where’s the spirit?

Are you getting sick of all my holiday shenanigans? Not many days left until winter break. I’ll be shutting down ye ole blog from December 22 through New Year’s Day so only a few posts left in 2013. If you can’t stand a Kaly-free Christmas, I’m sure I’ll be posting a highly edited version of my holiday over on Instagram.

This weekend I had planned outings and projects all revolving around Christmas and being in the spirit of things. We’re making memories man. And building traditions. Isn’t Christmas fun? We don’t have to spend a lot of money on presents to have a good time.

And then there was the reality. It was like pulling teeth to get the kids to focus on anything for more than two minutes. They were more interested in flopping around on the floor than tapping into their Christmas joy.

If you have boys, when does the flopping around on the floor end?

As my frustration mounted and another Christmas activity got shot down, I plopped on the couch with my arms crossed and said to Kevin in a very pouty voice, “Maybe they just aren’t into Christmas as much I am.”

He paused. And very diplomatically said, “You might be on to something.”

Here are three things that we attempted in the name of invoking Christmas spirit.

1) Make special gifts. I try to make an ornament with the kids every year to give as gifts. Usually, we just dump some sequins on something and call it a day. But this year I got all ambitious and wanted to try a stamped salt dough creation (Curse you Pinterest!). I could only get one of two children interested in helping. The youngest hung in through the dough making and the rolling pin and the cookie cutters. And then I was on my own for the next 17 steps. The sad part is that even though they were 89% made by me, they still look like they were made by a six year old. So I guess now the secret is out. I had much better luck getting them to make bookmarks. Paper, scissors, markers – done.

2) Share timeless traditions. At one point, when they didn’t want to do anything that had to do with Christmas yet they didn’t know what to do besides fight with each other and after I threatened to take away the iPad for a week (like I could ever stick to that), I pulled out a book called Christmas Conversations. It has over 300 questions about Christmas from your favorite color lights to how you would redesign Santa’s suit.  They loved this book and we spent well over an hour answering the questions and all sharing our ideas about Christmas. When the book asked, What’s the best part of Christmas? They both said staying in their pajamas all day and playing Wii. That’s Christmas to them. Being home and together and getting to do whatever they want. They have no idea everything that goes into making that one day happen. They have very limited Christmas experience unlike me who has years of Christmas baggage to contend with. For me, it’s all about the weeks leading up to Christmas. For them, it’s the day itself. They have no interest in driving around in a car looking at Christmas lights two weeks before Christmas. Don’t even bother trying to share that holiday tradition with them or you’ll end up locked in your room watching episodes of thirtysomething and feeling sorry for yourself and all your mislaid plans.

3) Give to those that need it most. I am adamant that we use our holiday resources to give to others not as fortunate as we are. I think with younger children from financially stable homes this can be hard because they can’t really relate to being without. So I’ve tried to pick charities that are easy to explain and relatable. That’s why we love Heifer International because it’s about creating sustainable change in areas of poverty. And the kids get it. If you give a farmer more animals, they can have more products to sell and have more money to care for their families. Every year, we take out the globe and the Heifer International gift catalogue and pick animals we would like to give and the parts of the world we can impact. This year, the boys picked alpacas in Chile and water buffalo in Cambodia. I picked rabbits in Haiti (rabbits are $10 people, $10!!!). We also enlisted Kid President’s help because who doesn’t love Kid President? We watched his Holiday Giving video several times over the weekend and then each of the boys picked a gift from InspiredGifts.org. The choices include books, soccer balls, desks and snacks for children in refugee camps. Things that my guys are excited to share with other kids.

So the big takeaway – the spirit is there. It’s just a little more nuanced than making everything about Christmas all the time. I’m reminding myself – you don’t have to push so hard. You don’t have to force it. It’s just one day after all. One magical day of all the Wii your little brain can handle before it turns into Christmas pudding.  The traditions will come. The stories will come. The spirit is there.