It's not so hard to think of other children this Christmas

[dalekboy]

Most of you know I'm a working Santa. It's a job I love. People seem to expect the kids to be horrors, but in fact they're mostly pretty great. But the problem is the inequality.

Every year I'll get children through who want a single item for Christmas - a doll, or a game, or a truck - and I'll get the ones with lists that would challenge the carrying capacity of a Mack truck. The thing is, this often reflects their expectations of what they'll get for Christmas.

And of course, the kids are told that Father Christmas has brought most of their presents.

So after Christmas, when the kids are talking about what they got, you end up with one child who got a single small gift from St. Nick, while another talks about their new trampoline, gaming system, bike, remote controlled toy... all of which are also presents from Santa.

While that's lovely for those that get lots, it leaves any number of other children regarding their one or two gifts, and wondering why Santa doesn't like them as much. And that's without taking into account the children who won't get any presents at Christmas.

I'm not saying that if you can afford to buy your child lots of presents, and you want to, that you shouldn't. And I'm not asking everyone to go out and buy a raft-load of toys for the various charities that pass them on to the people who can't afford to buy things for their children, though that'd be nice.

All I'm asking people to do is to just pick one, not the biggest, or most expensive, and say that's the special gift that Santa has brought for them. If you want, tell them that you bought the other presents, and asked Father Christmas to deliver them especially, but please, don't let them think that every parcel is a personal gift to them from St. Nick.

Chances are it won't make that much difference to your child, but after Christmas it will hopefully help any number of other kids feel like Santa isn't playing favourites, or wondering why he doesn't like them.

Comments

[ghoath.livejournal.com]

If we got a big present that we had negotiated with our parents for, or had been with them every week when they paid the lay-by, we considered this to be a present from them, and not brought by santa.

My parents would also do the stocking filler presents, to make it look like we had lots. This was chocolates, lollies, and cheapy toys from Cost Plus like flashing swords, water pistols etc.

There were some years when we only got the cheapy presents from WA Salvage but we were happy as our stockings were full of things we could play with all day. My parents who were both educators explained to me since that they felt it more constructive for us to have a variety of things we could share and go between all day, rather than getting into fights about one item, or getting bored with one game.

But we considered the fact that our stockings were full and that Santa had brought us gifts to be the real reward. As kids don't have a concept of monetory value, they're not going to appreciate one big gift, they'll remember lots of scmall gifts much more. I have no problem that my parents may have spent no more than $50 on us each some years, but we had fun, and that's what Christmas was all about. It wasn't about trying to score anything big, it was about having fun.

It's a bit fraudulant of particularly older kids that they tell their less well off friends that Santa brought them an Xbox.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

We do the wishing tree aat Kmart each year, which reminds me.....

[kaths.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's a good idea!

I haven't actually said in the past that any presents were 'from Santa', she's only just getting the concept of Santa now. I'll probably not specifically say who the presents under the tree are from, except the ones from people other than me -family etc :)

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

I believed in Santa until my eighth Christmas, when it occured to me taht Santa and Mum had the same handwriting....

[fe2h2o.livejournal.com]

In our house, Santa doesn't give the cool presents:-) He fills a stocking, so there's some chips and lollies, undies, a small toy or two, and usually some craft material.

Actually, that's not entirely true... He usually gives the family a present. Typically games (Stacrobats and Make'n'break were both Santa presents), although some years he's given us DVDs (Shaun the Sheep last year:-) ).

The 'big' presents come from us:-) (Actually, the big presents usually come from one set of grandparents...)

[redbraids.livejournal.com]

I really like your idea about the one present from Santa.

[mynxii.livejournal.com]

I really like your thoughts on this.

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

I think that this is a wise, simple, obvious idea and therefore doomed to be ignored in the wider population.

[mireille21.livejournal.com]

Im' trying to stick to one main gift for each special occasion - ie. birthday and Christmas. We also do the stocking filler thing, so now that J has a Thomas trainset he will really just be getting a couple more engines for Christmas. I think my parents went a little overboard the first year, they were excited, that's OK, but I think I have persuaded them to hold back a bit more now. I'll be interested to see how A fares though. She only received a fraction of the gifts J did for being born, people dont' get as excited by the second one, so I'll be interested to see how her first Christmas compares too. Not that I mind either way, I'm just making observations.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

I must be greedy but I want to credit for the good presents. So I give the good presents and Santa brings the stocking stuffers. Because, frankly, I want the thanks going to me....

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Weasel gets her big presents from her parents. Santa gives her a bunch of little things in her Christmas stocking. It's a nice compromise.