I love Santa Claus

I'm a terrible Christian mother. I'm sorry. I know I should be teaching Ellie about Jesus' birthday and giving and sharing and things regarding Christmas, but Santa is a WONDERFUL manipulative idea. Have you ever thought about the words to Santa Claus is Coming to Town? It is SOOO threatening. You better watch out! Better not cry! Better not pout, I'm telling you why... Santa Claus is coming to town! Be good for goodness sake!

So Ellie has been Christmas shopping with me and has gotten obsessively greedy. She wants everything she sees and is convinced Santa Claus is going to get it all for her. We were buying Matthew some pants (as the 6-12 month size cuts of the circulation of his rotund little belly) at Macy's, and there were toys in the kids' department. She tells Sandy, "I want that and that and that. Santa Claus gonna get it for me."

Since then I've convinced her Santa will bring ONE present... if she's a good girl and not naughty. This has stopped many a whining incident, tantrum, and just general objection to my directions. Thank God for Santa Claus is all I have to say.

On the flip side, we have decided to give a bunch of toys away to needy kids. I've decided to get Ellie involved with this. I don't think she even fathoms children that don't have toys, but the idea made her sad. She was playing with one of said toys, and Peter told her to get ready for bed. She replied, "Wait! I have to put this toy back and give it to kids that no have toys." So that's nice.

She also knows that Christmas is Jesus' birthday, although she thinks baby Jesus and grown up Jesus are two different people. And when I bring up Jesus' birthday, she mostly starts talking about her own birthday party, which will be at the end of March.

Maybe next year...