Christmases Past

I have so many happy memories of past Christmases, both from my own childhood and the years I have treasured celebrating the holiday with my boys. That said, I remember very few specifics. I remember the general feeling of warmth and being surrounded by people who love me.

This should let all of us as parents breathe a sigh of relief.  Oh, love we can do! I know we all feel pressure to get our children gifts and make the holiday special.  It will be special because you are all together.  Let go of as many of the other ‘expectations’ you can manage…simplify.

Especially for our special kiddos, opening presents may take quite a bit of energy and focus.  For Mikey, each year for the first 10-12 years of his life, he would open his first present and sit there and play with it. He never moved on to present #2. Meanwhile, Will tore through everything with speed and focus…don’t get me wrong. He was a grateful kid, he was just excited, as most kids are. I always wanted it to be fair, so I got them approximately the same number of gifts…for TEN YEARS. Then Mikey would leave his presents unopened and eventually, I would open them and throw out the wrapping paper and leave the toys out for him to play with.

Then, I wised up.  My kids are individuals.  Different things matter to them.  So, I responded and made sure Mikey had a few things to open, but not too much.  Will’s gifts got bigger over the years, so he had fewer as well. It all worked out fine.

Then, one year, a few presents arrived early from distant family. I put them under the tree and while I was cooking dinner, I heard Mikey opening all the gifts in the other room.  We just laughed about it, but I knew he was ready for the typical kid Christmas morning craziness. Now, we like to celebrate with lots of smaller gifts to open and enjoy.  We sit as a family with some Christmas breakfast: bagels for Mikey and cinnamon rolls for the rest of us. We open gifts and stockings and we all have fun being together.