O I have no doubt that there are Evil Vicars who are quite capable of demolishing belief in the Easter Bunny and The Great Pumpkin.
The poor children so wickedly and wantonly traumatised by such Evil Vicars never seem to get mentioned in the Meeja, though...it's only the Destroyers of Santa who warrant attention.
Tree and decorations went up last night, complete with this year's new tree ornament - a multi-coloured Hieland Coo. Cards all got written after I got back from ringing, whilst Sandemaniac went on to archery. First batch of mince pies have just been baked, and I've made some brandy butter.
Time to sit down with knitting and music...
I overheard this conversation when my younger son was five. Neighbor child to my son, "Santa Cause is really your dad." My son answered, "No, he is not; he works for the (Name) aircraft company."
According to an advert I saw somewhere online (not sure who made it) Santa is in a union with the Easter Bunny and St Patrick, and that's why he wouldn't answer the letters from Canadian children - he refused to break the strike!
I thought the weeping and wailing of 10- and 11-year-olds was pushing it a bit. I can't really remember a time when I didn't know that Father Christmas was really your mum and dad!
The Christmas tree and Nativity characters* have appeared chez Piglet and the place is looking suitably festive. Cards have been written, and pressies bought for the littlies in my life.
* except for the Magi, who are still in their box and haven't left the Mystic Orient yet.
I got my tree decorated with the help of a friend today. Got most of the decorations up in the apartment too. Now if the Christmas cards I ordered would only get here...
Christmas cards all written today and posted. I got Cheery son to help with the sticking on of the stamps while I put the return address on the back of the envelopes. Am very embarrassed to have forgotten the street address of friends we recently visited, so will have to snoop online to work that out! If worst comes to the worst I can hand deliver it.
Very hot today, but if it's cooler tomorrow I'll make some more Christmas biscuits to pop into the freezer in case of callers. Maybe even some mince pies, because man are they expensive to buy!!
All decorating now done and parcels for family gifts keep arriving. I might try to start some wrapping tomorrow.
Our son was late to the reality of Santa (almost 12), he'd had a very restricted social life due to illness and I had to take him aside to convey the unfortunate news so that he wouldn't be the butt of jokes at school. The reaction was not good - you mean you've been LYING TO ME - ALL THESE YEARS!!! It took quite some explanation and soothing to get us back on an even keel. We'd not had Santa for our daughter, but he totally loved the fantasy of it all, until it was over. Glad to think I never have to go through that again.
Our Place had their Carol Service yesterday afternoon, and FatherInCharge was delighted to be able to tell me that there were 70+ people in church! This may not sound a huge number, but our average Sunday attendance is only 25, so it bodes well (says FInC hopefully) for the rest of the Christmas services.
My Spy tells me that there were 65 adults and 12 under-16s at the Carol Service. Attendance at the morning Mass was a little less than usual - 22.
Happily, enough £££ was raised to pay for 10 guests to be accommodated by Crisis at Christmas, and a large box of toys and other goodies has been collected for a local charity which tries to help families with items other than food.
It cheers me up to learn that one of the poorest parishes in England can still make a difference to those in need.
Finally decorated the tree, which has been up for some time, last night with Mrs. The_Riv and Progeny-2. Still have some garland to hang, and still need to return empty Christmas decoration bins to the attic.
I find that report a bit odd, given that the children in question are apparently 10 and 11 years old. Haven't children usually worked out that Santa isn't real by that age?
I remember as a small(ish) child deliberately staying surreptitiously awake in order to catch my father playing Santa. I was probably 7 or 8, and was the oldest child. So that was the year I must have had a strong suspicion that it wasn't real, but wanted to confirm with data.
"Usually" does cover a number of sins, though. I could believe that a minority of 10 year olds still believed in the fat man in the chimney.
I find that report a bit odd, given that the children in question are apparently 10 and 11 years old. Haven't children usually worked out that Santa isn't real by that age?
(If you ask my six year-old who Father Christmas is, he cheerfully replies, "Grandad" )
Yes I thought it was totally unbelievable. However I was probably in a minority even 60 years ago, that I never believed in it anyway. Our family simply didn't "do" it, so no hanging up stockings or leaving anything out for Santa or the reindeer.
