I hated christmas...

Until I had kids.

Christmas music drives me batty. Esp when we start practicing it in September. I don't like the hype and craziness... in fact, my son doesn't even know who Santa is. He looks at Santa and asks if hes a snowman and he thinks reindeer are Christmas decorations but he really has no idea of the fantasy land of Santa Claus. And I am okay with that. I am fine to not string lights all over my house and to not have a tree this yr because we will have a 9 mos old who is a step away from walking (I know, he is crazy!). I hate when toys are out for sale in October.... well I did, until I decided to shop early this year.

Most of Christmas still drives me crazy and my kids will never celebrate it in the same way as many children (including cousins). We don't "do" Santa and I never plan on doing Santa with them. The reasons are many and pretty complex. Mostly I want Christmas to be about giving to others and not worrying about what we are receiving. I don't want my children fixated on what an imaginary fat man is getting them. I am also a pretty firm believer in always telling my children the truth so creating a fantasy land about a make believe man... well, it creeps me out a bit. Those are just a couple of reasons. I am sure a "no Santa" post is going to be in the works soon.

So I don't get excited about MOST of the commercial things that happen with Christmas but I do love to give gifts and to pick out gifts for my children. I mean, it is a complete joy for me to find the right gift to give them. My boys do not get many new things. And when I say this... I mean it. We are in a stage of life where the money is not abundant. Grad students aren't paid very much and... oddly enough, stay at home moms don't get paid at all. Pretty much all of our money is delegated to bills and food. So we do cherish the times we can get the boys gifts. Christmas and their birthdays are the only days they get new toys or clothes. Every other day of the year I find free things for them (yay freecycle!). I mean, don't get me wrong... I get Super Muscles a .97 car at walmart here and there and I am pretty certain even with loads of money I would not often buy them new things and extravagant gifts but this is where I am now. Super excited to be able to give them new, unused gifts at Christmas. But it takes a few months of planning to pull it off. So, I officially started my Christmas shopping this month. And, I like it. I have enjoyed finding good prices on the things I wanted to get for Super Muscles. I found a stellar price on the clickstart and some games that I had been wanting to get him which even left a little room for some other small gifts. I got him a book about dinosaurs that I can not wait until he opens. By then, he will probably be able to tell me about every dinosaur in the book (he is seriously into dinos right now and knows many of their names and characteristics). And slowly but surely collecting the Cars characters diecast cars to put into his stocking is fun. I have been getting them right in front of his nose and he basically has no idea they are for him. We take them home, I hide them and he never thinks about them or asks about them again. It cracks me up.

But above and beyond giving gifts that I am enjoying is trying to figure out and make our own traditions. One thing I plan to do every single year with my boys is to make up shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Now I started doing this when I was in middle school with my Sunday School class at church. Every year we would have a party. We would all get money from our parents and go shopping for our things for the shoe boxes then go back to our teachers house and eat and wrap the gifts and just have lots of fun together. I have great memories from this. Eventually I plan to give the boys allowance and have them save back 10% of their allowance every week to use on this project at the end of the year. So that when they do their shoe box, they are making a personal sacrifice to give to a child who is in need. It will also be a lesson in budgeting ;) I really hope that they enjoy this tradition. This year will be SM first year choosing gifts for his box. I am still thinking on meaningful traditions for our family. I would love to do something with Advent but am not sure what yet.

If you have any fun holiday traditions, would you share them with me? I love learning about new traditions and seeing the cool things my friends do with their children.