Santa, Easter Bunny and the like....

[Kentucky~Momma]

Is it just us or is there other people out there who do not get a visit from these guys. We have reasons for not having them visit, mostly religious, but the tooth fairy is not one that visits either.....

I am trying to be careful, being as there might be a child on here, but are we the only ones?

 

[arlee453]

Santa does visit our house, but just brings one small toy/item for each child.

Tooth fairy has come by once or twice, but not consistently. The kids usually forget to put their tooth under there anyway.

Easter bunny never comes by - we are at church on Easter morning and so aren't here to unlock the door for him.

Holidays aren't such a big deal for gift giving at our house. Our kids are so blessed and spoiled every day of the year as compared to many children, we try to play down the gifting parts of the holidays and play up the 'do for others' part.

We have 4 kids (ages 5 - 11) and will spend less than $400 total on Christmas for them this year, and I still feel like it is too much commercialism...

 

[nccountrygirl]

no you are not the only one. We try and show in our house the true meaning of Christmas.

 

[Omeletta]

We also don't have visits from these cute charactors. I don't see anything wrong with "no" visits. We have cool traditions (that sometimes change at the last minute

) and our girls have always enjoyed these seasons, as we have made an effort to drive home the message in fun ways.

Tanya

 

[Kentucky~Momma]

That makes me feel quite a bit better, I know it shouldn't affect me when people comment on what we do as parents. We don't commercialize any of the holidays, and this is where we get the most grief from people. Family members will get things for the kids, but I have always stressed that it is not excessive, and not a lot of stuff. We have 6 kids here, they are 16,15,14,12,4, and 18 months, and we do not personally do gifts for Christmas at all. They will get something around the 31st, and is given to them for being good kids, with acknowledgment to the good things they have done during the year. (All the help I got on when I was on bed rest, help with the new baby, showing extra effort around the house when I was working two jobs, etc.) We try to focus more on the true meanings of the holidays, and not the commercialism. My 4 year old last year was at church when they were talking about dying the eggs different colors, and right in the middle of Sunday school, he looked at the other kids and said, " We don't have to dye our eggs, out chickens do it for us." His teacher said that she about had coffee come out her nose!

 

[texaschickmama]

They do visit my house. We, by no means, worship them. My son knows the true meaning of Christmas. It is just for "fun". IMHO, my children get to have a great time in anticipating the visit from Santa and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. It's all in fun.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

We don't get those visitors either.

 

[Alleyoops25]

We dont usually make a big deal out of the Easter Bunny, or tooth fairy. We do the Santa thing, and as they get older we dont push it near as much. My 4 year old beliees in santa, but my 8 year old doesnt.We push the true means on our kids, you know baby Jesus, and resirection of Jesus. We do big christmas's and make a huge deal out of that holiday. I mean kids are only kids once and we love watching seeing and opening their presents, and take lots of pictures of them for memories in later years when we grow old and can look back and remember them in a much simpler time.

 

[nccountrygirl]

I think I need to clarify my earlier post. We still do the Christmas thing, just not with Santa.

 

[Kentucky~Momma]

Our Christmas usually involves us all waking up, having a wonderful family breakfast, there is no hurry, no rushing, and it is all relaxed. We sit down by the fire and bring out the family Bible and read. We discuss all about the holiday, and why we celebrate it. As the boys get older, we plan on bringing them all to a homeless shelter to serve food, and serve others. The older kids go to a couple different animal shelters to clean cages and feed the animals.

I remember growing up, and the rush of having to get to 5 different places in two days, on someone elses scheduale, and it never seemed to be like a good family time. There was never any discussion, we grew up going to Christmas Eve mass, but other then that, it was all lost in the commercialism. Half the stuff we got, was pushed into a corner or into a toy box never to be seen again.

My family has decided that what we do give to each other must be made by hand, and materials must cost less the $10. This has also helped. The kids have received some wonderful gifts from both my parents and other family members, and actually tossed the toys aside for the hand made gift because they know how much love was put into that gift. This has given us the opportunity to teach the kids as well. One of the girls made birdhouses for everyone and painted them all different colors, all with the left over paint from the coops, the girls have learned how to knit and crochet, and even the boys are learning how to do a lot of the crafty things. James (4) decided that he was giving everyone paper chains for their trees, and on each ring he put a verse.

I also found a lot of people doing it where they will only buy American made products, is there anyone who is trying this?