I believed in Santa as a child and the realisation of the truth dawned on me gradually and painlessly. Mr Nen, however, remembers being very upset at the revelation, so we told our children the truth from the start but said it's a game people play and would they like us to play the game? So we did - stockings, carrot for the reindeer and sherry for Santa, the whole thing. They're in their 30s and still have stockings.
I was very reluctant to actually lie to my children, but went along with the idea. Stockings were left at the end of the bed - and duly filled. One year my daughter opened hers at around 2 am, and studiously rewrapped and replaced everything in the precise order, and went back to sleep. When her brother woke up at a more civilised hour, they brought them in to our bedroom and opened them together. There was no evidence that hers had already been opened: we were totally unaware until she eventually confessed. It must have taken some doing, rewrapping and remembering the exact order as well as pretending surprise. I know it was the exact order because their stockings were almost identical, with just one or two slight variants of toy or colour.
I can't remember how we dealt with the Father Christmas conundrum, but I was determined from the start that he was not going to get the credit for the gifts that family and friends had given to our boys, so in our house he only ever filled an adult size knee-sock with small novelties (& quite a lot of stationery items as my imagination failed over the years).
I guess the lack of imagination in the contents helped them figured it out for themselves, but they insisted we continue with the pretence, as I posted a few days ago, until they were nearly 20 and no longer slept 'at home' on Christmas Eve.
I have a department Christmas party Thursday afternoon for the secondary school I did my placement at, at a colleague's home, which I am looking forward to.
Stealing Santa will feature (if you are unaware, like where you buy a secret present for someone but people choose a wrapped gift and can steal someone else's if they prefer upon opening...) I, honestly, am a crap present buyer. The suggested amount is $20. Are there any, humorous or otherwise, suggestions Shipmates may offer? Thank you.
I’m in my 60s, and I still get a stocking, as does everyone in our household, including significant others and pets. It has ever been thus.
You're very fortunate. When I was still fairly young my father informed me that it was getting difficult to know what to buy for my stocking (I've sometimes wondered why it was he and not my mum who did the present shopping and presume it was because he always held the purse strings) and I didn't mind not having one any more, did I? I said, of course not... and determined that my own children, if I had them, would never have to deal with such a life blow...
I've never heard of Stealing Santa, @Climacus , but the one time I was in a workplace that did Secret Santa I bought such a rubbish present that the recipient of it moaned to me about it afterwards (not knowing it was me who had bought it). So I'll leave it to others to make suggestions.
To milestones passed yesterday. I found a gift I liked for my sister. And the cards are ready to mail. I took a dishpan of supplies to my youngest's concert last night and sat at the back of the auditorium finishing folding leTters and stuffing cards with them and school pictures. Sealed 'em as I went. Got home and stamped thrm. 72!
We never did the Santa thing with our young 'uns. For various family reasons, we never wanted to have to deal with the problem @Cheery Gardener mentioned. We also had to teach the oldest not to tell kids at school things like "Santa died."
So much left to do in less than a week. I will feel better after I get the next load in the car for the Goodwill. Lots of clutter has recently been rehomed. That feels good.
I used to go out with a Viking re-enactment couple when they visited schools - I did weaving with the kids. We also had a bunch of real animal skins to show them, including a complete reindeer. "Callum the Callous" would tell the kids that he had shot the reindeer when he saw it on his roof one night, and "there was a fat old man with it as well".
Secret Santa is bad enough, but Stealing Santa sounds even worse...
O! that people would simply devote themselves sincerely to The Great Pumpkin™, instead of faffing around with all this heathen twaddle about fat men and chimneys...
I hate stealing Santa, and I refuse to do it anymore. I now bake a gift, such as candy or cookies, to share with everyone. After I dropped out a few years ago, several people followed me. Although a price was set for the gift, what was given was all over the board. One person received a lovely expensive sweater, and another some dish towels, for example. Some people were happy until their gift was stolen, and some were unhappy because they felt they had a lesser gift.
Stealing Santa will feature (if you are unaware, like where you buy a secret present for someone but people choose a wrapped gift and can steal someone else's if they prefer upon opening...)
Around here, that’s called a White Elephant gift exchange or gift swap. Don’t ask me why “white elephant.”
I’m in my 60s, and I still get a stocking, as does everyone in our household, including significant others and pets. It has ever been thus.
