The Santa Lie

Christmas is my favorite time of year.  I have loved it for as long as I can remember.  I’m excited to see my kids’ excitement when they’re old enough to understand.

I just have one major problem: Santa.

I can’t understand the Santa lie.  I hadn’t given much thought to it until last year, which was the twins’ first Christmas.  We got them a couple of things and as I was writing their names on the packages, it suddenly hit me.  Is this gift from ‘Mom and Dad’ or ‘Santa’?  Right at that moment (and again this year) I started plotting how we could not do Santa in the future.  Sorry kids, those presents are from Mom and Dad; we shopped for them; we paid for them or made them for you; we wrapped them.  I want our kids to understand how those gifts really got there and, yes, I want them to say thank you to us – not an imaginary guy.

The one benefit I can see to perpetuating the Santa lie is that you can threaten your kids to behave at all times or poof! no presents at Christmas.  It still doesn’t quite get me there, though, because I feel like I could threaten them myself….  I’m probably naive to think that my kids will ever listen to me, but I’m a first-time parent, so I’m totally clueless.

Pretty much the only thing holding me back from going full-out truthful parent is that I don’t want my kids to ruin Santa for other kids.  I guess I have a couple years to figure that one out, but if anyone reading this has any ideas for me, or any reasons why Santa is a good idea, please send me a message!

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas!

What the Hell is a Hatchimal?

A couple days ago, I saw a “Hatchimal” (apparently this year’s must-have toy) posted for sale on my local online yardsale site.  A small bidding war ensued.  ‘Tis the season.

When I first saw a Hatchimal on the Today show, I was like, “why are they talking about Furbies?”  Look it up – Hatchimals are a carbon copy of 1998’s must-have toy.  These Furby ripoffs are currently selling for over $200 on Amazon.  TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS?!  All I know is that if I spend $200 on a toy for my kid, they aren’t going to be allowed to play with it.  If they still want it after they understand they can’t touch it, maybe we can think about it.

I tried to think back to when I was a kid and what toy I would have paid a zillion dollars (of my parents’ money) to have.  I can’t really remember anything specific, which means I either: received it, played with it for a month, and then forgot about it OR it means that I didn’t receive it and I was not scarred for life because of it.  I choose to believe the latter.  [Tomagotchi’s were badass, though – I for sure had a couple of those.]

Let me be clear that I am not judging parents who are buying Furbies – I mean Hatchimals – for their kids.  It’s more of a glimpse into my not-so-distant future.  I am not looking forward to the day that my kids can make their own Christmas lists (is that bad?).  I hope, I hope, I hope I can talk my girls out of the latest Furby iteration in 6 or 7 years.  If not, I hope someone is auctioning off two of them (BOGO?).  Because twins.