Christmas Fruits

I am the mother of two teenagers. I see my kids in the morning when they’re chugging down their breakfast, I see the top of their heads as I drive them to school and they're on their cell phones tweeting away about God knows what and we occasionally run into each other near the TV set.

All of this changes completely around Christmas time. My kids will deliberately walk into the kitchen while I’m cooking and hold long, loud and pointed conversations with their friends on the phone about their Christmas gifts. What they want, what they really want and what they can’t live without. Basically they’re trying to tell me what Christmas holiday gifts to get them, and the order of preference. For kids who avoid the kitchen like the plague, and whose fingers are still typing away at imaginary keyboards in their sleep, they make way too many calls in my kitchen. You’d think they’d have realized by now that I don’t ever get them the stuff they ‘can’t live without’. It’s too ridiculously extravagant and expensive. I just don’t think teenagers need that kind of stuff.

You could literally feed a third world country for a month for the price of those designer bags or cell phones. I never thought it would be this hard to teach my kid humility. I only get them the Christmas gifts they want and not the ones they ‘can’t live without’. If they can’t live without things like handbags and digital camera, they have bigger things to worry about. Hopefully one day they will learn to appreciate unique Christmas gifts for the sentiments they’re given with and not the price tags they carried. I think the problem is they don’t really know what they want. The TV tells them what to buy. I’ve been buying Christmas gifts for my kids for years now. They love everything they get and no one can say they didn’t get the one present they couldn’t live without. My daughter even loves the Christmas gift baskets I buy. While the whole wide world is out there telling my daughter to buy torn jeans and charm bracelets, I’m introducing her to more wholesome gifts like the fruits for Christmas. I’ve received Christmas Fruits from my mother for many years now and I really cherish the gift. It’s one gift I know my daughter will absolutely love.