Loosen Up, Break Out the Tinsel Already

My husband and I have been having the How Should We Celebrate the Holidays Now that We Have a Baby conversation/discussion/argument off and on for the past several weeks. As you already know, I love Christmas music. So you can probably guess that I love many other things about The Holiday Season as well.

I don't get all crazy and wish to Christmasize everything to excess. I am not single handedly trying to turn the economy around with my holiday purchases. But, I will admit I do enjoy some of the things about Christmastime that may be considered frivolous by some: the decorations, especially the lights, wrapping paper and bows (not the gift bags, c'mon people), the baking, the cooking, the eating, the stockings, the wreaths, brown paper packages tied up with string... ooops, sorry... shall I go on?

Honestly, my husband is being somewhat of a Grinch about the whole thing. His point of view is that he does not want to raise a materialistic consumer-bot of a child (nor do I, for the record); and it seems this is not an uncommon concern. I have read several blog posts and various articles discussing the parenting dilemmas surrounding the holidays: propagate the whole Santa Claus myth? real tree? fake tree? alternative tree? no tree? gifts? homemade gifts? environmentally friendly gifts? plastic lead-coated gifts? no gifts? These are but a few of the questions swirling around like the foam on a gingerbread latte in the minds of parents everywhere.

Can we just stop the madness for a second here?

May I point out that I seriously doubt there are parents out there saying to themselves, I am going to do everything in my power this holiday season to spoil my child into a greedy little consumption dumpster by showering her with a mountain gimmicky, thoughtless gifts that she will tire of before January 10th; and hopefully groom her to believe that the holidays are about nothing more than flashing lights, credit cards, candy, and instant gratification! (And if you are saying this, please contact MTV or VH1 about a possible reality show, because I would love to watch.)

When my husband and I were discussing the whole Santa Claus thing, he said he didn't think we should go that route with Baby. Didn't you believe in Santa Claus as a child? I asked. Yes, but Baby is much more sophisticated that I am. Okay sweetheart, I adore our child as well, but unless you think throwing your self on the ground and screaming in frustration over being denied a pair of scissors to be sophisticated, I don't think we can make that call just yet.

And the Christmas tree discussion ended in me telling Husband that I thought the best solution would be for him to celebrate Christmas with his family and Baby and I would celebrate Christmas with my family in Texas so we could both have the type of holiday we wanted. And that Baby and I would not be coming back from Texas. Thankfully, we finally did come to a "tree" solution, which I which I will tell you about some other time.

So basically what I want to say to all of the parents out there that are fretting over what the right thing to do regarding all of the parenting decisions around the holidays is this:

LIGHTEN UP!

It's o k a y to have fun. It's o k a y to follow certain traditions simply for the sake of adding a little joy and wonderment to the holidays. Not everything has to be a learning experience, or an exercise in good moral development, or sugar-free! And I repeat, it is OKAY to have fun! How you choose raise your child year-round is going to influence who and what she is, and if you are doing a good job, the holiday season is not going to make or break her character.