Please remember not all Santa’s have an equal pocket book

A few years ago I read something that I really took to heart and felt I should share it with all of you who are still filling the role of Santa Claus.
At the time, I wasn’t in a position to go overboard in that role myself, plus my husband and I also feel that Christmas isn’t meant to be a time of overindulgence and upon reading it the article made me tear up a little.
The article asked that parents, grandparents and the like remember that not every “Santa Claus” has the same means as you might.
While you might be able to buy the little ones in your life the latest Iphone or game system, another person who has a child in your kid’s class might be barely making it by. The Santa who visits their home might have to make the decision to have the big guy give their children the desperately needed winter coat or shoes instead of the child’s dream toy of that season.
The legend of Santa Claus has him giving gifts to all of the good little girls and boys with his elves magically making them in the workshop without having to worry about what an item might cost, but that is not reality.
In reality there are also bills to pay and food needed in the pantry and many of us live paycheck to paycheck. For a young child to return to school after Christmas Break to hear about all of the extravagant things that were brought to their classmates while they had a stocking, a couple of little toys and maybe a board game to share with their siblings it might make them wonder what they did wrong. Why didn’t Santa give them the same types of gifts as their peers, they thought they had been very good this year.
I know many of you might be thinking that it isn’t your responsibility to worry about what other people’s children receive and you enjoy the fact that you are able to provide your children with everything their little hearts desire on Christmas morning. However, I hope that while you are sorting through all of the gifts you have bought for your brood, you try to be conscience of the fact that maybe Santa should refrain from giving out the fancy high dollar gifts and leave those presents for mom and dad or grandma and grandpa to give out this year.
Your children will still have the pleasure of opening up all of the grand gifts that have been bought for them and they just might seem extra special when the big gift comes from you instead of Santa Claus.
Looking back on my childhood there are only a couple of things I specifically remember opening on Christmas morning. Instead my memories are of the smells of Christmas dinner, the fact that I always got an orange in the toe of my stocking and the agony of having to wait for my dad to return from feeding the cows and other animals before we could open our gifts or even dump out our stockings. The gifts are fun in the moment, but those are not the memories that last a life time. I’m trying to carry on with making traditions in my own home and hope that when my children are grown it is the smell of sticky buns baking on Christmas morning and movie night on Christmas Eve that they remember, not which wish list item I was or was not able to give them on a certain year.