't talk about them either.
Love the Superman!
That's part of the magic of being a child. They figure it out on their own very quickly anyway.
No live tree, because on of my kids has an allergy to pine. He's out on his own now, but I've come to appreciate the ease of a pre-lit tree. We open gifts slowly, after breakfast. it was a bit of a mad frenzy when I was growing up, sometimes we didn't even wait for my parents to come down the stairs. And, when I was little, we always opened up new pjs on Christmas Eve. I didn't continue that tradition.
We used to let our kids open the gifts from "Mommy and Daddy" Christmas Eve and the ones from Santa were left under the tree for Christmas morning. When they stopped believing in Santa Claus, we opened all the gifts Christmas Eve. We still do that (at my oldest daughter's house, usually) and sleep in on Christmas morning. We've also started having our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve instead, and picked at the leftovers on Christmas Day.
We also don't go to church on Christmas Eve the way I did growing up, and we didn't send our kids to Sunday School, so they weren't in any Sunday School Christmas programs. When I was a kid, I used to look forward to getting a box of candy and a tangerine after the performance.
I stopped the tradition of going to other people's houses on Christmas. We stay here. I hated getting my gifts and hurrying up to leave.
We always had an artificial tree and part of our tradition is just us girls go out to cut down our tree each year. I plan to continue this. I told the girls I would like it if each year they would come with me to cut my tree even after they're grown and moved out.
We have fun with it. I use them as markers for trees I like. Then they fight over whose tree I chose the year before. It's just a really fun day.
When we lived close to family, Christmas Day always involved dressing up, driving somewhere, and preparing a huge formal feast. We're by ourselves now, although my sister-in-law and her son come to visit every year, and this year my mother-in-law will be with us too. I put out cheese, crackers, crudites, hummus, olives, nuts, and other munchies, and we'll go through some hot appetizers or something kept warm in a crockpot like queso dip. Everybody gets new pajamas on Christmas Eve, and we spend the day lounging around and playing with the new toys.
I don't confirm or deny their existence but I don't talk about them either.
Us too. While we've gone along with Santa because it's such a huge thing in school and with other families, we ascribe to your mantra above. (I did really struggle with "lying" to my 4 year old once we had to decide to stay on or get of the Santa train a couple of years back so to speak.) We don't purposely elevate Santa or go out of our way to talk about him, no "you better be good because Santa is watching." "What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?"
The one thing we made clear is that the main gifts, big gifts come from US, not a some stranger who flies through the sky... he, instead, gives only stocking stuffers. While I think the story of Santa and believing can be/mostly is magical, I don't think he should be the focus of the holiday, nor do I think he should receive the kudos and credit for gifts for my children the way my parents cultivated Santa (and Christmas) in our lives. It was crushing to learn the truth because my family's allegiance to the story had been so strong.
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