Sometimes I Hate Santa

I have to admit, I have to work really hard to get in the holiday spirit. We are a family on a cash only budget through the year and having three kids with longer and longer wish lists does nothing to help me feel merry when I hear those sleigh bells. 

I blame Santa. 

The rest of the year, we work hard as parents to promote being smart with our money and grateful for all we have. This is the vocabulary we choose to help our kids learn financial responsibility and feel good about their lives so they don't grow up with a "lack complex" and make all the same disastrous mistakes their father and I did. The result is that my kids) don't whine terribly much when we enter and leave stores like Target with nothing in the cart for them (with the exception of the youngest who whines all the time. They know they get toys for birthdays and they wait anxiously for the end of the school year when we go for special treats at the candy store or ice cream shop of their choice followed by a Barnes and Noble trip where they pick a book or toy as a reward for their hard work. They know there is a time and place for spending money but that it isn't all the time and in every place. 

I'm not saying my kids don't get new things that they probably don't need. And believe me, when I've stepped on my one millionth lego for the day, it certainly feels like they are appropriately spoiled rotten. But, for the most part my kids are fairly well mannered when it comes to getting things they want. 

Except at Christmas when they turn into crazed Gimme Monsters and I have no power against them. 

During the year, we can explain the logic behind our buying decisions but at Christmas the magical, mythical Santa comes in and wrecks it for us.

How do you explain to a kid when Santa doesn't bring them what they ask for even if they have been very good? How do you help your kid see that it's not their fault when the neighbor's Santa (or cousin's santa or classmate's santa) is more generous than our Santa? How do you justify Santa running out of LeapPad's before he got to your house but having enough for Timmy the Next Door Neighbor (whose mom was in line at freakin' midnight on Thanksgiving!)?

See, it's a terrible conspiracy that sets everyone up for failure. The Legend of the Great and Powerful Santa might leave my kids feeling shafted and definitely leaves me feeling like The Grinch.

Every year we try to explain that Dad and I are pretty tight with Santa and we've discussed our family values with him so he honours our requests as parents. That's why there are no handheld video games before you're six or why you only get one "big" present a year even if all your friends get every last item on their list.

As for the Great Pillow Pet disaster of Aught Nine? Well, I just gave a little Econ 101 lesson of supply and demand and told my kids Santa was too busy to make every single kid who asked their pillow pets on time. He would have to put their presents on backorder this year. They were thrilled when one cold February night three pillow pets arrived while they slept. I'm hoping the same holds true for this year's missing Leap Pad. 

We've been lucky in that our kids are buying our act so far and seem to be delighted with whatever they do find under the tree Christmas morning-even if it does fall within a pretty tight budget. My Christmas wish every year is that they stay this way-immune to everyone else's holiday comparison and just happy with what they have-forever, or at least until they're old enough to stop believing in magic and start understanding what dad and I do to give them all we can. 

I'm alright with being the realist. I'm just not ready to have to do it as long as they still believe in magic.