Holiday Planning With a Kid Who Isn't Into Christmas

I love holiday planning. I can't wait for Christmas, but my son doesn't seem to care. Don't get me wrong: he is the perfect consumer.

Everything on Nickelodeon, commercial, after commercial: "I want THAT." So I'm there. Moon Sand from sister, night vision scope from Grandma, and I picked up Target's last Wii (Wal-Mart was out, even online; so much for the recession). Tree? Check. Santa? I do events for the local mom's club and I have a Santa in place for Tuesday. We've driven by lights and displays, heard Christmas carol after Christmas carol and man, he's JUST NOT INTO IT. Santa, just give me my toys and I'm just done. I know I'm wrong to be disappointed, but it does...it GETS to me.

When Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer came on when I was a kid, it was a special night. We'd actually get sodas and one treat apiece and the whole family would watch. My son is good for about 5 minutes worth of Christmas special and then starts making forts out of couch cushions. I know, a 4 year old attention span, but somehow he can watch Spongebob forever...if I let him. I loved Christmas so much as a kid that I worked as an elf in a department store when I was in high school, had my own Christmas decorations in my room and made sure every person I was friends with got a gift, regardless of whether or not I got one in return. I sang in Christmas concerts, at Christmas Eve services and even in St. Patricks Cathedral one year at Midnight Mass.

Instead of looking up at every twinkling light in the sky and thinking it's Santa, looking with wonder at the tree and singing Jingle Bells he's just kind of "eh." Instead, he tests his boundaries with me and the only threat that really works is the threat that Santa might not give him the (insert expletive) Wii if he doesn't behave. Looks me dead in the eye and misbehaves until I have shut off the TV and computer and make him sit and say "One more time, no Wii." He doesn't get away with the same stuff over and over; he's just inventive and does NEW stuff to make me nuts.

Is it me? Am I just jaded and it's sloughed off on him? He goes to a Lutheran preschool and is somewhat interested in the story of Christ's birth but it still holds little or no magic for him. He hung three ornaments on the tree and lost interest. We put cookies together, he cut out a few and again, off he went. His school craft was putting together a selection of holly leaves with good deeds on them; he'd pick one a day to do. My son digs through until he finds one he likes, and then he loses interest.

My sister in law says my nephew didn't get into the Christmas spirit until he was 5, so not to worry. I'm not worried. It just makes me sad. I know I'm probably not alone in this. Instead of trying to feel extra Christmasy in order to get him into it, well ... it makes me think thoughts of things like in Rudolph, they treated the female deer derisively and they removed all of the snowman's teeth without anaesthesia. Not like the state of the economy isn't bad enough, with people losing their homes, driving across state lines to dump their children and all the families that won't see Santa this year. Those things can hopefully wait until he is older. But 4 is way too young to be too jaded for Christmas!!! I want to start holiday planning, but it's hard to get in the mood when your little kid says "Bah Humbug."