Christmas morn w/ an only?

[discombobulated1]

@humanjf Mine are. They went through 7 years of infertility to eventually have me, in their late 30s. So now they’re 72 and 73, respectively (meh-mehhhhhhhh). They’re born in the late 1940s, and I believe boomers tend to be anyone born approximately 1945-1965? Gen X is a much smaller group, and kind of cuts off around 1980 right?

 

[discombobulated1]

I was always self conscious my parents are maddddd old compared to my husband’s parents. Even when I was a preschooler I noticed it. But I guess it’s nice in some weird ways. My mom can relate old laugh in and SNL stories to me, but she doesn’t know who people like Britney Spears are. It’s an interesting array of priorities. But my mother-in-law is over a dozen years younger than her so she’s a bit more up to date with things and yet doesn’t recall JFK being shot or going to the World’s Fair.

 

[discombobulated1]

And sadly, my mom and some of her friends are boomers enough to still use outdated and offensive terms, so it stinks, I have to nicely correct her when she refers to an Asian person as ‘oriental,’ or community college as ‘junior college’

 

[kjersti]

@discombobulated1 My parents are also mad old (born 1949) but then... I had a kid even OLDER than they did, so one day, my kid is going to be complaining about how crazy old I am on some forum. I'm Gen X and i have a 4 year old. Ooops?

 

[paulbassett]

@rosemeka13 Sounds like it may just be your daughter's personality Mine is also five, and Christmas is always SO EXCITING!

We typically have her Nana and Bompa (my parents) stay over on Christmas Eve, so that everyone is there when she wakes up and can experience her excitement.

Of course, we are also on the cusp of not believing in Santa, so when we are firmly on the other side of that, it will be interesting to see if that dims any of her enthusiasm.

Frankly, I think much of her zeal is driven by all the new STUFF she gets, and with that in mind, I wish she was a little more nonchalant about it all. I have some serious issues with American consumerism, but that is definitely a conversation for another time.

 

[rosemeka13]

@paulbassett It struck me this year that her Santa years are soon coming to an end. And I think that’s what made me sad about it— thinking I had messed up the short-lived experience. But I swear I believed in Santa until I was like 10 growing up Maybe not the best stat to brag about

 

[paulbassett]

@rosemeka13 I know! I feel like I believed in Santa for a really long time... But I actually don't remember when I stopped believing, so maybe I was actually six or seven?

I've been trying really hard to get my kid to understand that Christmas is really about the spirit of giving. Yes, it doesn't generate as much enthusiasm or zeal, but the lasting feelings that come with helping others are oh so good, and important for kids to develop.

 

[katrina2017]

@rosemeka13 Maybe ask her if she would like to start a new family tradition. Movie night and hot chocolate and sleep in the big bed with parents or get up to make a festive breakfast. Even if it's sugary like fairy bread or something. Just something she has a hand in creating a tradition

 

[katrina2017]

@rosemeka13 Totally depends on the kid. Mine is an only and he freaks out over Christmas. We do an advent calendar and a lot of buildup to the day, plus we celebrate Yule so I think that all adds to the excitement. We also do a big Christmas Eve party with extended family.

 

[faith590]

@rosemeka13 I’m an only child and I loved Christmas. Still do. One perk of being an only is you get a lot more gifts than 2+ kids.

 

[wolf200050]

@rosemeka13 I have an older sister and growing up had a couple of other children living with us, and I always had to be woken up for Christmas. And my parents were the all out kind. (One year my dad built a playhouse overnight.) I still absolutely love Christmas and have to set an alarm to wake up on time on Christmas morning.

My half sister is essentially an only (she's 20 years younger than me and my older sister and I are close with her but never lived with her and have only done Christmas morning with her once) and she's the wake everyone up kind of kid. But this is also a relatively new development - when she was younger Christmas was too overwhelming for her. Even this year she said she had too many presents and got overwhelmed during opening but she was definitely psyched for the day in general.

 

[maddielovesbaseball]

@rosemeka13 I can offer the perspective of an only (me) and 1 of 5 (my oh). He doesn't like Christmas, he doesn't get excited about it, he doesn't have fond childhood memories of Christmas, I'm hoping that as our son gets older and understands what Christmas is about my OH will get more into it. I as an only love Christmas, I never once as a child wished I had siblings there for Christmas or felt I was missing out or felt jealous of my friends with siblings. I don't think not having a siblings has anything to do with your daughters feelings towards Christmas

 

[abarfacnay1989]

@rosemeka13 I'm 1 of 4 and we used to wake each other up at 3am to open stockings together in my brother's room. We 100% amped each other up.