You're very fortunate. When I was still fairly young my father informed me that it was getting difficult to know what to buy for my stocking (I've sometimes wondered why it was he and not my mum who did the present shopping and presume it was because he always held the purse strings) and I didn't mind not having one any more, did I? I said, of course not... and determined that my own children, if I had them, would never have to deal with such a life blow...
We took the tack of agreeing that we would be honest if asked the direct question “Are you Santa.” If asked a less direct question, like “Is Santa real,” we’d go with questions of our own, like “What do you think?” That way we could gauge where they were and what they wanted to know.
If asked “Do you believe in Santa Claus?,” my answer was “Yes.” That came into play when our son, the older of our two kids, asked us point blank. I forget how old he was, but he’d figured out the tooth fairy, and it was only a step or two from there.
We had a talk, and in that talk, I reiterated my belief that anyone who enjoys giving gifts just because of the joy the gift would bring to someone else—no expectation of thanks, no expectation of something in return, just making someone else happy—is Santa Claus.
Son went back to his room. Fifteen minutes later, he was back downstairs with a big smile on his face, and he asked if he could help be Santa for his sister. we, of course, said “Sure.”
That was the year that the afternoon of the 24th, he called me to tell me that his sister had just mentioned something she wished she’d put on her list for Santa. It was a DVD (I can’t remember what), that I was able to duck in somewhere and get.
The next morning, she saw the DVD, turned to her brother, and said “Look! I just told you about this yesterday, but somehow Santa knew!” The look on his face when he saw the look on her face was priceless.
We didn’t tell Lord P about Santa but we did celebrate Jesus’ birthday.
One year, when he was quite small, the town council had a Santa’s grotty in an empty shop
In town. It was supposed to be quite something, and so we queued to go in. He had a bit of a meltdown before we got to see Santa, and I had to take him out. It served me right!
Stealing Santa will feature (if you are unaware, like where you buy a secret present for someone but people choose a wrapped gift and can steal someone else's if they prefer upon opening...)
Around here, that’s called a White Elephant gift exchange or gift swap. Don’t ask me why “white elephant.”
A White Elephant is something useless. Thus the name of the game.
A true White Elephant exchange is where participants bring weird or funny or useless stuff wrapped enticingly like desirable gifts.
Husband's office used to do this. Once we brought a hideous hand-me-down lamp beautifully wrapped. The wife of the person who chose it hissed too late, "Never take the biggest box!"
As a relatively poor college graduate I gussied up a spare, particularly awful subway pass photo into a gift for a White Elephant exchange. My best friend got it. I can't describe the priceless things that went across her face as she desperately sought an appropriate mode of reception. Her relief was palpable, when I couldn't stop giggling over the situation created by the terrible photo in conflict with her sense of propriety.
Secret Santa is bad enough, but Stealing Santa sounds even worse...
I find the idea vile. It would require me to be simultaneously pleased at opening a gift, so as to please the person who purchased that particular gift, whilst holding a state of disinterest so as not to be unhappy if someone else steals it. Why would I want to submit myself to that sort of emotional torture?
We also had to teach the oldest not to tell kids at school things like "Santa died."
We told the Nenlets that some parents tell their children it was true and that was their choice; they were not to let the cat out of the bag.
Nenlet2 did, to one friend, and the friend challenged his mum in front of us - "Is Santa real?" The answer - "I expect so" - was taken as "Yes" by said friend, who then stuck his face into Nenlet2's and said, "See?". Just goes to show we hear what we want to hear (and disregard the rest, lai la lai...).
As a relatively poor college graduate I gussied up a spare, particularly awful subway pass photo into a gift for a White Elephant exchange.
What a story. I guess it is still talked about. A place I worked at, through someone giving a framed photo of some attractive TV singing competition person whom their named recipient found attractive, had the result of this same gift being passed on each year from victim to victim, the original recipient starting it. Given people's responses above, I understand not all may deem that appropriate, but it was a source of great merriment as to whom would receive it each year there at least (I was only there one year and, seeing my quizzical look as people roared laughing as the photo was unwrapped, had it explained to me...)
Nenya: how horrible to have your gift dismissed to you. Some people have complained about gifts to me in the past; I was never the giver, but I always wondered, "How do you know I'm not the one who gave it to you?"
