Last year I made a blunder. A huge one. That is, according to the mind of a 5 or 6 year old. Seriously. I forgot to put presents under the tree for Mama and Dada from Santa. Or anything in our stockings. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Sure, Santa was great to the Little Princess, he left her everything she asked for (except one thing, which was out of stock). But he ‘forgot’ to put any little trinkets or goodies or even coal in Mama and Dada’s stockings, while the stocking for the Little Princess was bursting full – so much so that it split the stocking seam a little bit. (oops! Guess surreptitiously moving the Santa gifts from the shed to the house at 3:00 a.m. and stuffing stockings at that hour wasn’t such a brilliant plan after all…or at least in the case of the stocking, that is.) At any rate, I was so busy making sure I had everything done and ready, I didn’t even think about getting funky little things for myself and my hubby like I did last year – I didn’t think it would be a big deal.

It was a big deal.

As we have gotten closer and closer to Christmas, our Little Princess has been commenting more and more about me and Dada not getting anything from Santa last year.

Savannah: “I hope you and Dada have been good this year, because Santa didn’t leave you any presents last year, and didn’t even leave coal in your stockings…that means you must have been on the naughty list!”

Me: “I think it’s because we forgot to send Santa a letter to let him know what we wanted…I got everything I wanted from Dada, and he got everything he wanted from me, so I guess we sort of took care of Santa’s job for him…”

Savannah: “Well, you better make sure you let Santa know what you want, because then you won’t have to spend money to buy presents since they’ll come from Santa instead.”

Ack! Trying to ‘influence’ her Santa gift decisions this year to work with our tightened budget has been falling flat…since each time I mention ‘maybe we should ask Santa for something a little less expensive’ her reply is “But if it’s coming from Santa, then it’s free, you won’t have to worry about it being too expensive!”

I sure love the way that child’s brain works…though she’s too smart for our own good sometimes! 😉 Luckily we were able to dissuade her from asking Santa for a trampoline this year…and she’s asking him for the toy she didn’t get last year (the one that was out of stock – her reasoning for not getting it was she wasn’t as ‘good’ as she could have been), so she’ll be happy to know she was ‘good enough’ this year to actually get it.

My hubby and I decided we are not going to exchange gifts with each other until after the first of the year so we can focus on the Little Princess instead (which is a relief – my hubby is so hard to buy for – if he wants/needs something, he’ll just go out and get it himself!). I did make sure, however, to pick up a few things that I need, and some fun and joke-type gifts for hubby to put under the tree ‘from Santa’. And of course a few funny/interesting/cheap trinkets for our stockings. That way we’ll have some ‘peace’ from the nagging for the next year. 😉

13 Comments

  1. NO NO NO! One of the best times of the year to teach our little ones about the pleasure of GIVING instead of just receiving, is to say: Santa takes care of children, knowing that children take care of the ones who love them. And offer to take her shopping for her daddy. It’s a great time to spend with her, thinking of how to help someone else.

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  2. My hubby is one of the hardest people to buy for – he doesn’t have any ‘collections’ (unlike me, the proverbial pack rat!), his hobby/interest is in music, but he has all the high-tech gadgets and toys, and if he doesn’t have something he wants or needs, he just buys it for himself. I thought a few years ago I had scored because I knew he really needed a new leather jacket…only, he bought himself a new one a couple of weeks before Christmas, and when our daughter ‘spilled the beans’ on what we got Dada for Christmas, turned out I had bought him the EXACT same one he bought himself! LOL! So I had to return it and replace it with a few essentials (work shirts, ties, etc…boring!) 😀

  3. You know, that’s a great idea!

    I am teaching her about ‘giving’, she’s been great about the fact that all the currently wrapped presents under the tree are not for her, but for other people (including a needy family we ‘adopted’ this year). She’s excited about making someone else’s Christmas extra special this year. It’s precious to see her reaction when I show her posts of people in need (like a family in the area that has a 4 year old daughter with a brain tumor – all she wants for Christmas is cards, since that’s all she’s able to do – open them and read them – in her current debilitating state. My Little Princess immediately wanted to make a ‘special’ card just for that little girl. She had me read the girl’s story, and kept saying ‘Ohhhh’ in such an empathetic tone of voice, made my heart swell with pride!)

    I don’t think I thought about taking her shopping for Dada, because she has been anti-shopping lately…she asks if I need to go shopping if it’s going to be when Dada’s going to be home so I can go and she can stay home and hang out with Dada… Now if Dada has to run errands, she’s all about going with him, even if that means spending 3 hours at Home Depot! LOL! I think it’s just because she spends ALL her free time with me, since I’m home with her and Dada is working. She needs her Dada time! 😉

    I think I will see if she wants to make a special trip on Christmas Eve when she’s off school and Dada’s at work to go pick out something ‘special’ for him – she might actually be willing to go shopping with Mama with that little adventure planned! 😉 Thanks for the tip! 😀

  5. She is smart…and a smart aleck, too! 😉 I was amazed she picked up on the fact that we didn’t get anything from Santa – particularly that with no gifts, we should have at least gotten coal! LOL! What’s interesting is the one gift she asked for that she didn’t get, she didn’t seem to mind so much at the time…and when she’s mentioned it recently, she wasn’t sad, just ‘matter-of-fact’ when she said she must not have been ‘good enough’ for Santa to leave it last year, but felt that she was better this year, so hopes Santa will bring it this time… 😀

  6. Ugh! The stockings! I totally forgot about them! Luckily, the kid is too young that her first “practice” Christmas will be a vague memory with some cursing possibly involved. Next year, we’ll remember the stockings..

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  7. It’s really sweet that she is concerned about mom and dad. I’m sure she was upset to think that she had naughty parents lol. Most kids are so self involved they wouldn’t have noticed…so it’s a good thing!

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  9. LOL! I don’t think I did stockings for her first Christmas either…that she doesn’t remember. I did do Santa gifts each year, and it was only year-before-last I did Santa and stocking gifts for me and Dada – I didn’t think about it last year because it just wasn’t important (to me). Apparently, it’s important to Savannah that each household member is remembered by Santa! LOL!

  10. LOL! Yes, I guess it would be a big deal in a child’s mind if she has ‘naughty’ parents…ones that were so naughty, they didn’t even get coal! LOL! I’m really enjoying how ‘giving’ she is and how she’s so into ‘sharing’ with others and not thinking about herself all the time. I’m very proud of her and glad that she inherited one of my traits since she got her ‘literal’ trait from Dada! 😉

  11. That’s too funny! I don’t think I would have been ‘in trouble’ had I not started the ‘tradition’ Christmas before last…heh, heh! But at least Dada is a major chocoholic, so filling his stocking will be a super easy task. And I lucked out and found a ‘handy’ gift on sale that I wrapped ‘from Santa’, so we’re all set for this year… 😀

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