Having said that, my almost 4 year old has woken us up every morning since Christmas day by placing a teddy at each of our heads and exclaiming excitedly that Santa has been!

 

[jamiex]

@rosemeka13 I think its a sign of the times. Across the board I feel like children are less excited about Christmas. Maybe onlies slightly more bc they are more likely to get gifts year round. I got a little creative when my son was very young & we did letters to Santa & I created my response using old timiey paper & a wax seal. He was pretty pumped about that. Also the milk & cookies the night before. He was more stoked to see if they were eaten the morning of than about gifts.

But I think the issue also has a lot to do with blended families & multipleChristmases. It's pretty common for kids to not wake up at their home Xmas morning right? I mean, we do Xmas eve at my moms & sleep over till Xmas morning. So we do Santa gifts at her house. My brother does his Santa gifts at his house the day before Xmas eve bc he drives all the way to do Xmas day at my moms. We do Santa gifts at my house the day after Christmas before we start the Xmas celebration with my in laws at our home.

It's a chaotic smorgasbord of Xmas everywhere for several days in a row. I think kids clue in pretty quickly that Santa isn't real the more we start rationalizing to them about how he knows what house they are at but still leaves gifts at their own house too.

My son grew skeptical around 6 years old & entertained the idea I think for our benefit until he was 8...by 9 he was totally done believing. I never could lie to him about it. When he started asking if Santa was real I told him about how St. Nicholas was real, and his story. It sjust all fizzled out by that point & now he knows that we are Santa & that's fine with us.

 

[susienasirlily]

@rosemeka13 My little sister woke up early and I always wanted to sleep in, but we were always both excited. The difference was more me being a night owl and her a morning lark, which is still true even in adulthood. My only (9M) was so excited this Christmas that he woke up at 1:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. He tried and tried, but he was just too excited. His excitement carried him through the day, but I felt like a zombie.

 

[kevin_01]

@rosemeka13 I was a kid that was meh about Christmas and used to cry a lot Christmas morning. I am now an adult who absolutely loathes Christmas. Is you kid an introvert? All the attention and pressure to adore the gifts immediately can be overwhelming, especially being the only kid in the room. My parents used to let me open some gifts on Christmas Eve to take some of the pressure off Christmas morning.

 

[troyl321]

@rosemeka13 I’d say it depends on the child. My only is 4 and she was up at 5.45am on Christmas morning. It was our own fault though. We’ve started a tradition where on the 1st December she gets a Christmas box. It’s a big wooden box that Elf on the Shelf brings and in it we put all kinds of Christmas activities to do leading up to Christmas day (eg. Christmas pj’s, colouring in books, stickers, Christmas card making etc). Our daughter loves it. And even though the elf on the shelf drives us mad, our daughter was so excited that she was waking up between 5-6am each day to see where it would be. We were very tired through December from her waking early each day, but we really tried to create excitement throughout the month and it’s so worth it to see her reaction.

 

[loveis]

@rosemeka13 My kid is usually more into Halloween or Easter than Christmas, but this year we had lots of excitement with Christmas eve. We took her to a pantomime and she LOVED it, smiled and laughed like I've never seen through the whole thing, I definitely felt that Christmas magic. It felt good because she was just old enough to enjoy it and its not something we could really do with a baby and even with older kids it would probably be out of our price range or not to everyone's intrest. It made her feel special like a big kid and she talked about it for weeks after. Now we're going to cut back on the present budget next year to go to another one and keep the tradition up. She's been asking to go back but I made it clear that it's a Christmas eve thing only, which has now made Christmas eve her new favourite holiday.

 

[tjlurk]

@rosemeka13 Want to swap kids? I’d take some meh at 5am!

 

[ibantpi]

@rosemeka13 Definitely dependent.

I'm the second oldest of five. I love Christmas - always have. December is a bit of a tragic month for me (family deaths, friends deaths), but Christmas Day has always been my favourite day.

As a kid, I never could sleep on Christmas Eve, I'd be waiting on the stairs from about 4am.

My siblings were NOT the same. After a certain age, they'd prefer to sleep in on Christmas morning. I'm 28, I still can't sleep the night before Christmas

My 4yo is an only &, while she loves Christmas & gets up early on the day, she's very vocal about the fact she wishes we could have two Halloweens instead of one Halloween and one Christmas.