Let’s create Christmas magic together
It was only a couple of years ago, and after a lot of questions, we decided it was time for Dimitri to know. I took him for coffee, and we discussed the magic of Christmas, the blessing of celebrating the birth of Jesus, and eventually, the meaning of Santa Claus – and the fact that he is more of an idea and expression of love than a real person that travels the world and gives presents. For him, it was a factual recognition. Of course, that makes sense; otherwise, why do we collect gifts and money for kids who don’t have? If Santa were real, he would take care of that. Extremely mature reaction, if I may say so myself. He took it with pride, and being the eldest, he promised to let his brother enjoy the fairy tale. I think it was worse for me. It was a realisation that my firstborn baby boy was growing up and that we would enter a new era in our family.
Fast forward, Philippos started asking questions and again, the decision to have the talk with him before going through a festive season trying to prove his doubts and us wrong. He is the scientist of the family, so looking for evidence is what he loves. We thought it would be much worse if he confirmed his suspicions rather than hearing it from us. In a similar manner, the reaction was sober… well, for my son, not for me.
That was it, I thought. That was the end of counting the
days to Christmas day, trying to hide the gifts the night before, and waking up
on Christmas day. That was the end of Christmas magic in our house.
How wrong was I?
Since then, the spirit and traditions of our family have
become a responsibility of all four of us.
We started last year with the message “we are all Santa”.
All of us get together at the beginning of December, and we do a Secret Santa
draw. With a slight amendment this year, the gifts have categories: need, want, eat, and read. It makes us all
think about the other person, who they are, what they like; or in other words,
put some effort into choosing gifts. “Santa” brings the gifts under the tree on
Christmas day, and oh, the excitement.
This year, the boys led us to another family Christmas
tradition. We have never had the naughty elf visiting our household before. The
elf now is part of the family fun. Every day, we decide whose responsibility it
is that night. Every morning, we all look together for what naughty situation
he got himself into during the night. The giggles when we discover him are so heart-warming.
Some traditions fade out as the kids grow (and that’s fine
but sad). For example, Dimitri this year doesn’t entertain the idea of taking a
photo with Santa and argues accordingly. “he is a random person that pretends
to be someone that doesn’t exist” or “it is like saying we will take a photo
with Quinton de Kock (his favourite cricketer) and then we take a photo with
someone that looks like him., what’s the point?” Now, imagine that with a
rolling of the eyes #preteen. Also, there was not even a discussion about building
a gingerbread house together (THANK YOU!).
I cherish every memory of the two little boys and their excitement about Christmas, they will always be in my heart. But as they grow up, it is time for us parents to let go of past expectations and create our family traditions with them, or sometimes just let them interpret the traditions with a fresh eye.
Our kids demonstrate that the festive season is about the spirit, the feelings, the love, the dreams, and the blessings. It is the season to be together – not just in the same room, but getting close to each other emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
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