I can't remember exactly how it worked with our two daughters, but it may have had to do with the fact that every year we would read them Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas. I am sure the improbability of the story did the job slowly and painlessly over the course of a few years. On the other hand, until they left home there would be a bottle of a certain fermented fluid, biscuits, and a note left out for him at bed-time, and sure enough, there would be a reply waiting in the morning and the level in the bottle would be a little lower.
I love that @Stercus Tauri! Amongst stuff Mum had kept was a letter my sister had written, not to Santa, but To Whom it May Concern, regarding her Christmas requests when she was in upper primary school. As well as gifts in her stocking that year she received a reply from Mr and Mrs Whom.
I used to love reading a variety of Christmas books with our kids - Tosca's Christmas (a cat one), a variety of Nativity stories, especially the one with the grumpy innkeeper and Wombat Divine, about a wombat trying out for all the roles in the Christmas play. Being rather sleepy, he was suited to one role in particular and played it perfectly!
As we didn't have Father Christmas for our daughter, we told her that it was a special Christmas game, but we wanted Jesus to be the special person in our celebrations and that we needed to let other families do their preferred Christmas traditions.
Eventually she would get one gift from Santa, but the rest from us, so she had something to show people who asked her about it. Son had Santa as it was happening at his creche and his preschool and then at the hospital and at various charity functions we attended. He does seem to have made his peace with his disappointment now and doesn't seem too scarred, though it was ugly at the time!
The time has come to put in our vote for the best Christmas lights on homes in our mobile home park. I am torn because the prize goes to the same person each year. I agree that she goes all out with a lot of lighted decor. I feel the need to give the prize to someone else for a change. So, I have decided to vote for someone I think has done the second-best job. I really do like theirs the best as they have a theme, while the usual winner just has lots of stuff. It will be interesting to see who wins.
Now that the tree is up and decorated, I can just make out that the couple of strands of replacement lights are slightly whiter than the older strands. Oof.
'Tree' would be overstating it. I picked up a couple of fallen branches in the garden, stuffed them in a pitcher with some sprigs of holly, decked them with six baubles and lengths of twisted tinfoil. The result is certainly wintry...
Sorry @Nick Tamen , I meant “grotto “
We used to do a trip around the naff Christmas lights in our area-some were really extreme! When we used to go to Darllenwr’s parents house in Stourbridge for Christmas, we used to take a trip to a local area where a particular street used to all decorate their houses to raise money for charity. People would come from miles around.
Now that the tree is up and decorated, I can just make out that the couple of strands of replacement lights are slightly whiter than the older strands. Oof.
A few more layers of tinsel will mask/hide any such issues.
Tinsel fixes everything.
Except maybe the cat. I have found i teresting evidence in the litter box this time of year.
In the close where my son lives, all the ( 5 bedroomed ) houses are lavishly and often untastefully over-decorated. It seems to be a competition in being OTT. One house has a full sized nativity scene in a “ stable”, but they are evangelical Christians, so are making a different kind of statement.
It is a cul-de-sac, so it is not as if anyone is going to drive by, though they may visit specially.
Now that the tree is up and decorated, I can just make out that the couple of strands of replacement lights are slightly whiter than the older strands. Oof.
A few more layers of tinsel will mask/hide any such issues.
Tinsel fixes everything.
Except maybe the cat. I have found i teresting evidence in the litter box this time of year.
LOL! Ah, yes -- I remember tinsel-y feline donations to the litter box from my childhood cat.
In a street near where my daughter used to live, there was one house that had a particularly lavish display of Christmas lights every year without fail. This was much admred locally, until one year the householder had a visit from the electricity engineers, followed in quick order by the police. It transpired that he had organised his own private connection to the supply, bypasssing the meter, He was a guest of Her Majesty for a while after that, and the lights did not reappear.
This year I'm seeing quite a bit more oversized/giant outdoor decorations: jingle bells and baubles a meter or more in diameter; huge, internally lit inflatable Santas, reindeer, sleighs and snowmen. They're just so BIG. Some are literally taller than the houses behind them, and require guy-wires to keep them upright. The gradual, all too predictable growth of yard decorations has been going on for some time. There's a bit of the ridiculous in it, because once things begin to move in the Bigger is Better direction, it doesn't ever seem to self-regulate. If it hasn't happened already, I expect to see massive, barn-sized inflatable snow globes that fully enclose people's houses. Surely this is already being done somewhere in the "Gaudy is US-A."
