This was their only request from Santa. Now, I keep riding the fence about the whole Santa thing. On the one hand, I don't want to "lie" to my children about a fictional person being real. On the other hand, it makes the holiday so magic for young kids, doesn't it? So, I shove the more rational thoughts away, and embrace the fantastic, like I am wont to do. But this also presents a problem when I really don't want to give them what they ask of Santa. How do you explain it when they don't get that one simple thing, without breaking their hearts?
Jesse's mom suggested that we sit down and have a little chat with Melinda about how you have to give Santa options, because maybe he can't get (or make) the gift that you want. We finally got around to doing that, and I had Melinda write out a list of things that I could... *ahem* e-mail ... to Santa. Because, you know, Christmas was only a couple days away. And Santa must have an e-mail, right? My kids think I can talk to anyone through my computer, truly. And this way I didn't have to waste a stamp to send a letter to nowhere real, too. :)
Anyway, so this is the list she wrote out, with a little encouragement from me. It took her a bit to get going, to think of other things she might possibly like, but once she did, she gave me some excellent choices to work with!
1. Bubble Gun
2. Wood shapes (to paint, like the ones that her cousins sent in the mail!)
3. "Soft girl car". We have a plush car that neither of the kids ever really play with, but Melinda associates with belonging to Jacob. Apparently she thought it would be nice to have one for a girl (maybe in pinks or purples, or something?), with a #5 on the side. Because 5 is how old she is.
4. Rubik's cube. She had to explain this one to me several times, before I pieced together that it was a square with lots of colored squares inside it, that you could turn. I looked it up on the 'net, asked her if that's what she meant, and she happily exclaimed it was. Not sure why she thought she wanted one of those... I'm not sure she's ever played with one.
5. Ballerina costume.... self-explainatory.
6. Painting ornaments. Like the ceramic horse from my own childhood.
7. Tadoodles. Those little Crayola products meant for toddlers. She's been asking for them for half of a year now, easily! She had me write those the next day, since she thought of them that much later.
In the end, I went with a whole lot of wooden shapes and paints (nice and cheap at Michael's), and a set of Tadoodles for each of them. I figured Christmas was as good a time as any to get Melinda those Tadoodles she had been absolutely dying for, and the wooden shapes would make great stocking stuffers, all while fulfilling the Santa aspect of Christmas.
And no, I didn't ask Jacob to make a list. He was being too grumpy to have cooperated nicely, and he always wants exactly what Melinda wants, no questions asked, anyway. I just made sure to tell him about the list so he wouldn't be disappointed by the additional options given to Santa. :)
3 comments:
We're stuck in the same boat. My husband always knew Santa wasn't real and we haven't told the kids that he is but they pickedu p on the idea from friends. Now what to do?
what a clever way to give yourselves a choice. Good going Mom.
www.emailsanta.com
It's a fill-in-the-blank form letter, and you tell santa 3 things you want. Then he sends an immediate email back! he'll mention all three things you said, and sortof give himself disclaimers ("I'll see what I can do, but bikes are big and there's only so much room in the sleigh" sort of thing)
:)
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