How did we get in this mess? Lil Bit and Big boy are overindulged at Christmas. There, I said it. I would love to blame Santa but I can’t. The blame falls squarely on my husband and I.
It started with Big Boy’s first Christmas. Being an early October baby, he was only 3 months old and had no idea what was going on. My husband and I decided that we had already bought each other everything we cold possibly buy by the time Big Boy arrived o the scene so, we agreed that first Christmas that we would not buy each other anything. We would each go out on separate shopping trips for Big Boy and that way, we could enjoy the surprise of seeing what each of us had bought him. Kinda silly considering that we could have just skipped Big Boy’s first couple of Christmases and he would never have been the wiser.
By the time Big Boy was old enough to understand Christmas and Santa, we were already deep into a bad habit – overindulgence. But we enjoyed buying him stuff sooo much. And we had the money so, why not? Plus, my husband was obsessed with recreating for Big Boy, his childhood memories of a living room completely covered with presents. Never mind that there were five kids in the house and the living room was not that big. Two presents each would cover the entire floor. While I commend my husband’s parents for creating a childhood memory of lots and lots of presents from Santa, they did create a bit of a monster.
We love the Santa story and want our children to enjoy the magic as long as possible so, we made every possible effort to make sure that all of the wishes made to Santa came true.
By Big Boy’s fifth Christmas, he had a little sister and we had a little less money. We never wanted Big Boy to feel that his new sister was taking anything away from his lifestyle so we worked very hard to never say “we can’t afford that now because…” We did whatever we could to fill his Christmas with everything he could ever dream of.
So, here we are, with two Children who have some very big wishes and two parents whose biggest desire is to have happy children on Christmas morning. We are doing it with a little less money this year and Big Boy is not getting his requested iPad, laptop computer, iPhone4, DSiXL… Lil Bit is getting most of what she asked for but she doesn’t have a big list.
There are a lot of kids out there who don’t know what it is like to have a floor covered with presents at Christmastime. All I can do at this point is hope that the kids realize how lucky they are and are happy with what they do get for Christmas this year.
On a happy note, now that I am not working, I had a chance to wrap all of the kids' presents and stash them back in the attic. I don't know what I am going to do Christmas eve now that I don't have to stay up until almost dawn wrapping.
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