Santa's List: A good approach to Christmas

Many children like to sit down and write letters to Santa to tell him what presents they would like for Christmas. Although my children are still too young to write, I get them to tell me what they would like from Santa and we write the list together. I also get them to tell me all the  good things that they have done throughout the year and include it on the list, this is a great way of reintegrating to your children that good behaviour has its rewards. Even if you don't write a list you will probably ask your children, at some stage, "what would you like from Santa?'

Writing or talking about Santa is a great way of involving your kids in the Christmas spirit but when it comes to the lists of things your children want, it can pose a problem to many parents. There are two potential problems, the list is too big and/or your children request something in the list that is of a personal nature. So how should you deal with this?

The Big List

We all dream, so there is nothing wrong with a big list but to avoid disappointment on Christmas day, I would suggest to sit down with your child and go through the list. Tell them that Santa needs to give toys to everyone in the whole world and because of this he only gives a small amount of toys to each child. Discuss the list and get them to pick the item that they would like the most, then get them to pick one or two other toys that would be there favourites. Get them to write a new list to Santa and remind them that Santa may not be able to get everything on the list.

The Personal List

Life can be hard and unfortunately just like adults, kids may have a wish list for things that no-one can solve. With divorce and self esteem issues present in our lives you may find that your child asked for Daddy or Mummy to come back home or that they would like to have another problem solved. Whatever the issue may be it needs to be addressed so that Christmas day is not a huge disappointment for your children.

The best way to do this is to explain to them that Santa shows people he loves them at Christmas by giving them gifts that make them happy but that helping children with .....(your child's issue) is something Santa would love to do if he could but that he just doesn't know how to fix some things. Discuss the issue as much as you need to and then get them to think about what gifts they would like to receive from Santa.