All I Want for Christmas

We all get to that point of the year when we start flipping through magazines for things we want. Then we send it off to Santa. Personally, when I begin to formulate my list, I still write it in crayon and decorate it and give it to my mom at least a month in advance. My roommates still write one, but maybe not as enthusiastically as mine, but it seems like it is a staple in holiday traditions. Although it is more of a little kid thing to write a letter to Santa, if I am quick with it and say pretty please, Santa usually comes through! Here are some cute letters to Santa. Check out more and where these came from here!


Dear Santa, Please give me a doll this year. I would like her to eat, walk, do my homework, and help me clean my room. Thank you, Jenny


Dear Santa, I need a new skateboard for Christmas. The one I got now crashes too much. Band-aids would be OK too. David


Dear Santa, Could you come early this year? I've been really super good, but I don't know if I can last much longer. Please hurry. Love, Jordan


Dear Santa, You can send me one of everything from the boys' section of the Sears catalog. But nothing from the girls' section. I can't wait for Christmas to come. Kent

Who puts more work into Christmas, a mom or dad?

Dads usually aren’t the ones who are fighting the crowds for that last Furby on the shelf or pushing the doors down when Toys-R-Us opens extra early the day after Thanksgiving. Moms usually get the honor to fight with teenage sales people or elbowing her way to the checkout counter. However, dads usually are the ones who don the red suit and fake cotton (or worse, polyester) beard. They also might be the ones who put the bikes together, and in doing so, have to decipher the unhelpful pictures that always seem to miss a step. So who has it worse—moms or dads?
When talking to members of my family, it all seems to be bittersweet. Some decide that they hate the prep work that goes into making every child’s favorite holiday seem like it is the best day ever, and having to top it every year, but when they see their child’s face they know it was worth it. Just chatting with my aunt, she was very enthusiastic with making her Christmas the best for her kids. My mom, however, loved believing in Santa, but wished that there really was a Santa so that she didn’t have to do all that work. In my dad’s opinion, he was happy to do it, but when it came to Christmas Eve, he was always more of a Grinch because he had to stay up late getting everything done. (But they did learn, as we got older to have someone else put the bikes together so that they could go to bed earlier.) My mom always said that he had it easy because he didn’t have to do all the shopping, hiding, wrapping, and everything in between.

But if there is one thing that they can agree on, is that it was all worth it, because they loved the holiday itself. I am not sure who I think has it worse, but parents do get to share in the joy of making sure that their kids set Christmas apart from any other day and they get to eat those cookies for Santa.

The Dark Day in 4th Grade

When I found out about Santa, it was a bad day in 4th grade. I was minding my own business, right before the holidays, when a girl was talking about how she knows who Santa really is. (Ironically, she is one of my best friends.) I tried to ignore the conversation, but they kept talking about how it was really just mom and dad who gave us the presents, rather than a mysterious man in a red suit. So, shocked by the amount of people who thought this, I wanted to know the truth. I went home and asked my mom, point blank, "Is there really a Santa?" She tried to dance around the answer by telling me that there is always magic at Christmas and that everything is magical. I wouldn't except that answer, so I continued to be persistent. This went on for about 5 to 10 minutes, and eventually, my mom had had it. I pushed her buttons too many times that she just blurted out that "NO! Alright, there is no Santa!" This was obviously not the answer that I was looking for, and I burst into tears. I thought I could handle to truth, but I was sorrowly mistaken. My mom then felt so bad that she ran out and bought the movie, Miracle on 34th Street, just to see if that could make up for it. Now, it is one of my favorite holiday flicks, but I still remember the sadness that was with me that Christmas, and how much I wanted Santa to be real.