I'd certainly noticed an increase in the large inflatables.
Round here they are pretty tasteful although my husband has borrowed several strings of hanging blue outdoor lights and hung them around the bit of our frontage that is single storey. The path, the adjacent trees and several neighbouring houses are illuminated by the blue glow.
Comments
The poor children so wickedly and wantonly traumatised by such Evil Vicars never seem to get mentioned in the Meeja, though...it's only the Destroyers of Santa who warrant attention.
Time to sit down with knitting and music...
Guilty as charged, m'lud .....
The Christmas tree and Nativity characters* have appeared chez Piglet and the place is looking suitably festive. Cards have been written, and pressies bought for the littlies in my life.
* except for the Magi, who are still in their box and haven't left the Mystic Orient yet.
Very hot today, but if it's cooler tomorrow I'll make some more Christmas biscuits to pop into the freezer in case of callers. Maybe even some mince pies, because man are they expensive to buy!!
All decorating now done and parcels for family gifts keep arriving. I might try to start some wrapping tomorrow.
Our son was late to the reality of Santa (almost 12), he'd had a very restricted social life due to illness and I had to take him aside to convey the unfortunate news so that he wouldn't be the butt of jokes at school. The reaction was not good - you mean you've been LYING TO ME - ALL THESE YEARS!!! It took quite some explanation and soothing to get us back on an even keel. We'd not had Santa for our daughter, but he totally loved the fantasy of it all, until it was over. Glad to think I never have to go through that again.
My Spy tells me that there were 65 adults and 12 under-16s at the Carol Service. Attendance at the morning Mass was a little less than usual - 22.
Happily, enough £££ was raised to pay for 10 guests to be accommodated by Crisis at Christmas, and a large box of toys and other goodies has been collected for a local charity which tries to help families with items other than food.
It cheers me up to learn that one of the poorest parishes in England can still make a difference to those in need.
I remember as a small(ish) child deliberately staying surreptitiously awake in order to catch my father playing Santa. I was probably 7 or 8, and was the oldest child. So that was the year I must have had a strong suspicion that it wasn't real, but wanted to confirm with data.
"Usually" does cover a number of sins, though. I could believe that a minority of 10 year olds still believed in the fat man in the chimney.
Yes I thought it was totally unbelievable. However I was probably in a minority even 60 years ago, that I never believed in it anyway. Our family simply didn't "do" it, so no hanging up stockings or leaving anything out for Santa or the reindeer.
IIRC, I was never indoctrinated with the Santa myth, but learned about St Nicholas at Sunday School...
I guess the lack of imagination in the contents helped them figured it out for themselves, but they insisted we continue with the pretence, as I posted a few days ago, until they were nearly 20 and no longer slept 'at home' on Christmas Eve.
Stealing Santa will feature (if you are unaware, like where you buy a secret present for someone but people choose a wrapped gift and can steal someone else's if they prefer upon opening...) I, honestly, am a crap present buyer. The suggested amount is $20. Are there any, humorous or otherwise, suggestions Shipmates may offer? Thank you.
I've never heard of Stealing Santa, @Climacus , but the one time I was in a workplace that did Secret Santa I bought such a rubbish present that the recipient of it moaned to me about it afterwards (not knowing it was me who had bought it). So I'll leave it to others to make suggestions.
We never did the Santa thing with our young 'uns. For various family reasons, we never wanted to have to deal with the problem @Cheery Gardener mentioned. We also had to teach the oldest not to tell kids at school things like "Santa died."
So much left to do in less than a week. I will feel better after I get the next load in the car for the Goodwill. Lots of clutter has recently been rehomed. That feels good.
O! that people would simply devote themselves sincerely to The Great Pumpkin™, instead of faffing around with all this heathen twaddle about fat men and chimneys...
We took the tack of agreeing that we would be honest if asked the direct question “Are you Santa.” If asked a less direct question, like “Is Santa real,” we’d go with questions of our own, like “What do you think?” That way we could gauge where they were and what they wanted to know.
If asked “Do you believe in Santa Claus?,” my answer was “Yes.” That came into play when our son, the older of our two kids, asked us point blank. I forget how old he was, but he’d figured out the tooth fairy, and it was only a step or two from there.
