Secret Santa Time

My family borrowed this tradition from my older sister and her family. We started it three years ago and it is definitely one of my favorite traditions of the holiday season! On Thanksgiving evening (or the next morning as was the case for us this year) we draw names from our family of 5. And we keep the name private, to be revealed on Christmas Eve. Then, we become "Secret Santas" to that person and do nice things for them all month long, without getting caught. We also buy a small gift for that person. We have a $10 limit, and this year, each of the boys earned their $10 doing chores. They try to discover what their secret santa would want. It is so cute to watch them. Tonight, I took McKay and Noah loaded up with their wallets to Wally World to do their shopping. McKay requested that he be allowed to go off on his own to shop, so we agreed to meet up in 25 minutes, after I gave him the paranoid mommy speech about not talking to strangers, not leaving the store unless it was on fire, and well, you know the drill, I don't need to go into all my other paranoid warnings! Anyhow, Noah spent 25 minutes agonizing over what he wanted to buy for his secret santa. And then he wanted to pay the cashier all on his own with mom standing way back. He was so proud of himself. McKay was pleased with his purchases as well, and then without me saying anything, he put his change into the Salvation Army bucket outside the store, and encouraged his brother to do the same. Then they came home and quickly hide their gifts, and later they will use up more than a roll of tape to wrap their special gifts. (I need to work with them on the art of proper wrapping, I guess!)

I love this Secret Santa tradition for many reasons but probably one of the best things about it is teaching my children the importance of giving. Giving of their time and service, and also learning to become good gift givers. This is a skill that everyone needs to learn, and it can be hard if mom is always the one to buy the gifts and put their names on the label. It teaches the boys to be unselfish and to show charity toward one of their family members and the results are already obvious...we have a more loving family, where the kids are trying to catch each other doing good, and this to me is what Christmas is all about, what Jesus wants us to do this holiday season.  If you want to adopt this tradition, feel free...I hope your family will enjoy it as much as ours does!

Oh yeah, and I finished up my Christmas Cards this evening...so check your mailbox soon!