A New Santa Claus is Born
With Beanie’s birth this year, a new Santa Claus was born. Chris and I have been excited about being Santa since we first found out we were pregnant. There are lots of times in life when your parents have an impact on you, but Christmas morning is probably right on the top of that list. I mean, think about it. Your memories of Christmas as a child most likely centered about Santa on Christmas morning. And that was totally your parents doing. It wasn’t the pediatrician, or the Mommy playgroup, or the Grandparents, or Dad’s co-workers. It was all your parents making Christmas morning special.
And that’s a power that I don’t take lightly.
Chris, however, is another story. To be honest with you, as I sit here in the midst of Christmas shopping for Beanie, I am amazed that Santa and Mrs. Claus didn’t get divorced.
More specifically, I am amazed that Mrs. Claus didn’t kill Santa.
And even more specifically, I am surprised that the truth about Santa and Mrs. Claus has not come out to the general public yet.
The truth being that Santa sat around on his plush red arse yelling out about bottom lines and budgets while Mrs. Claus schlepped from workshop to workshop searching for the perfect gift for children.
No wonder Santa and Mrs. Claus had to live thousands of miles away from civilization. Their entire marriage was based on picking Christmas presents for thousands of children. The mileage was so the neighbors couldn’t hear them screaming at each other over the cost of tinker toys.
Chris believes that since Bean is only a wee Bean and probably won’t remember any of this when he gets older anyways, we shouldn’t fuss over his Christmas presents so much. Every gift I have brought home for Beanie, I have had to justify to Chris. Its really freaking annoying.
Oh, sure. We had one little trip to Toys R Us a few months ago after a nice family dinner out. Beanie was sleeping in his stroller and Chris and I strolled leisurely through the toy store, talking about what Beanie would like and reminiscing about Christmas gifts we got as kids. It was one of those nights where you gaze lovingly at your husband and thank the Good Lord for picking him as the man you’ll spend the rest of your life with.
But that was all before any purchases were made.
Now that I’m buying these presents and bringing them home, Chris is all “ANOTHER Christmas present for Bean?” and I’m all “Yes, SCROOGE, another Christmas present for our CHILD on his FIRST FREAKING CHRISTMAS! DEAL WITH IT!” and he’s all “Well, how are we affording all these things?” and I’m all “I took them out of the budget for YOUR Christmas presents this year, DEAR!” and he’s all, “YOU DID WHAT?!?!? WHAT ABOUT MY PRESENTS?!?!?!?” and I’m all, “See? THAT’S what it would feel like to not get any gifts on Christmas, SANTA CLAUS!”
And I totally win that argument every single time.
And yet, we continue to have it every time I bring home another Christmas present. Marriage is a vicious cycle of arguments you’ve had before, isn’t it?
In my defense, I have bought Bean’s entire Christmas – including his stocking – for $100. And I think that’s pretty darn good considering he’s my Bean and its his first Christmas and I’m a Christmas junkie.
So, what has my $100 bought him? Well, let’s take a look!
His big gift this year is this Baby Einstein Animal Exploration Tunnel ($39.99; Amazon). Its a tunnel that has all these toys and things hanging down inside it for him to play with. While he’s little, he can either lay down in it and look around at everything or he can sit in it and play with anything he can reach. When he gets a little bigger, he can crawl through it and play with the toys. Mrs. Claus is super excited about this one. Even Santa said it was cool.
Other than his Exploration Tunnel, the major theme for Bean’s Christmas is bathtime. He LOVES his bath. So he’s getting some things to make bath time super fun.
Like this giant Munchkin Duck Bathtub ($9.99; Target). This gift is only $10 and its one of his big gifts. He’s going to LOVE it! I don’t know how its going to fit into my bathtub or where I’m going to keep it when its not Bean’s bathtime, but those are details we’ll just have to work out later. Cause he needs this tub.
To go with his bathtub, he’s getting some small little stocking stuffers like a hand puppet washcloth that looks like a duck. And, of course, he’s getting an entire army of rubber duckies with his initial on them. But one of the coolest, cheap little gifts to go with his bath theme is this Summer Tub Time Bubble Maker ($9.99; Toys R Us). I didn’t even really mean to buy this, but it was only $10 and its perfect because he loves bubbles. It hooks to your tub faucet so that bubbles blow while he takes a bath. I think he’s really going to like it!