We had a talk, and in that talk, I reiterated my belief that anyone who enjoys giving gifts just because of the joy the gift would bring to someone else—no expectation of thanks, no expectation of something in return, just making someone else happy—is Santa Claus.
Son went back to his room. Fifteen minutes later, he was back downstairs with a big smile on his face, and he asked if he could help be Santa for his sister. we, of course, said “Sure.”
That was the year that the afternoon of the 24th, he called me to tell me that his sister had just mentioned something she wished she’d put on her list for Santa. It was a DVD (I can’t remember what), that I was able to duck in somewhere and get.
The next morning, she saw the DVD, turned to her brother, and said “Look! I just told you about this yesterday, but somehow Santa knew!” The look on his face when he saw the look on her face was priceless.
One year, when he was quite small, the town council had a Santa’s grotty in an empty shop
In town. It was supposed to be quite something, and so we queued to go in. He had a bit of a meltdown before we got to see Santa, and I had to take him out. It served me right!
A White Elephant is something useless. Thus the name of the game.
A true White Elephant exchange is where participants bring weird or funny or useless stuff wrapped enticingly like desirable gifts.
Husband's office used to do this. Once we brought a hideous hand-me-down lamp beautifully wrapped. The wife of the person who chose it hissed too late, "Never take the biggest box!"
As a relatively poor college graduate I gussied up a spare, particularly awful subway pass photo into a gift for a White Elephant exchange. My best friend got it. I can't describe the priceless things that went across her face as she desperately sought an appropriate mode of reception. Her relief was palpable, when I couldn't stop giggling over the situation created by the terrible photo in conflict with her sense of propriety.
I find the idea vile. It would require me to be simultaneously pleased at opening a gift, so as to please the person who purchased that particular gift, whilst holding a state of disinterest so as not to be unhappy if someone else steals it. Why would I want to submit myself to that sort of emotional torture?
And thanks, @Kendel.
Nenlet2 did, to one friend, and the friend challenged his mum in front of us - "Is Santa real?" The answer - "I expect so" - was taken as "Yes" by said friend, who then stuck his face into Nenlet2's and said, "See?". Just goes to show we hear what we want to hear (and disregard the rest, lai la lai...).
Nenya: how horrible to have your gift dismissed to you. Some people have complained about gifts to me in the past; I was never the giver, but I always wondered, "How do you know I'm not the one who gave it to you?"
I'm sure my friend burned that photo at the first opportunity. Too bad. There were plenty of victims who would have been baffled in the future.
Probably one of my most self-deprecating pieces of humor.
I'm chuckling right now over it!
I used to love reading a variety of Christmas books with our kids - Tosca's Christmas (a cat one), a variety of Nativity stories, especially the one with the grumpy innkeeper and Wombat Divine, about a wombat trying out for all the roles in the Christmas play. Being rather sleepy, he was suited to one role in particular and played it perfectly!
As we didn't have Father Christmas for our daughter, we told her that it was a special Christmas game, but we wanted Jesus to be the special person in our celebrations and that we needed to let other families do their preferred Christmas traditions.
Eventually she would get one gift from Santa, but the rest from us, so she had something to show people who asked her about it. Son had Santa as it was happening at his creche and his preschool and then at the hospital and at various charity functions we attended. He does seem to have made his peace with his disappointment now and doesn't seem too scarred, though it was ugly at the time!
We used to do a trip around the naff Christmas lights in our area-some were really extreme! When we used to go to Darllenwr’s parents house in Stourbridge for Christmas, we used to take a trip to a local area where a particular street used to all decorate their houses to raise money for charity. People would come from miles around.
Tinsel fixes everything.
Except maybe the cat. I have found i teresting evidence in the litter box this time of year.
I’ve only been up for 15 minutes, and I’ve already learned something new. (So I’m wondering if that means I can go back to bed.)
It is a cul-de-sac, so it is not as if anyone is going to drive by, though they may visit specially.
LOL! Ah, yes -- I remember tinsel-y feline donations to the litter box from my childhood cat.
Round here they are pretty tasteful although my husband has borrowed several strings of hanging blue outdoor lights and hung them around the bit of our frontage that is single storey. The path, the adjacent trees and several neighbouring houses are illuminated by the blue glow.