The One With the Hints We May Be Doing Christmas Wrong

(This whole "The One With" doesn't lend itself well to otherwise lenghthy titles. But I have a hard time letting go of things I've committed to doing, like beginning each title of each post with "The One With..." and using the same filter on Instagram every time. I may have a problem. But more on that later.)

We're those people who are on the fence about Santa Claus. On the one hand, it's fun to believe in holiday magic. On the other, I don't like outright lying to my kids, or going to great lengths to make them believe in something. So the girls watch Santa Claus movies and sing all the songs, but we've never sent any lists to the North Pole. 

But, whatever we're doing, we might be failing at it.

Ellie said the other day, "Santa Claus won't bring me any presents if I'm noodley." She also asked if we could make Christmas treats. "Like Santa Claus cookies and Germanbread." "Germanbread?" "Like on your towel!!" (Gingerbread.) So at least we were able to do that:

And when we were watching White Christmas, which we thought she'd love because of all the singing and dancing, she became fixated on the battle scene at the beginning. "What happened to the mad airplane? Why did it knock over the building?" She really couldn't let that go. And while Olivia was dancing and jumping and saying, "I'm Judy. I have a yellow dress. I'm dancing." Ellie kept up about that mad airplane. "Where is it now?"

And then she started sniffling. "Why are you crying?" I asked. "Because Santa Claus isn't going to bring me any presents?" "Why do you think that?" "Because tomorrow's not Christmas!"

When Santa visited them at school, Ellie's teacher reported that she did something crazy to get his attention, then when he talked to her she just lifted her foot and pointed to her boot. When I asked her about it, she said she didn't know what to say to him. 

So we might have gotten Santa Claus wrong. And I'm not sure we're doing much better with Jesus. Last week she came home from school. "What did you do at school today?" "I made a baby Jesus foot. It's for Henry to wear." What??? That sounds terrifying. (Upon further investigation, they had threaded string through paper stockings.)

Then she said in a high-pitched, sing-songy voice, "Oh Henry. Soon baby Jesus will be born. Yes he will. Then you can play together!"Also, they are into impersonating the nativity characters. Yesterday Ellie was crawling around and talking like a baby. Olivia was Mary. "She's baby Jesus. It's ok, baby Jesus. I'm your mama."  Henry is usually Joseph. Or daddy gets to be Joseph. If I'm lucky I sometimes get to be a shepherd.

They also like to sing a song, "Baby Jesus, baby Jesus. Don't you cry. Don't you cry. Don't you know we love you. Don't you know we love you. Very much." 

That part's pretty cute.