Children do not live for "growth" or "success" or "success", they live for "childhood" first and foremost. The child lives first and foremost for "childhood". We want our children to have the experience of being angels, not to be born as mere mortals without wings.
Christmas is an important day in my family, but here it has nothing to do with religion, it is just another "children's day" for Yuan Yuan.
Every year since she was more than two years old, she received a gift on Christmas morning, each item wrapped in a beautiful wrapping paper, and opened all her favorite things, including food, games and reading. These things were sent quietly in the middle of the night by an old grandfather whom she had never met before, which really made Yuan Yuan feel amazing and surprised.
The first time Yuan Yuan received a gift, we found the picture of Santa Claus from the picture book and greeting card, and told Yuan Yuan that this is the old grandpa who gave you a gift, and he especially likes you, and said he would give you a gift every Christmas. Yuan Yuan was both excited and a little worried, asking us if Santa would forget to come next Christmas. We said no, Santa Claus will remember to send gifts to children every year, he will definitely come.
When Christmas finally came again, Yuan Yuan was so excited that she couldn't stop talking with her little mouth. She guessed again and again what Santa would bring her this year. She especially wanted a Barbie doll in a princess dress, and wondered if that was in Santa's gift.
She has said this wish many times, so we told her that Santa Claus is very good at guessing what children want, so send him whatever children want and see if he can guess what you think.
Yuan Yuan was also worried about how Santa's sleigh would go if there was no snow outside. We told her that if there was no snow, Santa's sleigh would fly on the white clouds and air, so she didn't have to worry about that.
When it was time for bed, Yuan Yuan said she didn't want to sleep and wanted to wait for Santa to come. We told her that Santa Claus would see which child was asleep before he went to give him a present. So Yuan Yuan dutifully lay down, but some sleep was not possible, for the first time such a young child had some insomnia over something.
We try not to stimulate her, reduce her talk, let her quiet down. When she finally fell asleep, we quickly took out some beautiful wrapping paper, wrapped the things one by one, some of them had to be tied with ribbons, and then put them in a place where she could see them at a glance when she woke up.
You can imagine how excited Yuan Yuan was to see the presents in the morning, Santa Claus really came again!
The little girl was so anxious to know what the old grandpa gave her this year, picking up each gift and not wanting to tear open the wrapping paper right away, shaking it first to listen to it, guessing what was inside, letting us guess too, and then carefully opening the wrapping. She seemed to prolong the magic in this way.
The gifts were opened one by one, and they were all things she liked. It is hard to describe the joy of the little girl when the Barbie doll in the princess dress appeared. Her little heart must be sighing at the magic of Santa Claus, never met her, but know what she wants most.
Every year, Santa always sends five or six kinds of gifts, all of which are to her liking, and while rejoicing, Yuan Yuan always asks us in amazement, "How does Santa know I like this?" We explained over and over again, "Maybe he heard you when you said it to mom and dad."
Yuan Yuan's love of Christmas morning surpassed the love my husband and I had for Chinese New Year morning when we were kids. What we looked forward to most as kids was wearing new clothes and eating dumplings and setting off firecrackers on Chinese New Year morning, and we already knew what new clothes, food, and games Mom had made for us. We just enjoyed these things. But Christmas morning was a time of suspense, mystery finally revealed, and surprise after surprise. So, during the years of kindergarten, Yuan Yuan really looked forward to Christmas from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, hoping for the stars and the moon. This day was far more exciting and anticipated than Children's Day and Chinese New Year.
One of the things that Yuan Yuan thought was strange for a long time was why the other children in kindergarten didn't get presents, so why didn't Santa Claus give them presents? We then told her that mommy and daddy often say to Santa Claus in their hearts, "Little Yuan Yuan is such a lovely child, please don't forget to come and give her presents every year." Then tell her that you go and tell other children to go back and tell their parents to also talk to Santa Claus in their hearts this way often, and when Santa hears them, they will also receive gifts.
With a little thought and time, a parent can make an extraordinary experience for a child and make his life and world glow with wonder. Children are angels, and only in the world of angels does Santa Claus really exist; when he grows up and becomes a mortal, Santa disappears and never comes back.
Children do not live for "growing up" or "success" or "success", they live for "childhood" first and foremost. The child lives first and foremost for "childhood". We want our children to have the experience of being angels, not to be born as mortals without wings.
Every time Santa Claus came, my husband and I would immediately consider what gifts "he" should bring next time he came. We pay attention to the child's every wish, pay attention to what she wants; usually go to the mall or somewhere to pay attention to whether there are things that can be used as Christmas gifts, and buy the right things whenever we see them. But we don't let Yuan Yuan see it at home and hide it first. Sometimes when Yuan Yuan wants to buy something, we excuse that we don't have time to go to the store, can we wait until the New Year's Day holiday to go out and buy it; or excuse that something is a little expensive, should we look elsewhere and compare the price before buying. As a result, we didn't wait to go shopping, Santa Claus delivered.
In Yuan Yuan's eyes, this old grandpa must be very nice and he is very capable.
One year Yuan Yuan was playing and talked about Barbie not having a boyfriend and wanted to find her a boyfriend. I led the round several times to the sale of toys to see the place, has not been able to find a male Barbie.
Christmas is coming, I bought a face looks handsome female Barbie, home to cut the doll's hair short, do a hat and a man's clothes, with a pair of boots, this "she" became "he". Of course, all this transformation work is done after the round sleep, she did not know.
