My husband and I have postponed Christmas this year and I’m feeling really good about it. Gifts are temporary after all. But life lessons learned the hard way should last forever.
I heard plenty of “oh nos…” or “you can’t have Christmas without gifts” and “that’s not fair.” People are very concerned if you’re not showering your children with money and attention constantly. Especially on a holiday. Because of this, I think it’s important to note that I don’t care about your holiday guilt trip.
I like to think about the other group, ie the parents.
Some parents are spending a fortune on gifts and stocking stuffers. I found out this year that you can even take out loans to pay for Christmas gifts for your children. What the heck is wrong with everyone? Even if you have the most well-behaved angels, stuff isn’t a replacement for affection. In a month or two, those gifts will be gone, broken or forgotten. Debt lasts longer than these gifts.
Other parents are modest about holidays because they are teaching a child about the value of a holiday is about the people you share it with. So instead of thirty-four gifts, we do two or three gifts from the parents and a couple from relatives.
Now I’m not judging which of those categories you may find yourself in as a parent and holiday gift giver. However, consider yourself judged if your handing out gifts to an undeserving child because of holiday guilt.
Kid’s that are ungrateful, disrespectful, lying, manipulating or even plain mean shouldn’t be getting a hall pass to Christmas. Just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean you should reward your kid whos miss behaving.
Now, my family has been going through a rough patch and I for one am not spending money on dumb gifts that my kiddo doesn’t deserve. I’m sure if you’ve read this far you now have you disbelief face on. And that’s ok. You don’t have to agree with me.
We still celebrated Christmas as a family. Games were played, great food was eaten and the Harry Potter marathon has begun(Christmas Tradition). We made great memories. Most importantly we talked about why there were no gifts and she agreed there shouldn’t have been.
We are hoping to open gifts from the family over New Years. But that is in our kiddos hands. I’m not going to feel bad either way. Holidays are not an excuse to reward bad behavior.
