MONEY MORAL DILEMMA: What's more important - MoneySaving or Santa?

SooTee_2

"DD1 went to school and near Xmas when she was 5 came home and said that I was mistaken there was a person called Father Christmas and he delivered the presents in a sleigh etc. I asked her why she thought this and she told me Miss Writer her teacher had told her and I was not a teacher so I probably didn't know."

Hi Jellycat40
How dare that teacher undermine you, her parent, when you have instilled truth into her. Does that teacher regularly lie? How much of what the teacher tells your daughter is truth and can you and she believe the teacher, even if (s)he says it's true?!!!

Please stick to the truth, whatever.
Sootee50
xx

silkcutblue

elona wrote:

Right from the start we told our daughters that Santa delivered a stocking for each of them and that other people gave them presents.

Now that is the way to do it.

cyrilsneer

In our house, "Father Christmas" fills the children's stockings with fun, inexpensive things - chocolate money, some new pens, a satsuma, pants and socks, a note-pad - bitty bits.

My husband and I then buy three or four presents for each child from us.

We save an amount every month in a dedicated savings account and this forms our total Chrismas budget for everything - tree, cards, postage, crackers, presents - the lot.

I am happy with the way we do things and my children don't suffer from a lack of a play station. I tell them they have other things that lots of children don't have.

cyril

Lucycat

My four year-old understands that we buy the pressies, and Father Christmas looks after them and then delivers them on Chrismas Eve so that they stay a surprise until then. Hopefully this also instills that it's nice to say thank you as they're opened rather than them being attributed to the generosity of a mysterious benefactor...

Lucy.

JayD

Bust the myth and tell them why. Then tell them what you can afford with the promise to take them out in the January sales and spend it on something(s) that they can choose themselves. It should be just as much fun as them opening anonymous presents and you hoping you everything exactly right. I think 6 and 8 year olds can handle it - and enjoy the alternative offered.

ayla261

sheenaf wrote:

.
I explained that Santa was a mythical person, like Superman and Robin Hood. QUOTE]

are you serious? robin hood wasn't real?

izzig

When the children were very small (3 and 4) I told them that santa did not do toys with batteries. When they got a little older and wanted the expensive stuff and they knew we could not afford it they wanted to put it on their santa list because santa was getting their friends one. I explained that santa only had a limited amount per child and anything over that the parents had to pay so that what children got depended to some extend on how much their parents could afford too. They seemed fine with this and my 9 yr old still seemd to genuinely believe in santa much to my amazement.

Aldahbra

We buy a number of small inexpensive presents to fill a large sock, these are from Santa. Santa has a lot of children to get presents for.

We have a main present downstairs from us and other members of the family.

Last year my daughter said that Santa had bought her friend a Play station. I explained that the playstation was from his parents and smaller presents were from Santa, but xxxx's didn't know that because all his presents had got mixed together. My daughter was happy to know that.

saveroo_2

Christmas has become far too commercialised. Hence, it is important for children to realise that it is not the size of the present that matters (or how expensive a gift is), it is the love and the caring of the person offering the gift that counts. I have been struggling with a reduced income over the past year and I am determined that Christmas shall not make matters worse. Although the children may not fully understand, getting into further debt could result in them being without a roof over their heads or food in their bellies. This has to be avoided. Christmas can still be fun with a little planning ahead.

Rachel_Mac

For me, Father Christmas does exist! Surely he is the universal spirit of love that some people choose to call God? I am not a Christian, and I have struggled with the notion of 'God' for years (an old white man with a beard, anyone?) but I am finally starting to see that 'God' is simply LOVE by another name.

My DD (7) asked me recently if I put the gifts in her stocking. I answered truthfully and said that I was one of Father Christmas's helpers - that he finds a way to let me know what my children need or want, and I do my best to fill their stockings. She was so delighted with this answer, clapping her hands and hugging me! I know that in a year or two her question will be whether he actually exists at all, and I feel that I can answer honestly by saying YES, he is the spirit of love, and he is working through me when I am leaving these gifts.

On a practical MS level, I shop all year round at car boot sales and charity shops for little (cheap) treasures. This helps to spread the cost. Also, our children have been brought up with simple, wooden and natural toys, no television, computers, cinema etc, so their expectations are simple. They are as excited as the next child about Christmas, but are delighted with a skein of rainbow wool and some knitting needles, instead of Barbie and a gameboy! I imagine it would be very hard to cut down on the expense of gift giving, if the gifts have always been expensive.