You’ve heard it before. “Why don’t we celebrate Christmas over several days like Hanukkah?” “Wouldn’t it make more sense to spread all this ‘joy’ out over a few days.” “You know the kids are operating on overload and this isn’t good for any of us.”
Having your grandkids spread out over the state makes it more difficult to get everyone together for family pictures or for Christmas celebrations. But spacing out the celebrations isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Because some of our grandkids will be celebrating on the actual Christmas day in Phoenix or Simi Valley with their other grandparents, we have to accept that we will either have to pick another day or just call them long distance and wish them a happy Christmas.
Last night we celebrated an early Christmas with two of our grandchildren before seeing them and their parents off to Southern California. It was a nice celebration because Tim and Jake could focus on just the presents we had given them without slighting Santa, their parents, or the other grandparents. Even so they came close to overload when Tim wanted to play with Jake’s stuff or vice versa. Giving them identical gifts might have solved that problem but identical gifts would be neither age appropriate nor what each boy really wanted.
We delighted seeing Tim’s eyes wide with wonder at getting a Prince Aidan action figure ("I didn’t expect this!” but was thrilled to add to his collection). Or watched with joy as Jake tore open the wrapping on his Tonka car collection, more excited at the discovery of the cars than of actually playing with them. I think a “Christmas evening” with each of our kids would be the ideal way to celebrate the season.
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