Holiday Hoopla
by
Katie over at Overflowing Brain tagged me for this hoopla. She is modest in saying I have higher traffic than her on my blog. I doubt that is true, but compliments will go far here!
Here are the rules, as decreed by someone higher up than myself.
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a ‘hoopla’ and not the dreaded ‘m’-word
3. You have to specifically tag people when you’re done. None of this “if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged” stuff is allowed…then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you — but the more, the merrier to get this ‘hoopla’ circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I’d like to get as many people involved as possible.
1. I used to unwrap all the presents under the tree that had my name on it. My mom said it was so bad that she started writing others’ names on my presents to trick me. It worked.
2. I believed in Santa Claus for a really, really long time. I am not sure when I stopped believing, but my four older siblings did a good job keeping the secret.
3. The worst present I ever got was a popcorn popper from my parents. The popper was perfectly fine, it’s just that it was the exact popper they’d gotten for me two or three years before.
4. Christmas 1996 was the worst ever due to a huge family fight. It was closely followed in its badness by New Year’s 2003. Things are mostly better now. At least, all bad behavior is checked at the door–and that’s good because the party is at my house this year.
5. I am really, really bad about getting Christmas cards out. Bad, as in, they often don’t make it out at all.
6. I love Christmas music. I start listening to it on Thanksgiving and go straight through to Christmas. But I can’t stand to hear it the day after Christmas.
7. I detest that dirty/stingy/stealing Santa party thing where gifts get “stolen.” I find them very un-harmonious and un-Christmasy.
8. I hide baby Jesus under the hay in the manger until Christmas morning. Just like I’ve done since being a kid.
9. I am delighted that the Christmas stuffed animals that I saved from when I was a kid are finally getting play again with Sun. The hubs shook his head not knowing where these furry friends had come from.
10. Christmas Eve is the big family party. And my family has started a new tradition of having a crab boil somewhere between Christmas and New Year’s. Christmas day is actually anti-climactic and quiet.
11. I haven’t attended Christmas mass in over a decade.
12. I hope Sun’s memories of her childhood Christmases are as sweet as mine.
I tag Sunny at Babble from a first time mom, Kimberly at Parenting Without a License, Tot’s Mom at Toddler Humor, Rock Star Mommy, and Minnie at screamy thing. Go forth and be merry and bright.
If no. 2 is correct, you have to give your siblings a lot of slack. This shows a lot of generosity on their part.
Man, my sister could learn a thing or two from your siblings. My sister told me there was no Santa when I was 6 because she was mad at me. And in all my years, I’ve never seen my father as angry as he was at that moment…
Thanks for doing the hoopla and I’m so happy that blogger is letting you back into their system!
I don’t remember the exact age, but I was pretty young when I stopped believing in Santa. First, not one house we lived in had a fireplace. Second, while in first grade, I witnessed my brother’s and my Schwinn Stingray bikes being delivered to the house next door (who did not have any kids) two days before Christmas. Although I was told I was mistaken, bikes of the same colors were under the tree Christmas morning. That pretty much clinched it.
My nephew is 10 and his parents believe that he still believes in Santa. I’m still playing along with it, but he’s a pretty smart kid and I wonder when he’ll figure it out.
A co-worker told me his 9 year-old daughter said at the dinner table, in front of the 5 year-old and 7-year old, “Someone at school said there isn’t a Santa Claus. The parents really buy all the presents and just say it’s from Santa.” He was not amused. He and his wife scrambled to rehabilitate their daughter’s impressions so as not to burst the younger ones’ bubbles.
So, to you parents out there, the question is, how long are you supposed to keep lying to your children?