Christmas lists

When I was a child I remember our family receiving the Christmas sales flyer for Toys 'R Us. I would go through and circle lots of the things from the ad that I wanted. My parents thought I was being greedy by circling so many items. I thought I was being helpful by circling lots of things so they could choose something I wanted while still letting me be surprised. If you circle 50 items knowing you'll only get two or three things, you're going to be pretty surprised to see which things your parents picked off the list, right? I certainly wasn't expecting all 50 items. Far from it. I knew from experience that we didn't have a lot of money back then and I could only expect one relatively big gift and three or four other small gifts.

My children make a list each year, too. However, the difference between my children and me is that they expect to get most (if not all) of the items on their list. When I hear them talk about Christmas they say things like "I'll be really glad when Christmas comes so I can start using my new [fill-in-the-blank]." She doesn't know what I got her off the list and has no idea if I got her that thing she just named. She just assumes it will be under the tree -- along with all the other items on the list. Disappointment will surely be under the tree this year if she has that unrealistic expectation.

We have a long way to go in setting realistic expectations for our children and even further in teaching them what Christmas is really supposed to be about.