It Took My Kids Having Kids To Figure Out My Secret
By MARILYN
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
United States
November 24, 2021 8:50am CST
Let me preface this by saying that the New York Macys' Day Parade is a huge parade, hours long and Santa arriving is the highlight.
Back in the day when my children were young I would host Thanksgiving. We had a houseful of family and friends and it was a wonderful time.
I had a very small kitchen so trying to prepare, cook and get everything ready for the feast was a challenge. Plus having rambunctious kids didn't help.
One year I put the parade on the tv and told my kids to sit and watch for Santa. Once Santa came they would get Christmas. Well, it worked. Every year after that my kids would stay out of the kitchen waiting and watching for Santa to arrive at the parade. Once they saw him they would jump for joy that they would get Christmas.
Year after year even into adulthood my kids would faithfully watch the parade and it became a family joke and tradition that once they saw Santa they would get Christmas.
This tradition carried over into their own families and finally one year it dawned on one of my kids (can't remember which one) that Santa came at the end of the parade!!!
It was a lightbulb moment for them when they realized that all those years they sat glued to the tv waiting for Santa and he never showed up until the end of the parade.
I'm glad they didn't figure it out until all those years later because it kept them out of the kitchen while I was cooking.
Yes I had a method to my madness 
23 people like this
24 responses
@BearArtistLady (4253)
• United States
24 Nov
I love it! We used to watch the parade just to see Santa arrive and know it was officially the Christmas season. I am wondering if it will happen this year, I sure could use the pick-me-up of seeing Santa arrive. It's been a sad year for me adjusting to being just me after loosing my husband.
I remember as a child I would go in the kitchen and help Mom make the Thanksgiving dinner. I would mash the sweet potatoes and white potatoes, mix the fruit salad, and do whatever else Mom needed me to do. It served me well because when I turned 13 I made the dinner myself and it turned out perfectly (even better than Mom's...the turkey wasn't as dry. I basted it like crazy like I had read to do.)
I didn't realize it, but Macy's never let a person dress up as Santa and pose as him except for at the end of the parade. There were a lot of "Somewhat" Santa's, but not the whole Santa!!! Pretty spiffy on Macy's part!
Have a very very Happy Thanksgiving and a Wonderful Christmas. If you see Santa, please sit on his lap and tell him I'm kind of lonely without my Bill (he passed a year ago June) and could he send me someone to keep me company?
5 people like this
@GardenGerty (147426)
• United States
24 Nov
Good to see you. I wish we could come visit. Maybe you will find a kind and loving someone under your tree.
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
• United States
24 Nov
@BearArtistLady (3742) I'm so sorry to hear about your husband Bill. I will certainly ask Santa to send you someone to ease your loneliness. 
It's nice to know that someone else used to watch the parade and wait for Santa. Yes it was the official start to the Christmas season. Such good memories. I still like to watch the parade and glad that it's on tv.
Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and Christmas too.
It's nice to know that someone else used to watch the parade and wait for Santa. Yes it was the official start to the Christmas season. Such good memories. I still like to watch the parade and glad that it's on tv.
Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and Christmas too.1 person likes this
@NevermoreHoar (449)
• United States
24 Nov
Wow, that’s a great idea. If my mother had told me that when I was a kid, I would have fell for it too. Smart thinking!
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
• United States
24 Nov
It worked very well and it's funny how that tradition lived on for many years
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
• United States
24 Nov
It would have been very inconvenient if they had discovered my secret much earlier
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (409746)
• Switzerland
24 Nov
@Marilynda1225 I learnt very early in the kindergarten. The nuns did not want to make us like Christmas just because the gifts. That was really mean, I kept the secret, I never told to my younger brother.
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
• United States
24 Nov
@LadyDuck I think once kids go to school the whole Santa thing quickly gets let out of the bag.
1 person likes this
@Happy2BeMe (95864)
• Canada
24 Nov
That was very clever on your part. Great way to keep them out of the kitchen so you could get things prepared.
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
• United States
24 Nov
It certainly worked for many years and I'm happy that the tradition turned out to be something that has carried through all these years later.
1 person likes this
@Happy2BeMe (95864)
• Canada
24 Nov
@Marilynda1225 Yes that is awesome and the little ones will figure it out when they have little ones of their own some day
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
• United States
24 Nov
@Happy2BeMe it's funny how traditions start
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (147426)
• United States
24 Nov
Well, it sure beats football. We were only sporadic parade watchers, but have always had many cooks working on the Thanksgiving.feast.
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
• United States
24 Nov
The kitchen seems to be the place for everyone to congregate so having the kids underfoot was difficult. My mom and my aunts would be a big help getting the whole meal ready. Such good memories.
Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Heather
@snowy22315 (143649)
• United States
24 Nov
Hey whatever works! A stroke of genius on your part!
1 person likes this
@Marilynda1225 (71859)
• United States
24 Nov
4 young kids running around and being underfoot can be a challenge. Glad I found a way to keep them busy
@wolfgirl569 (61707)
• Marion, Ohio
24 Nov
That was a great way to keep them out of the way.
1 person likes this
@Courtlynn (72001)
• United States
25 Nov
Lol so cute and funny. I loved watching the parade growing up, haven't really seen it much the last 10years.
@moonandstars (62717)
• Zagreb, Croatia (Hrvatska)
24 Nov
good old methods and tricks
1 person likes this
@DocAndersen (55087)
• United States
25 Nov
we did the same thing, it is a great method! No madness, brilliance!
@rebelann (101898)
• El Paso, Texas
24 Nov
Mom didn't have that luxury, I can't recall ever watching any kind of parade on TV in the early 1960s.
@RasmaSandra (58189)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
25 Nov
That is just the best ever, You are right it was great they never figured it out, Happy Thanksgiving to you,
@just4him (264867)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
24 Nov
That's a great method to the madness. They enjoyed the parade and you got dinner ready. Win/Win.
@JudyEv (287715)
• Rockingham, Australia
24 Nov
Haha - good for you. What a clever mother you were! And you fooled them for so many years. 
