Persimmon Glen

Today I'm going to stay on the subject of Christmas. Santa specifically.
It's a bit off subject, but hey, it's that time of year.

I don't know who started the idea of there being a Santa Claus but I understand it's pretty much a worldwide tradition.

It's a wonderful and charming, warm and fuzzy tradition that has delighted children for centuries. I'm not so sure it has been such a delight for parents however.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me to make the business of gift giving much more complicated if you're a parent.
I had twin boys first, then another boy 21 months later. I have to say I've never had it easy money wise, and Christmas was especially hard.
Because of Santa, I had to buy double the amount of gifts for my children.
My boys weren't any different from any other kids when it came to writing letters to Santa and putting out milk and cookies and sitting on his lap in the mall. They had high hopes that Santa would bring their dream presents to them.
Most years I had to let them know that Santa was having a hard time, and not to be too disappointed if they didn't get everything that was on their list. Santa had so many more children every year it was difficult for him to keep up.
Like any other parent, within reason, I would do my best to make their wishes come true.
Then I would make sure I got to read their little letters to Santa so I would know what they wanted.
But, I also had to get them gifts from Mom, and they had to be decent gifts. I couldn't let them think that Mom didn't have good taste.
To further do damage to my budget, I gave each boy $20 so that they could buy gifts for family. I didn't give them a regular allowance as I couldn't afford to do that, and besides, I figured I shouldn't have to pay family members to do the things that needed to be done anyway.
Now, twenty dollars is not much money to spread between about eight people, so they had to be very inventive, and they always managed to get some wonderful and thoughtful gifts for each person.

When they were very little we went to Grandma's house on Christmas eve, then they had to go to bed early so Santa could come. On Christmas morning, all the gifts from Santa would be waiting, and of course, there were also stockings full of little goodies from Santa. Then they got to open gifts from Mom and then we ate Christmas breakfast.

As they got a little older I was getting a little tired of Santa getting so much credit, and so the gifts that were in their stockings turned into gifts from mom.

Eventually, as all children do, they learned that there was no such person as Santa Claus, so that helped my budget tremendously. Then I could take ALL the credit for the gifts they got and our traditions changed a bit. Christmas eve was at our house and gifts were exchanged from their Grandmas' and Grandpas'.

We waited for Christmas morning to open gifts from mom (and TO mom) and to empty the stockings that hung from the mantle. We had our own private family Christmas that morning and it was sweet.

About 4 years ago, with the boys grown and gone, I gave up on Christmas mornings with my sons, and all gifts were opened on Christmas eve with the rest of the family.

The stockings still hung on the mantle, left forgotten.

The next year, all three boys felt the need to inform me that the stockings were what they looked forward to the most on Christmas, and what happened to that tradition?

Dog gone, all those years I struggled to buy double the gifts and all I really needed to do was go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of nonsense to make them happy....

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.