Here Comes The Christmas List!

When November starts to approach us our kids then start to approach us with talks of what they want for Christmas. Then pretty soon you will start to see the dreaded Christmas list! Especially in these tough economic times children don’t know any limits to their Christmas list.

Since the sky is the limit for kids, then you have to come in and set some limits or they will bankrupt you! There is no need to get anxious over their list because I will tell you how to get around it.

You can tell them that Santa is very busy this year and the elves only have time to make X amount of gifts this year for this house. Make sure that each child gets the same number of gifts so that reinforces what you said and it’s also fair as well to not show favouritism.

Naturally as a parent you would love to get them everything on their Christmas list. Even if you have the extra money to do so I would not. Only get them what they really want. Why? It teaches them at an early age to prioritize and it also prepares them to not be selfish in life. If you give a child everything they want they won’t know how to cope in this real world where they will not always get what they want.

Come on, you got them the most important gifts so there is nothing to feel bad about. We both know that a child will walk into a toy store and will want to get everything in that store even though they won’t even play with it! So teach them how to prioritize and even your budget will do well!

How To Convincingly Show Your Children Santa Has Visited

The moment when children realize that Santa isn’t real is often a difficult one. Most of us remember with no small amount of embarrassment – but also a sense that that moment was when we lost our innocence. Part of the magic of Christmas as a child is to look wonderingly at a Christmas Eve night, hoping and praying that Santa is going to visit and that you’re on the Good list. It’s an innocence and magic we wish to preserve in our children for as long as possible, and to that end, here’s a quick list of things to do to make Santa’s visit appear all the more convincing:

1. Take a bite out of the mince pie / cookie!

It’s so simple, but so often forgotten. If your children leave food out for Santa, make sure you take a convincing bite. The same goes for any drinks left out – take a swig. Your kids will be delighted that Santa enjoyed their offering, and you’ll get something tasty too.

2. Icing sugar footprints.

All you need is a sieve and a white powder – icing sugar pre-mix is best for the job – and you’ve got the tools to make some convincing Santa footprints. Pour the powder into the sieve and sprinkle a route from the chimney to beneath the tree, just like Santa would walk in his snow-covered boots from Lapland.

3. Sign a couple of gifts “From Santa”

A small touch but a nice one. While the majority of your gifts can say “from Mom and Dad”, add in a couple that are signed by the man himself.

Thinking Outside The Box (And Inside It Too)

When it comes to picking the ideal Christmas gift, there is no doubt that people put a lot of thought into how to make the festivities go just right for the person they are buying for. Christmas shopping can be very stressful – should you ask the person concerned what they want, or should you surprise them? Should you go for something classic or something quirky? If you make an educated guess as to what they’d like, what if you guessed wrongly? There are so many questions, and they have a habit of leading to other questions. It can be very tempting to just pick something out and hope for the best.

The fact of the matter is that if you are buying a gift for someone, you already know them fairly well – at least, we can assume so. This means that you know a lot about their likes and dislikes, and will probably have had a few of those conversations where a person reveals something about themselves that not a lot of people know.

Think back to the chats you have had with them, and try to think what stuck out about the conversation. They may have let slip something about an interest that they don’t talk about much. If you can make a gift idea out of that, they will be touched that you remembered and really value the gift.

If you are buying a Secret Santa gift, bear in mind that they won’t know who got them the gift. If it doesn’t quite hit the mark, then it hasn’t violated the law of Secret Santa, which is essentially a lottery anyway.

The Perils Of The Christmas Party

Although Christmas is a time of celebration, it can be a minefield for many people. The definition of a celebration is that people come together and enjoy a moment, and this happens most obviously at Christmas parties. More and more people are swearing off Christmas parties however, and this is due in no small part to the role played by alcohol. For those of us who like a drink, a party can be a chance to let our hair down, let our inhibitions drop and have a good time. But it needs to be remembered that sometimes inhibitions can save us from doing stupid things.

The fact is that alcohol taken in large enough quantities can make some people behave in ways that they would otherwise never dream of. It may be something pretty minor. The person who for the rest of the year is as quiet as a mouse may suddenly surprise everyone by singing karaoke – and being really good at it. They may still feel the following day that they have made an idiot of themselves and, while this is unfortunate, the fact remains that they may feel uncomfortable around people.

There are other, worse things that people do when drunk. Sometimes it can make a fairly placid person into someone who wants to fight the world – and this is a very destructive thing. Equally, it can make people who would usually be quite chaste into someone who will jump into bed with the first likely candidate. Coming back from this kind of indignity can be very hard indeed. It is OK to enjoy a drink, but it is important to know your limits.

