I love decorating for the holidays and it’s one of my favorite events of the year. After breaking about 7 ornaments, me and the kids managed to decorate our tree, put lights in our windows and generally fill our house with pine scented goodness and Christmas cheer.
Today I started thinking back to my childhood and the Christmas’s I had growing up and what a long way our family has come. My childhood tree did not have any fancy glass blown ornaments. Instead we had those stryofoam balls covered in satin on the gangliest artificial tree known to man. I still loved decorating the tree every year and it was a double bonus when one of my friends brought over her grandmother’s hand me down ornaments to fill in all the bare spots.
The toughest years were the ones when I believed in Santa. I’d wake up on Christmas morning and run over to the tree only to find it as empty as it was the night before. It was a huge let down. I had many theories to why Santa didn’t come. I first thought I somehow made it onto the naughty list. I also thought maybe Santa just skipped immigrant households because they didn’t believe he was real. One year I deduced that it was because I had no chimney, so I snuck over to the backdoor and made sure it was unlocked on Christmas Eve. (We kept our doors locked at all times because our neighborhood was not the greatest). We usually didn’t have cookies in the house, so I’d leave him some cold cuts and a hunk of cheese just in case.
The sad feeling of Santa not coming passed quickly as I eagerly awaited going over my aunt and uncle’s house later in the day. My cousins would always have a present or two for me, the wood stove would be roaring and my aunt always prepared a tasty feast. Because I was an only child, it was also a time that I got to play board games and watch cartoons.
So, here I am 30 years later and thinking the opposite: that we exchange too many presents. What a nice problem to have…or am I just secretly turning into Babci without realizing it?
Consumerism Free Christmas
Whether your consumerism free Christmas is an act of choice or necessity, you can still keep the magic alive without falling prey to the hype of consumerism. For me, it would have been so much nicer if my mom pretended Santa was real for a few years. Even if she didn’t want to buy me a toy, some food under the tree would have been just as effective.
Here are some other free ideas that could insight giggles in your children without breaking the bank:
- Use the age old milk and cookie routine.
- Hang extra Christmas lights around the house on Christmas eve and keep them lit all night.
- Put Green food coloring in all the toilets.
- Move decorations or furniture to different spots.
- Save some extra decorations and put them out on Christmas Eve.
- Make a few Paper snowflakes and paste them on some windows after the kids go to bed.
- Put something obvious in an open trash can (like an empty roll of wrapping paper and scraps).
- Turn the TV onto the Cooking Channel or Put in a Santa themed movie in your movie player (make sure something else was in there the night before and subtly point it out before hand so they notice it the next day)
- Write a Santa to do list and leave it by the tree or near the plate of cookies like he forgot it. Cross some things off of it and use green and red marker or ink. Make sure you write your child’s name on it as part of the good list and cross it off.
- Add a layer of different colored lights to your tree. If you have colored, then add white and vice versa.
- Put baking soda in the fireplace so that it looks like snow (and it will deodorize your fireplace at the same time)
- If you have fireplace doors, leave the doors open.
- Make a bag of reindeer food out of cereal or something and have your kids put it in the yard the night before.
- Have Christmas music playing.
Give to those Less Fortunate
Believe it or not, even in the land of plenty, there are still children who go around in need of even the most basic of necessities. My son’s school is going to do a coat drive shortly because so many of the children don’t have winter clothing. Yesterday it was 20 degrees F out and the principal told me that as the kids were leaving and she was telling them to bring coats to school, at least 5 of them told her they don’t have a coat. Okay, if that doesn’t make me want to pull out my wallet, I don’t know what does. I have to admit that although my parents never bought me toys, I always had a winter coat and I was never hungry, so I need to thank them for that because they did have their priorities straight.
Don’t think that your act of charity is going to hurt someone’s pride. I was always thankful of any kind of hand me downs. Although my parents never had any kind of public assistance, they would never turn away someone’s unwanted stuff. You can also take the time to participate in a local giving tree or toys for tots program.
Do you have any fun and free things you do on Christmas Eve that you want to share?
Leave a Reply