“What would you like for Christmas little girl?” As I’m listening to the answer my head starts spinning, how on earth are her poor parents going to make all those Christmas wishes come true. As she steps down to get her candy cane, I overhear the parents say “I think we got all that, right?”. Then it hits me: Is this what I have to look forward to?!
As moms I feel like the pressure is on us to make the holidays the best ever for our families. Between Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram the most perfect holiday celebrations are everywhere you turn. And what stands out to me, besides the adorable matching Christmas jammies (with no stains), are the fact that that those cute little kids seem to be getting every present they ever dreamed of.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t really recall my favorite gift as a child. In fact, nothing stands out in my mind as my ‘best present ever’ or ‘the year I got exactly what I wanted’. And yet, I don’t necessarily feel like that is a bad thing. Instead, what sticks out for me is playing UNO up north until the wee hours of ‘morn, snowmobiling and sledding. Just thinking about Christmas makes my mouth water for my Aunt’s sticky buns, and it really makes me wonder when my son grows up what is he going to look back on? Am I going to need to buy everything on his Christmas “list” for him to of had a great childhood?
So here I find myself as a first time mom teetering on the edge of being known as:
- The scrooge who wants very little gifts for her kid
- The ungrateful mom who doesn’t understand that it makes others happy to spoil my son with gifts
- Or still being what I think is a good mom, and decide to try and make my child’s holiday happiness revolve around activities, and not the Christmas list.
Given my son is just a little guy now, the concept of Santa isn’t as prevalent in our house yet. But in five to six years, this idea is probably going to be a bumpy ride. But I think I’m going to try and roll with a few gifts and hopefully if my ‘perfect holiday’ plans fall into place, he will be too busy outside building snow forts to even notice!
How did you deal with the pressure of granting your child’s Christmas wishes? Do you have any tips on how to make the holidays more about memories than gifts, I’d love to hear them!
