my Christmas/ my son's Christmas.

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While I think of Christmas I remember Christmas from when I was a kid. How different things are now. I remember how as a kid it was my favorite holiday. I used to love everything about it. I remember it was the one time of year my brother and I rarely fought. We'd actually be so excited that'd we'd stay the night in the other's bedroom, and we'd stay up all night talking. I remember in the morning we'd be so excited we'd rush down the stairs and see the Christmas presents under the tree, and we'd get into our stockings as we'd wait for my parents to come downstairs, my brother used to make me wake my parents up constantly to bug them about opening gifts, and I never wanted to, but he'd punch me or threaten to, so I'd reluctantly agree but made sure they knew he was making me do it. It was always so exciting, and eventually the rest of my family came over and I'd play with my nieces and nephews, as they were all close to my age at that time. We'd then compare everything we got for Christmas. It was an innocence, and I took for granted how much my mom sacrificed to make sure we had a decent Christmas. Now as a parent myself I get it. I give up a lot to make sure my son has a decent Christmas. I never understood as a kid how a parent enjoyed watching their kids opening up gifts more than they enjoyed receiving gifts. As an adult I don't even care about gifts, I just love seeing my son open his. I don't really get much for Christmas personally, but it doesn't bother me. I'm just happy that my son gets a decent Christmas, and he does. He's fairly spoiled, but we also don't buy much for him the rest of the year. He gets stuff on holidays and birthdays and that's about it. My son's Christmases are different from mine, since he's basically an only child. I do what I can to make it special. We bake cookies, watch Christmas movies, do the occasional Christmas craft, read Christmas stories, we look at Christmas lights, go to the annual tree lighting, and we went to the holiday parade this year. I love the holidays, and I like experiencing them through his eyes. He's so excited over everything, and he's actually usually very grateful for everything he gets. He told me that he wants a Nintendo this year, and we got him one, but I asked him what if he didn't get one and he looked at me and smiled and said "Then I'll still be happy, I'll just ask again next year." He still believes in Santa as most 6 year old's do, so he believes Santa will bring it for him. I personally don't let Santa take credit for the good gifts lol. I figure we work to get him those things, Santa isn't getting credit for the good gifts, plus not every kid's parents can afford big items, and they'll hear how one kid got an amazing gift from Santa but they didn't get much from Santa. I let the good gifts be from us. Santa got him a couple of video games to go with his Nintendo, which I'll explain Santa knew we already got him one. We also knew elf on the shelf with my son, which my son excitedly looks for every morning. I don't know that I'd enjoy the holidays as much without my son, as an adult I don't get excited over presents anymore, but I get excited about seeing how excited my son gets. I do feel like I had a more innocent childhood and therefore Christmas was more simple when I was a kid. Things are different now. Everything revolves around electronics and the internet. My son has about everything at his fingertips, which isn't how things were when I was a kid. We had electronics when I was a kid, but nothing like they have now. Everything was still so new when I was a kid. My son has the youtube kids channel on his tablet, he has Netflix, so when we tell him he can watch a movie he has so many options. As a kid we only had our own personal movie collection or on some occasions we'd get to rent a dollar VHS from the video store. It's amazing how different our childhoods are. I try to keep his childhood somewhat similar to mine, he isn't on electronics all day everyday. I try to do some things with him like we did when I was a kid, and he loves them, but it's near impossible to make his childhood the same as mine, but the 90s are back in so that makes it a little easier lol. It was kind of nice getting him a Nintendo, because that makes it a little more like my childhood. We went to a local retro video gaming store and bought him the Nintendo NES and a few games. That store is my son's favorite store in town, and it makes me happy, because that store is filled with stuff I had as a kid, or stuff I wanted. My son is into all of the retro stuff, so I get to share a part of my childhood with him. His Christmas may not be the same as my Christmases were when I was a kid, but they are still enjoyable for him and for me. You can't keep everything the same, because the times are different, and things evolve, but if you can even keep apart of your childhood alive for your child it's a pretty great feeling.