Holiday Presents, Part 2

     Now that your children's gift to others are taken care of (see Dec. 13th), what do you want to do about their gifts from you and from Santa?  If your kids know that you buy them some gifts that you want to be surprises for them, you can give them some tips about not looking around for presents because of the chance of "wrecking the surprise". If they can learn to delay gratification and wait for surprises, their Christmas mornings will be sooo exciting and they will have developed a useful character trait. If they're not looking for your gifts, they won't accidentally find Santa's gifts.
     I had always thought that Chad and Scott didn't snoop when Christmas came around because they liked to be surprised. Wrong!! I just discovered that they were nervous that if they found  surprise gifts we wouldn't let them have them!! I'm sure we never said that exactly, but they could tell from our voices that snooping was not a good thing.
     If you want Santa to last...always keep separate wrapping paper, labels, bows - only to be used by Santa. At our house, Santa wrapped some gifts and left others unwrapped by the tree - and unwrapped trinkets in the Christmas stockings. Last minute wrapping of Santa's gifts is always a great idea. It's less confusing if all family gifts are wrapped ahead of time with the whole family involved (and in our house put away until Christmas Eve). So all you need to be concerned with on Christmas Eve after the children go to bed is wrapping Santa's gifts and arranging the presents under the tree.

whether the presents are wrapped by Mom and Dad

or by Santa

or left unwrapped by Santa

or packages from friends and families

Make sure your kids appreciate each gift individually. More to come in Part 3!!




Happy Parenting!
D and C