It's been months since my last post... I feel like I have let my Blogger's Guild down - I'm sorry, girls. I'm really going to try to read your blogs regularly, as well as update mine on a more... regular basis.
I hope you have all had a Merry Christmas. Ours was, well, it was nice. To be honest though, something was missing and I can't exactly put my finger on it.
Growing up, Christmas for me was extravagant! Now that I have children of my own, I seem to be following in my parent's footsteps. I want Ethan & Titus to have everything; I want them to be blown away; I want them to feel that excitement that I always felt on Christmas morning. But to be really honest, Christmas has just become more commercial than anything else, in our home... and I am ashamed to say so. I have a knot in my stomach when I think about the past few weeks leading up to Christmas. I have been SO stressed out, staying up late and shopping almost every night until it's made me physically sick. Basically, I've been a wreck. And all for what?
I want our boys to have the toys that they like - sometimes I think I want it more than they do. I am certain that they would have been happy with just a few things, but every year I go overboard. The more toys they get; the more toys they want.
My boys are thankful when they receive gifts, but I can't help but sense this numbness come over them when they receive too many gifts... where they are not content anymore with what they have and want even more, or, they don't appreciate what they have anymore. What are we really teaching our children by giving them SO much?
Something is missing here - Christmas should not about getting stuff; it's really about so, so much more. I don't want to go through another meaningless Christmas. I want our Christmas's to be joyful and meaningful.
I need to think about this a little more...
Any thoughts? How do you balance the giving/getting?
6 comments:
So glad you are back!! woo Hoo!!!
I was thinking about this as well this year. I don't have kids, but I felt like we were all just going through the motions of "dinner, presents, home" Perhaps because I had soooo many stops to make. It occurred to me this year that there just wasn't enough Christ....
I want to find a way to make the gifts about 5% of the day and fmaily/God 95%... I don't know how to do that!!
Thanks for your comment, Laura.
That's really it - not enough Christ in Christmas.
The whole "gifts" thing is really a challenge for me. I would like the kids to have more than just a few presents under the tree. Aerie thinks that 2 or 3 is fine... but that's how his Christmas's were. We're not agreeing on this right now...
I just need to really pray and ask for God's wisdom... I want "the presents" AND "the Christ"...
Yeah, I just need some insight.
Trace
Yes I know what you are talking about Tracy. Before we became Christ followers Christmas and Easter as well as other holidays just had something missing and my spirit could feel it but I did not know what was missing.
Great post and glad to hear from you.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours.
E Hug.
Hey Tracy...It is so good to have you back as well.
I agree...The focus on Christmas has changed so much over the years and I think we all need to change it back to what it should be. The focus should be on Jesus. It should be on celebrating our Saviour being born.
As parents, I think we sometimes worry because other families have tonnes of gifts under the tree and we may not, however, it isn't about that. It is about teaching our children the true meaning of why we even celebrate Christmas.
After reading your post, I have been thinking...what do my kids really think about Christmas. Do they look forward to it because of Santa and presents. And if this is the case, I have certainly failed as a parent.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with kids getting presents or believing in Santa, however, if we have lost most of our focus on celebrating HIM, than we are just going through the "motions" each and every year.
Maybe next year, we will all be able to come up with some creative ideas to help each other out : )
Hi Tracy,
You don't know me, but I found your blog through my Aunt Debbie's (Allison) blog.
I totally understand what you are talking about. This past Christmas our daughter who is 3 1/2 got so much stuff for Christmas that it was obscene! She is the only grandchild in both families and between grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other friends who get something for her at Christmas is was just too much.
We never buy much for her because we know she will get so many other presents but I think we're going to ask everyone to tone it down. She doesn't play with most of the stuff, and I'm tired of having to put stuff away and bring it out later. We had to go through her room after Christmas to weed out a bunch of other stuff she had accumulated...and we've even given away toys to Value Village that were hardly used but at least that was someone would get use out of it.
One idea I have had is to limit our family members to a certain number of gifts (like maybe one or two) and ask them that anything else they see that they would like to get her to maybe think about buying it and donating it to Santa's sleigh.
Although...even my husband and I are tired of the stress of buying, shopping, etc. especially when we usually go out and buy the things we want. We've talked about asking people to not buy us things, but to instead donate money to charities.
I hate to sound bah humbug, but I think it is much better to spend time and money on a really nice gift for a person to honour their birthday, and leave Christmas for Jesus and being with family. I think my spirit (and my wallet) would like that much better!
Anyways...just my two cents worth! You have a great blog!
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