This particular Christmas my grandma was going all out to get me to believe again. She had us write out our Christmas lists so she could get the "right" gifts. We didn't ask for extravagant gifts. She was probably pretty happy about that! :-) Grandma had my uncle rig old sleigh bells to the clothes line and hook the doorbell up to ?something? in the basement way. I'm not sure how that worked but I know that they pulled on rope or twine to make the sleigh bells jingle.
So Christmas Eve rolls around we have our dinner and followed up with the gifts from my grandparents and my uncle. The house became a bit on the quiet side when we (children) heard the sleigh bells... Yes! We heard Santa's sleigh! We ran to the back patio, as my grandma directed, and there were the gifts that we asked for. I was so excited and my grandma told us that they were from Santa.
Well, here's where it gets interesting. I asked for a chalkboard. Santa delivered the chalkboard but forgot to bring the chalk. I "knew" it wasn't from Santa and told my grandma that Santa, the real Santa, would never give half a gift. I wasn't convinced. Well my uncle decided that he would call his girlfriend (who later became his wife) and ask her to send Santa back with the chalk. Yep, that's right, SHE could get Santa to come back. It went about a 30 ish minutes and I heard the sleigh bells again. My chalk was on the patio with a bandana parachute and a note that said "Sorry I forgot your chalk! Santa" That did it! I ran out into the yard and yelled at the sky, "I believe Santa! I believe!" all to the delight of my grandparents and uncle.
As I grew older of course, I reverted back to my old ways of not believing in Santa. My family loves to tell the tale every Christmas about how I believed. My mother-in-law loves to find little knick knacks, mugs or small items that says "Believe". She picks them up to tease me and I DO KNOW that she isn't being mean! Honest! As we were decorating this weekend, the kids found some of those items and brought them down to display.
Personally, I am not a fan of the Believe stuff. I am obviously NOT a big fan of Santa. Ok, I don't want any hate comments but I really don't like Santa. Maybe I should be in therapy due to this childhood "trauma". 😊 My parents weren't ones to make us believe in Santa just my grandparents and uncle. My parents thought it was innocent fun.
Jeremiah knew how much I disliked Santa and he was fine with us not making Madi or Ryder believe in Santa. I never had the kids pictures taken with Santa or anything like that either. I didn't dress them in the little Santa outfits at Christmas. Our Christmas cards, ornaments, decorations, stockings, even wrapping paper is Santa free. If it has Santa on it...I'll pass.
Madi and Ryder don't feel like I took away some big part of Christmas. They are not upset that we did not "do" Santa like their friends did either so please don't think we were horrible parents. ;-) They are fine, normal, well-adjusted kids. We do celebrate Christmas but our focus is on Jesus. We put up lights, a Christmas tree, decorations and we do buy gifts...but they know that they are from Mom and Dad. We spend good money on those gifts! I want full credit! HaHa
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| I actually like this mug though! |
I enjoy the family rehashing my story every year though. It made for some good memories. I "believe" that when I'm gone from this life, my family will continue to tell the tale of a little girl yelling, "I believe, Santa! I believe!"
That's a great story! Thanks for telling us about it.
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