C.Z.
Hi A.,
I am not Catholic but i did want to add something to this post about the whole santa thing. i have a 6 year old and a 3 year old. When my son was 3 or 4 and started to get into the whole santa thing i started to realize that we were sending very mixed messages to our kids. Without guidance in todays world they grow up thinking that santa leaves mountains of presents under the tree and everyone gets this. then you go by a store and see toys for tots and the salvation army and such. how then do you explain that some kids don't get any presents for christmas because their parents don't have enough money? So, in our house Santa bring 3-4 small toys. they are usually books or something educational. When my son talks about what he wants santa to bring, i gently remind him that some toys cost a lot of money and if santa bought a lot of expensive presents he wouldn't be able to give presents to all kids. i have explained that a long time ago he was able to make toys for kids,but now kids usually want the toys in the stores, so he has to be careful with his money. The core presents come from family, so they know who to thank. We also stress buying toys for programs like toys for tots and we "adopt families" for christmas, making sure that we have a child for each kids age so they can choose something cool for them to have and think about how they are making that childs/familes christmas so much better. we make sure our kids are very thankful for what they have and know that not everyone is as lucky. sorry that this is so long, but i wanted to give my perspective. i hope this helps some people that read it with the minefield of todays problems with over gifting from mysterious people ;-)
C..