By Christmas morning, Princess Barbie's "boyfriend" appeared, Yuan Yuan was really happy. She did not think she wanted to buy but could not buy things, Santa Claus actually sent.
However, she soon found that the "boyfriend" hat fabric and her an old dress fabric, his clothes and pants fabric and mom just made a brown dress in the sewing store fabric. I also pretended to be surprised and said, "Yeah, what a coincidence."
I knew there would always be more and more clues to hint to her who Santa was, but it didn't matter, let her know when it was time to find out.
In fact, when Yuan Yuan was a little older, she had her doubts about the reality of Santa Claus.
When she was in kindergarten, she received a present and then happily went to ask other children if they had received it. She was surprised that she had taught the other children to go home and tell their parents, so that their parents would always talk to Santa Claus in their hearts, but Santa still hadn't sent them anything. As a result, the kindergarten teacher told her, "There is no Santa Claus, that's your mother lying to you." Yuan Yuan said, "No, my mom never lies to me!" When she came home, she was furious and asked me if there was a Santa Claus or not. I said yes, he comes to deliver things to you every year, how could mommy and daddy go shopping in the middle of the night?
How short a person's childhood is, how I want to prolong her happiness, do not want her to lose a fairy tale world early.
Although Yuan Yuan got confirmation from me and was somewhat relieved, the truth is that she might have been suspicious of this since then. We asked several times later, and we kept finding ways to keep it to ourselves. When she went to elementary school, she may have realized that Santa Claus is fictional and never asked whether there was a Santa Claus or not.
After that, we slowly relaxed our guard and spoke casually. I remember when she was in second grade, she received a beautiful doll in a court dress for Christmas, and I saw that she liked it very much, and I was proud of it for a moment, so I said to her: this doll is so beautiful for 80 yuan, and the one in the department store is not as good as this one, which sells for 120 yuan, so things in small stores seem to be cheaper.
I suddenly realized that I had omitted to say something, a little embarrassed. The circle does not reveal, just smiles and says: "Santa Claus also went around to various stores to compare prices."
How the Christmas miracle happened, even if later Yuan Yuan already knew, we never talked about it. "Santa Claus" is our common enjoyment, our common dream, so it is our common secret to protect.
When she was nine years old, I took her back to her grandma's house for the holidays. One morning I was washing my hair in the bathroom when I heard Yuan Yuan holding something and said to grandma, "This is from Santa Claus. Grandma teased her and asked, "This Santa Claus gives you something every year, where the hell is he?" Yuan Yuan paused for a moment and said, "I'm washing my hair in the bathroom," and the whole family laughed.
Children always grow up and fairy tales always disappear. Santa Claus is slowly disappearing together with our childhood, but we are still willing to continue this joy.
During the years of secondary school, Yuan Yuan became more and more mature, and we still gave her some gifts every Christmas. Of course, we couldn't give her "childish" things like we did when we were young, but we started to give her "valuable" things, such as CD players and clothes. It is still customary to call these things "gifts from Santa Claus". If Christmas wasn't on a weekend, we changed "Christmas morning" to the morning of the weekend closest to the holiday, early and not later, so that the child would have a surprise moment each year anyway.
"The significance of Santa's annual visit is not the gift itself, but the surprise, which is another layer of more valuable enjoyment.
In more than ten years, only once, as if Yuan Yuan fifth grade that time, her father and I were particularly busy at work, did not have time to buy her gifts, on the weekend to take her out and give her some money, let her buy some gifts for Santa Claus for himself. The stuff did not buy a lot, Yuan Yuan recalled when she grew up that it was the most meaningless Christmas she felt. Although spending the same amount of money and buying the same things, the way is different and brings different joy.
Yuan Yuan often told us what she dreamed when she was a child, and her dreams were always fairy tale like, very wonderful, I regret not recording them. Beautiful dreams come from those fairy tales she read from books on the one hand, on the other hand, it may also be brought by Grandpa Christmas. A child who often has beautiful dreams, her childhood should be very happy.
Santa Claus, who comes every year, not only makes Yuan Yuan's childhood extraordinary, but also makes her feel her parents' love more deeply and teaches her how to bring joy and surprise to others. When her best friend has a birthday, she always selects the gift very carefully. Yuan Yuan also occasionally creates a little romantic mood to surprise me and her father.
On my 40th birthday, Yuan Yuan said in the morning when she went to school that she didn't want to ride her bike today and wanted to take the bus, we didn't understand at the time, thinking that taking the bus took time and effort, so why make things difficult for herself. In the evening, she brought back a large carnation when school was over. It turned out that her bicycle did not have a basket, she took the bus for the convenience of taking that handful of flowers. My husband and I had forgotten about our birthdays that day, so it was good that she reminded us.
After she went to college, I asked her if she wanted any more Christmas presents, and she said yes; when I asked her how old she was, she said "eighty. We all laughed. It seems that Santa Claus has to come all the way from the North Pole!
Special Tips
With a little thought and time, parents can make their children have extraordinary experiences and make their lives and the world glow with wonder. Children are angels, and only in the world of angels does Santa Claus really exist; when he grows up and becomes mortal, Santa disappears and never comes again.
The significance of Santa Claus' annual visit is not in the gifts themselves, but in the surprise, which is another layer of more valuable enjoyment.