Merry Christmas!

Did Santa make it to your house last night?  Did he have any trouble?  He visited us and I have some very happy children.  I'll be taking the next few days off to spend with my family, but I will be back after New Years.  What will I be blogging about between now and Christmas 2014 you ask?

1. Planning and Budgeting for next Christmas
2. Santa Facts
3. Christmas Gift Ideas
4. Grading more movies
5. and MUCH MUCH more.

Merry Christmas. I hope everyone made it on the nice list.

Checking my list twice

It's Christmas Eve.  Santa has checked his list twice and started his around the world flight. 

Some of us (cough..me....cough) are not quite as on top of things.  I still have presents to buy, cookies to make and supper to plan.  Below you will find my general Christmas check off list and a last minute plan to accomplish any of it that you may still need or want to check off.  I've broken it down into categories...with Santa preparations at the top. =)

SANTA

• At least one present to for each child from Santa. Leave now, stop reading this and go finish Santa shopping! If you are on a budget and don't get paid til after Christmas, still go get SOMETHING, it can be $5 dollar toy, the important thing is Santa came!  You can run to any local store (even grocery stores and gas stations) to pick up something, anything. Or if you are creative...make something. I know what it is like for money to be tight and after the new year, we will start talking about budgeting and planning for next year so we will never be caught here again!
• Stocking Stuffers.  You can stuff a stocking FULL for $5-$10.  Run to the dollar tree or the party aisle at Walmart.  You can buy packs of pencils, suckers, and lots of other stuff for a $1 and split it between multiple kids. Make sure to get 1 or 2 big items (not necessarily an expensive item) to help bulk up the stocking.  Think cup, ball, candy or the old standby-fruit
• Cookies, Santa will need cookies.  If you have competed most of the other items on this list and have the time, money and desire, make home made cookies.  You can take the almost homemade route and make the slice and bake cookies, or just go buy some store cookies.
• Double check to make sure you have all the tools to put Santa's gifts together and have the proper batteries

FAMILY CHRISTMAS

• All gifts bought and wrapped. If you haven't done this, I recommend going to 1 store that carries a variety of things so you can get the buying completed at one time.  For wrapping, set up shop and get it done. Bows are not necessary.
• Meals/Dishes to bring planned and all the groceries bought. Go to the grocery store if needed.  I plan and buy all of my groceries through December 26th.
• Take the yearly Santa Picture.  The Malls are still open today and Santa is still there. If you have a Bass Pro in your area, they also have other activities for the kids.
• Double check that no long lost relatives have suddenly been invited that you need to pick up a little something for.
• If you did not get around to sending out Christmas cards this year, send out a Christmas email!

ENTERTAINING THE KIDS

• Start out by checking out NORAD Santa Tracker. Kids can track where Santa is and learn about Christmas in other countries.  There is even an app for your iphone.
• Make those cookies we talked about earlier and let the kids decorate them with icing and sprinkles. They can even decorate the store bought ones.
• Make a Christmas craft.  At my house, we have already made ornaments out of foam board. We cut shapes out of foam board (circle, star, tree/triangle) and then hot glued other shapes we cut from foam board or paper (or other craft items) on to decorate.  You can use a hole punch to make a hole and tie ribbon or yarn to make the ornament. We will also be making snow flake garland to hang.  We will be cutting snowflakes out of colored copy paper and then using  the hole punch to make a hole and stringing them on yarn to hang in doorways.
• Watch a Christmas movie...Disney has several safe movies playing this morning (Eloise at Christmas and Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas). ABC Family will have Prancer and The Polar Express which I have graded (click on the movies tab). Starting at 7PM ABC will start showing  How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon version followed by the full length film) and NBC will have It's a Wonderful Life.
• Read a Christmas book.  What better day to read those Santa Clause stories and of course, the story about Jesus's birth. Our favorite is The Night Before Christmas (which you can find online).
• Have dinner as a family and reflect on all the blessings you've had this year.

What is still on your to-do list?

Santa Picture

I LOVE this year's Santa Picture!!  What is your best and worst Santa photo?

Dear Disney

Dear Disney,

I am ashamed of you.  My daughter watches the Disney channel every afternoon after school and I've never been worried about what she would see, until Christmas rolled around.  Not one of your your Christmas specials have been acceptable.  It has broken her heart that I've made her turn off her beloved shows. 

You are killing the belief in Santa Clause.  Good Luck Jessie, A NYC Christmas and Austin and Alley both show people obviously dressing up as Santa and other people providing the special Christmas gift.  Neither one show a jolly man dressed in Red magically bringing boys and girls presents on Christmas Eve.

Last night "Santa Buddies" came on and I got excited...a new Christmas movie to watch with my daughter. I had to turn in off after 10 minutes in when one of the puppy claims to not belive in Santa, that all the Santa's are fake and begins to list reasons of why he knows this.  Santa also has a vehicle that resembles a mail delivery truck to deliver presents instead of making the trek in his red sleigh on Christmas night!

