Finished with your Christmas shopping already? Are you 100% sure? Did you miss anyone? What about those unexpected guest that seem to appear out of nowhere every year? Got something tucked away for them? Hopefully there will only be ONE unexpected guest.
Children do not count the money spend on presents, they count packages. They put them up in piles of “mine and yours”. Watch the war if one sibling has one more present than the other. Pouting, tears, and “Santa loves you more than me” starts immediately even before opening any presents. So count presents and make sure there is an even amount and save loads of trouble.
Depending on the children’s ages, all the empty Christmas present boxes hold a fascination for children that cannot be ignored. New toys laid aside the children build a town, fort or store out of the empty boxes. For hours and sometimes days (as long as the parent can tolerate the empty boxes) new toys will ignored. Either Mother’s cleaning or the cardboard finally going flat will revive the new toys that Santa brought.
May everyone have a wonderful Christmas, full of love, old hurts forgot and forgiven.
