Kalstolyn
pickle relish
TurtIe Tracks
The sad thing with Santa is that I think parents get under-appreciated. If my sister gets a great present, it's from Santa. She doesn't show any appreciation to my parents because she doesn't think it's from them. By the time she learns "the truth," she'll already have forgotten about those presents... it makes me sad when my mom spends a lot of time getting the perfect gift without so much as a thank you. I know they can see her all " biggrin " about the present, but it's not really like the AGGT. It's like if someone takes the credit for your present. If it's from an unknown person, you can feel all happy, but instead an imaginary figure is taking all the credit. Or maybe I'm just weird. sweatdrop
I understand what you mean, about parents putting all that work into getting a present, and then someone else gets the credit for it. But, on the other side of the issue, I have to say, isn't that part of the spirit of Christmas? You don't give gifts to people because you want them to appreciate that time and effort you put into it. That's kind of a selfish motivation, although I have to admit that is part of the reasoning behind it.
The real point in giving the gifts is the joy of giving something to someone else. They don't have to know it was from you; you just want to give them something, something to make them happy. Its kind of like the Secret Santa thing for poor families. You donate, but they don't know who the items come from. People that you have never met, and will probably never meet, get something wonderful, and you get the jollies from it. That's all. Sure, they appreciate what you've done, but they don't know who you are. You don't get the recognition.
At least, that's my interpretation of it.
Pickles has hit on some of what I wanted to say about this. If you're giving your kids presents so they love you more or something, you've got issues and you probably have no business having children. On the other hand, I like how my family handled Santa: he gave us small presents in our stockings. The really awesome presents were wrapped up under the tree and signed from our parents or each other, not Santa. Either way, we always shouted "thank you,, Santa!" into the fireplace after we had opened our stockings. xd That way the message would go up the chimney and Santa would get it.
Little sister is really really whiney and spends more time on the computer than I do. Plus, while I spend my time on the computer drawing, reading, or learning, she just watches anime. I don't know how to break to her Santa isn't real (it's about time... she's going into 6th grade) but I think she should be a lot more grateful to the work my parents do. Presents may be a little... materialistic, but my mom puts a lot of time finding >>the<< perfect present. She doesn't go to the kiddie store and buy some game, she really puts a lot of care into it.
I never knew I could care so much about Santa -__-; This reminds me of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.