It seems that someone out of touch has decided that kids need stories about non believers being convinced there is a Santa and/or practical answers for how Santa does it.  Maybe some older children need that, but who exactly do you think your audience is?  Do you really believe that most of your audience is 4th and 5th graders who are beginning to have doubts and questions?  You are DISNEY, a large majority of your audience is made up of the 3-7year old demographic. They BELIEVE in Santa and don't need you to put doubts in thier heads.

Disney has always been associated with Magic...you have the Magic Kingdom!  If you want children (who later become adults) to believe in the Magic of Disney, then don't kill the magic of Santa.

Sincerely,

A Mom Who is Considering Boycotting Disney this Christmas (and yes I mean merchandise too)

Stocking Stuffers

I don't know about you, but stockings are the highlight of our Christmas morning.  It is always so much fun to see what little treasures Santa has left us!  Santa never leaves very expensive items (there will be no ipods) in our stockings, but it still seems so magical.  Below is a list of stuffers likely to be found in our stockings Christmas morning:

Girls:
Music CD
Large box of Movie Candy
Barbie (or similar doll)
Ring
Lotion
Lip balms
DVD
Underwear
Character Socks
Art Supplies
Necklaces
Cups
Head Bands
Hair Elastics
Winter Hat
Gloves
Phone Case (for older kids/adults)

Boys:
Power Disk Case (Infinity)
Power Disks (Infinity)
Favorite Candy/Beef Jerky
Body Spray
Underwear
Leather Bracelet
Playing Cards
DVD
Small Flash Light
Practical Joke (fart bombs, whoopy cushion, etc)
Ball Cap
Match Box Cars
Small lego building kits
Knife
Gloves
Baseball
Ear buds

What are some of the favorite things Santa leaves in stockings at your house?

2 Weeks Til Christmas

First, a couple of announcements.

1. The movie list has been updated with more movies.  Please let me know which movies you want to see added to the list!

2.  I have it on good authority that the real (or the best) Santa will be at Epiphany Baptist Church on December 22 from 1-3PM. Kids can meet him and get a free picture with Santa.  Photo's can be emailed to the parents or prints can be picked up from the Church on December 27.

Can you believe we are only 2 weeks away from Christmas?  Luckily most of my shopping is done, but I'm still on the look out for a couple special treasures.  When it comes to making Christmas morning magical for your kiddo's what counts?  At my house, it is all about the "wow" factor.  My kid's don't seem to have any sense of how much things cost (my 11 year old is getting better with this), but the bigger the better.  My kids are more in awe of a $20 scooter than than a $50 MP3 player.  I, ofcourse, use this to my advantage.  We do Christmas on a budget at my house, but by watching the sales, making strategic purchases, and of course getting the most wanted items off thier list, we have magical Christmas mornings at my house.

How do you make Christmas magical at your house?  Do you put out reindeere food, or buy 1 present the kids really really want?  I want to know your secrets.

Santa Traditions

It had never occured to me that people had different Santa traditions...until I married....to a man with a son....who not only has Christmas at 1 parent's house, but both.  Oh and at the time, Christmas happened at my mother in law's house, who also did Santa for one of my neices, who also had Christmas at her mom's.  Are you lost yet? I was.

There were so many Christmas traditions.  Santa came twice...once at mom's house and once at Dad's house.  Santa left wrapped gifts...at dad's house.  Top this off with my own Christmas traditions and we had a whirlwind.  Luckily, we were able to simplify, somewhat.  Santa still comes twice...once at mom's and once at dad's house, but Santa doesn't wrap gifts at either.  We also split what our kids get between wrapped gifts under the tree and Santa suprises.

I know some people only get one gift from Santa, some get everythign from Santa.  There are a lot of Christmas traditions out there. What are yours?  How do you answer your kids questions when Santa does something different at thier friend's house?

Welcome to Santa Safe

Hello! I am a mother with small (ok, one isn't so small anymore) children. I have always been very protective of what my kids see in reference to Santa. Santa is magic, he can be anywhere and everywhere. Mall Santas are real at my house. I've become pretty stealthy at this point. I've spent years watching Christmas movies and TV specials, BEFORE my kids watch them. I've cased the best Santa's in the area. When it comes to protecting Santa's reputation, I'm better than the Secret Service. I will start out by giving Christmas movies a grade (A-F) and a small blurb about why it got that grade. I really hope to avoid any major spoilers, but I can't make any promises. If there is a movie or TV special you are specifically wanting to find out about, please leave a comment. It will obviously take me a while to grade ALL the Christmas movies, so I'll jump straight to the ones you are interested in. I hope to grow this site to more than just movies. Music and area Santa's will be graded. Christmas crafts and stories will be added. Your kid's tough Santa questions will be answered. So bookmark this site, and use it as your Santa reference. And by all means..ask question, make suggestions, request away! Merry Christmas!