It's November, folks, as I may have mentioned before. November. OK, so by the time you read this it could easily be December, it being nearly upon us and me not being what you might call the most diligent of bloggers.
Anyway, so it's definitively not December and yet, and yet the spud knows all the words (or at least, something that sounds proximate) to Jingle Bells, a song he defiantly refused to learn, sing or acknowledge last year. Not only knows the words, but insists on singing them relentlessly over and over and over.
Every day, he tells us that Christmas is coming. Every day we say 'not yet' and he says 'yes it is' and we say 'not yet' and he say 'soon'!!!! I ask him what will happen on Christmas day and he says 'Christmas Tree!' and that seems about that. He's not jumping up and down for presents but he did drag out a book about Thomas and the Christmas Tree today which we haven't read in a year and which I thought he'd forgotten about.
It's not good enough that everywhere we go is covered in spangles and tinsel; it's not enough that
No, these things are not enough. On top of all this hard-core commercial spew from the gorge of Mammon himself, we must have an over-excited three year old for the entirety of the time between Samhain and Yule.
Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas. I may not be a Christian but I love and in some way truly believe the story of the nativity, the birth of the child of light just as our little globe tilts our hemisphere back towards the sun. I love the whole schmoo, the mince pies and mulled wine, the chaos of friends and family, the rustle of secret wrappings; the velvet quiet of Christmas Eve midnight, carols and figgy pudding and broken ornaments and that feeling, just after lunch the next day, when one realises that no matter what the light might say, Christmas is the longest day of the year.
I love it, but I don't want it rammed down my throat and more importantly, I don't want it rammed down my son's throat. He's only three. The anticipation is ruining everything.
7 comments:
I feel for you. I'm a hardcore Christmas nerd but even I have vetoed any type of Christmas playlist for at least the next week or two. Jingle Bells is a tricky one though, I definitely remember taunting my own parents with various different lyrical renditions of that from a very early age. Good luck!
You are so right. I am starting to feel christmas fatigue already, and it is still November. However, i will put up my hands and confess. I did tell my son that he only had to get up for school for 15 more days...and that in 3 weeks he would be on school holidays. I know.....(shakes head) it was a cheap shot, but it got him up. If only i can convince him that santa (argh! it is Father christmas!) can not afford to get him everything on his list, then life will be easier....
We live in hope.
I know, I'm trying not to get Jonathan to into the Santa stuff or the "I want, I get, I need..." crap of Christmas. I don't want him to talk about it all the time or be excited for presents so much that he forgets it is also about spending time with family.
Kim - yes and it's damnably catchy as well, meaning that I'm singing it now... it's going to be a long month...
Sad Rabbit - using Christmas as a parental tool... now THAT has promise... I like the way you think.
Lisa - exactly. We're really not talking about presents to Charlie at the moment, although we have pretty much got him everything already... I know, forward planning!!
So glad it's not just me. My mother in law called this morning to ask if she could send us two (that's TWO) advent calendars, one for each boy. I pointed out - as she well knows - that we have one of those everlasting calendars where they take the figures out of the pockets of the relevant day and make the scene up themselves on the felt background. Still she wanted to do it. I said no. Am I Scrooge or just curmudgeonly?
Potty Mummy... WHERE do you get that advent calendar? I love the idea... and no, not Scrooge OR curmudgeon... although certainly not the sugar-plum fairy!
We have a felt advent calendar with pockets. I just refill them each year, with chocolate coins....and they take it in turns. (We have a system in place at home depending on whose day it is.....given boy has 4 letters in his name, he gets the even days, and girl has 5, she gets the odd ones.....except the 31st of the month which is when they have to do everything they are told without question (yeah right) this works for nice thigns as well as nasty things: first choice of TV, who sits next to mummy, but also who has to brush teeth first etc....)
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