He is also getting this Hasbro Walk ‘n Ride ($17.99; Toys R Us). I wanted to get Beanie a walker toy for when he starts to learn to walk later this year, but I didn’t want to get him something that he can’t use until then. This toy was perfect. It has a break on it so that you can stop it from rolling. That way when he’s learning to stand up, he can use this to hold on to and it won’t roll out from underneath him. And it also has gears on it so that as he learns to walk, it doesn’t roll faster than he can keep up with. And the best part is that when he’s walking, it folds down and becomes a push car he can ride. I found this on sale in Babies R Us a couple weeks ago and even Amazon didn’t have a price that low. So, for $18, he has a toy that he can use for a year or two. GREAT BUY, MRS. CLAUS!
Those are all of his “big” gifts. He has a few other little hand toys and things that he’s getting in his stocking. And, of course, there is the truckload of toys his grandparents have for him. I’m glad they’re coming to our house for Christmas this year because we’d have to rent a U-Haul to get all of their gifts home with us.
Being Santa and Mrs. Claus, while sometimes trying, has been a lot of fun. I have such wonderful memories of Christmas mornings at my house when I was growing up and I’m so excited that I get to give that to Beanie, too. Of course, we all know that the greatest thing you can give your baby is love, but sometimes nothing says love quite like an inflatable duck bath.
21 Comments
Kristin
My friend has that duck for the tub and her kids LOVE IT!!
Sarah
Great post. I think you did a GREAT job shopping! I myself would like a bubble maker 🙂 I think the tunnel is way cool!
Dana
Oh, Katie! As I read this, I felt like I was reading a story about me and my Mr. Claus. Who knew all this time that Santa was a cheapskate and Mrs. Claus was the one with the good ideas and generous spirit!
Oh, and we did the bath theme for stockings one year with my 2. They were 4 and almost 2. We did those color fizzy things and bath crayons and goggles. See all the fun bath things you can buy for Bean in the future?
And on Christmas morning when Beanie is giggling and precious and y’all are all together, Chris is going to be so glad that you were such a good Mrs. Claus.
deepa
Sorry, Mrs. Claus, I tend to side with Santa on this one… We even set a up a rule for the grandparents – as many clothes as they want to give, but only one toy. Sadly, we just don’t have the room, and I am still fighting any kind of baby clutter (it’s hard). I think our little guy will be too busy watching the Christmas lights on the tree to realize his mom is a big Scrooge (at least I hope so..)
Joanie
Well your Santa should be grateful that he doesn’t shop with this Mrs. Claus. Or with MY Santa for that matter. For the first Christmas for my firstborn, I dropped cash to the tune of at least $300. It was my first (and at the time ONLY) baby and it was his FIRST Christmas and by gosh I wanted it to be a good one! When I started dating Johnny and he became James’ Daddy, he was even more outrageous than I was, buying our 16 month old HOCKEY SKATES for Christmas. I kid you not. Those things were so inky-dinky and he NEVER WORE THEM.
Now I’m much more sensible about Christmas (with three kids and a bean of my own in the making I kind of HAVE to be…), but I still think you did great! It’s the Bean’s first Christmas and you have the right to indulge a little!
Tressa
EXCELLENT job Mrs. Claus!! I agree with you, we always want to make our childrens Christmas morning special, no matter the age. Now that mine are 19 and 21, boy it’s HARD!! But I still work my tail off to make it a special morning!
I think that is the grandparents privilege, buy what they want, how much they want, when they want!! They are GRANDPARENTS!!
Katherine
Excellent argument strategy. It cracked me up!! 🙂
dave
Poor Chris!
Deb
I love hearing about your budgeting! Thanks for sharing – I think it’s all about being creative and planning ahead. And I think taking some of Chris’ present budget for the bean is very creative! hehe
Heather O.
I think you did a great job as well. Bean is just going to love it all!
Now if you wouldn’t mind….I need some help with my list! LOL
Nona
You did a super job! It is so hard to be Mrs. Claus isn’t it.
Mr. Claus just has to spread gifts under the tree we do all the work, and of cours in years to come Mr. Claus will get the put things together!!
