It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like.....

First of all - I have heard from a few of you that the comments function is not working.
Blogger has been trying to fix it. I hope it works today!
If not - feel free to email me. My email is in the right hand column.
Now to business....

The Christmas tingle has started. Personally, I have a rule - no Christmas until December 1st. The stores did not get my memo. The supermarkets did not get my memo either.
The Christmas music is playing, the shops have trees in their windows and are full of Christmas food and decorations. I find it too much and I celebrate Christmas.

The Six year old however, LOVES it. She is on the third draft of her letter to Santa.
We have had to establish some guidelines.
Rule one: You may ask Santa for no more than three things.
Rule two: They need to be small enough to fit in his sleigh IE: no ponies.
Rule three: Writing three things in one sentence counts as three things not one.

We are trying to have a philosophy of less is more. Less commercialism, more tradition.
It's a lovely idea. The odds are stacked against me.
Even the postman is in on it. Yesterday he brought an American Girl catalogue.
Have you seen one? I'm a grown woman and I want at least twenty things in it.

Felicity Merriman may have the biggest stack of presents under the tree this year.
(Have boys? Go Google it and come back.)
You can choose everything for her from jewelry to furniture.

When I was a kid - there were no big toy stores. There was the toy department in big stores. We went there and looked in awe and wonder at the shelves. There was one type of train, one type of dolls house, one bear etc - you chose from that selection.
Now our children go to warehouses were dolls alone can have up to six aisles.
No wonder their wish lists are ten feet long - who wouldn't want it all?

Since they are barraged by images of all the wondrous toys and games there are from six weeks before the big day, how can we blame them for their enormous wants.
Couple that with the desire to see their delighted faces as they open their gifts, perhaps the wish to give what we ourselves didn't get - it's a very slippery slope.

For now I am resolutely standing firm at the top of that slope - but it is only November. Sigh.

I will continue with hand making some gifts. I will continue to talk to her about needs versus want, about abundance and limits.
I will also take her to the mall to sit on Santa's knee and help her mail her letter to the North Pole BUT not until December 1st.