Some Christmas Musings

The Gilbert section of the AZ Republic has an article today about giving too many gifts to your kids at Christmas:

Once you're too old to sit on Santa's lap, Christmas often loses most of its magic. That is, until you have children.

For parents, the magic returns, two-fold, as your children's faces light up as they open gift after gift. Parents love that feeling so much, oftentimes the presents never seem to stop.

And some parents start wondering "How many gifts are too many gifts?"

Read the whole article to see how some parents have dealt with this age-old dilemma. It all stems from the fact that for most moms I know (in my experience at least, not as much with dads) , we just want our kids to be happy. We like to be the causal factors of our kids' happiness, and surely giving gifts is one way to accomplish that.

On the other hand, since we are older and wiser, we also know that giving them too much is precisely the thing that will hinder their future happiness; so we need to strike a balance.

The other defining factor in this equation is how the parents grew up; was Christmas a time of extravagant gifts? Was the emphasis more on tradition than presents? These things tend to get passed down from generation to generation (after the first big fight and compromise for the newlyweds) and we don't even realize how deeply we hold those beliefs.

Why am I even thinking about this question? My kids are all adults, even the one that is still living at home; we settled this issue years ago. Maybe I'm thinking about it because it's December 12th, and even though my goal was to have all the shopping done and packages mailed by December 1st, I find myself only halfway through my list, with not a single package in the mail. No panic yet, but I'm starting to peddle faster, as it were.

For the curious, The Mister and I decided to limit our gifts to our kids to two; one is a "big" gift and one is a "small" gift. By the time that the unwrapping is finished, they've received several other gifts from family and friends, and they don't feel deprived (I think). I do know that the traditions established over the years are far more meaningful to the kids than the actual gifts received.

And now, I've got to get off the porch and go shopping.