We havnt been in Bangalore for the past 2 christmases. We went to nani house in Mumbai and P was always upset because she dint get to get gifts from her Santa at home. So darling Abhi bhaiya broke the news to her last year that Santa is fictional and it’s your parents who give the gifts 🙄. Well…. it took her some time to digest that and she kept asking me for a few days whether it really was true. Finally she understood. So this year we decided to get a bigger tree. I told her we can get it once Christmas holidays start. But she did not have the patience to wait and put up a tree so she finally said it’s ok… we will just use the old tree 😆 I was more than happy with the idea. So up went the old tree and the Christmas ornaments. She and A hung up the ornaments while some carols played on the iPad.

2 days ago she told me…. I’m going to leave a letter for Santa. Will you promise me that he will reply to me? Of course I had to promise…. like I had a choice. And then I told her but you havnt given the list of things you want. What should Santa get you. She thought and came up with the following

1. A new bottle of slime

2. Seeds to plant my own plants!

How could I say no to that! And then I also had to think what to get for A. The easiest was sticker books! She is completely sticker crazy. So Sunday afternoon I went off to buy the gifts. To my great relief the slime was out of stock. So I bought her an origami book and a story book instead. Some carrot seeds and some flower seeds as well.

Before she went to bed on Christmas Eve she told me I have kept something next to the Christmas tree. Not on the table….but NEXT to it. So don’t miss it. When I went to place the gifts 👇🏼 is what I found there! Sure made my Christmas merry!!

As for A. When she woke up in the morning and I told her that Santa has got her gift… she stared at me with such a blank expression. Had to take her and show her the gift. She looked like she dint know what to do with it. When I opened the gift and gave her the sticker books…. she was completely overjoyed! So nice to see the little smiles with such simple gifts. Children don’t care whether the gifts are expensive or cheap. Or big or small. They only know that they got a gift. That’s what’s most meaningful. It just tells them somebody cares. In this case P already knew it’s her parents. Maybe next 3-4 years A will believe it’s Santa (that’s if P can keep the secret from her) eventually she will know too. Just the thought that my parents cared to give me a gift is special enough for them. These are the feelings which grow into care and compassion in them. As they grow older they too learn to care and make things special for people around them. I hope we can keep up this feeling of sharing and caring among us. It makes us feel closer as a family and keeps us bound together.