Casey
That is totally how our baby’s first Christmas is going to be. Every dollar spent is going to be a ‘discussion’ with Hubby. 😉
Susan Samson
For our son’s first Christmas we went simple and bought keepsake things. His facial expressions at the gifts was great…one suprise after another. Last year, he was all about the wrapping paper on the gifts and his tricycle. And after this year’s birthday parties, he gets ‘it’ a little better. He is fascinated with the Christmas lights in all the stores. So this year will be our first big Christmas. The one he just might remember as the start of Christmas mornings. Santa is wanting to go a bit overboard this year and Mrs. Claus is the one keeping things in check.
Rachel
High five on the duck! It was one of my son’s favorites!
Jennifer
We have the duck tub and my 8 month old loves it!!! When it was warmer we put it out onthe deck and let him play in it. Oh and the duck bill on ours quacks!!
Shannon
Those are all great gifts! I love the tunnel, it looks like it would be a lot of fun. My mom bought that duck tub to keep at her house for my nephew when he was born and at first he was a little bewildered by it, but then he loved it. Is that the one that quacks? Ours did I think, I had fun with it myself!
Michelle
Okay- I’m stealing your christmas list! 🙂 Henry would LOVE the crawl through tunnel thing and the car/pusher toy. My husband (i.e.- classic Santa by your definition) and I decided to get him a rocking horse for Christmas as his big gift. But the more I think about it- can a 7 month old really use a rocking horse at this point? So your gift list came RIGHT in time! 🙂
BTW- I’ve been meaning to leave a comment about your post on comments (mean-spirited comments on blogs). I have to say, I’m not a blogger- I only read a few daily, but have no blog of my own. Thus I’m not used to the overall tone some commenters can take (and horrified that people can have the guts to say such things in writing…right? Coming from PR I just can’t help but hope it comes back to bite them…and it usually does!). Thank you for addressing it- it makes me feel better knowing that you delete. I just don’t have time for all that drama- and I’m glad you feel you same. 🙂 Kudos to you Katie!
Snarky Mommy
OMFG, this is the exact conversation I have had with my husband every year since Jack was born — and he’s going to be four this February! He tried to tell me this week that Jack’s too little to care and that we don’t need to buy him Santa presents because he doesn’t see why we have to lie to our kids about Santa anyway. ARGH. Of course, this is the man who still sends his own mother a list of like 15 things he wants and gets super pissed if she goes rogue and gets him something not on the list.
Army Mom
If we had to do it all over again, (and we wouldn’t – MORE than happy to leave all that to your generation!) I wish we would have, (always) spent LESS on the boys as babies/toddlers/pre-teen.
They just don’t need all the junk that we parents feel they’ll enjoy and/or want/need. They just don’t.
I’m not one of those, “Save the landfill” parents, but every time you feel the urge to increase the value of FisherPrice stock, fast forward 16 years from now, when you’re shopping for Bean’s first car and think about just how great it would be/feel to have that extra $100 (or $5,000.00!!) to put him into a nicer/safer first vehicle!
As for grandparents… My mom bought the boys gifts for every gift-giving occasion – Birthday, Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, you name it… Any time there was a candy or a gift-giving event on the calendar, my mom brought over gifts and/or candy. My dad? NEVER! Instead, grandpa bought savings bonds.
And, in the card grandma gave on each of those occasions, grandpa would insert one of the little gift slips the bank gives to let the boys know a bond was purchased in their name.
When our boys turned 18, their grandpa handed them both envelopes FULL of savings bonds. Birthdays and Christmas were always $500.00 bonds and the lesser occasions (Valentine’s, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.) were always $200 bonds.
Our oldest son took his bond money to college with him to help pay expenses, (walking-around money/PlayStation II/Big screen TV for the dorm, etc.) we didn’t cover – and our younger son took his bond money and financed his first apartment, (6 months rent + furnishings) because he’s taking time off to, you know, “Find himself.”
I can tell you that the toys and candy grandma bought all those years cannot NOT only be remembered, none of it is still around – but Grandpa’s bond money was a HUGE HIT they will remember forever!
Just my 2-cents… You live and learn!
Katie
WHAT A STORY!!! And such GREAT advice, too!! Thanks for sharing!
Terry
ThIis is my first visit to your blog, and I have to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed reading it. This last article is so reminicent of my daughters first Christmas, you had me laughing.