Christmas Is A Time To Reconnect

It is a fact of human life that, from time to time, we grow distant from those who we love. There are several reasons for this. Things happen in our life that take us to different places, and we cannot cover so much ground. Many of us have a number of friends and acquaintances and cannot be in contact with all of them at the same time. Christmas can be useful in repairing some of the damage that this does, and this is a major reason why it is seen as being a time of togetherness.

Whatever we may think at a given time, no friendship or relationship needs to be considered completely broken if one or both parts of it feel that there is a chance of reconnection. There may be a lot of hurt there, but Christmas allows a focus on things that we thought were lost. It is a time when many people feel that there is a chance for forgiveness, for apologies and acceptance. Whatever we feel may have been lost, we can focus on bringing back the good times.

Of course, Christmas is only here for a month, or a few weeks, and then we have to refocus on the world without Christmas in it. This is when the true test of what has been rebuilt comes, and if we are not truly committed to making it happen then it can still fall away again. But if you feel that you would like to reconnect with someone you had lost contact with, Christmas is the time to make it happen.

Is Christmas Just A Time For Children?

The older we get, the more Christmas can seem like a holiday which is simply designed to get the maximum amount of money out of our wallets, even as we enjoy the festivities. There will always be some people willing to make a cynical quick buck or two, and this does not help matters. However, the holiday period does certainly have its compensations, and many would say that these multiply when we have children. Children can add a lot to the Christmas experience, rejuvenating the holiday in the eyes of those of us who had felt like giving up the whole jamboree.

For children, Christmas is a time of wonder. It would be churlish to say that this is all because of the presents, but it would also be stretching the bounds of credibility to suggest that the idea of gifts did not play a major part in it. Children are quite materialistic – they will want good gifts, as they have to return to school after the holidays and join in the competition over who got what. But at the same time, the ideal message of Christmas – one of friendship and goodwill – is something that children can spread more thoroughly than anyone.

As adults, there are certain harsh realities which do not go away just because it is Christmas. However, there is a way in which the holiday can make us face these realities with a steely determination that they won’t get the best of us. It may be our children who get the most out of Christmas – but we can get a lot out of it too.

It’s Clichéd To Be Cynical At Christmas

Christmas is a time of magic for so many people, but there is a tendency among others to look at the whole holiday as a mess of pointless celebration and meaningless spending. The way they look at the holiday goes further than not celebrating it themselves, they will actually openly sneer at other people for celebrating the holiday. This is unfortunate, because for many people the Christmas holiday is something that allows a real warmth to enter their relations with others. Perhaps ideally that warmth should always be there, but having a reminder of it is no bad thing, surely?

The tendency to be cynical about Christmas is something of a result of the overall increase of cynicism in society. We have a tendency to see things for their price and not for their value. We look for ulterior motives in the simplest of actions, and consider what might have motivated people to carry out a random act of kindness. This is a loss of innocence – and although innocence is something that can be dangerous in too-large doses, it is something that is still desirable in some cases.

If you want to opt out of Christmas yourself, then the likelihood is that you have your reasons for doing so. That is more than fair enough. But the people who spend time laughing at others for having a good time at Christmas are really the ones that are missing out. Is there any harm in taking the excuse to enjoy yourself and show goodwill to all?

The Cost of Christmas

If someone voices a negative opinion of the Christmas holiday, it can be a bit of a moral minefield, with insults flying around including terms like “Scrooge”. But there is a very good reason why many people worry about Christmas in advance of the holiday. The fact of the matter is that Christmas can cost an awful lot of money, and leave us in a position where we have debts to pay off after the wrapping paper has been recycled, the food digested and the parties processed through brain, liver and social diary.

It can make you wonder whether it is all worth the bother. The truth of the matter is that, for some people, Christmas just is not special enough to merit the kind of financial outlay that is expected of all, demanded of most and essential for some. Try as you might to resist the Christmas holiday, when the day comes you will hear the songs, see the TV specials and, in all likelihood, welcome the visitors through your door – and they will expect to be fed and offered drinks, too.

One way of defraying the cost of Christmas is to have a pact among family and/or friends. By saying to one another “Let’s do this, but do it in a sensible way”, you can apply spending limits to the situation and ensure that the cost doesn’t go too crazy. Sometimes, people will break the terms of this agreement, wanting to be remembered as the person who bought the best gifts. That’s life, and is unavoidable – but it is they who will be paying for it for longer.