Dec 7, 2010

The Deal with Santa

Hard to ignore the fact that Christmas season is here. Not with the Mak-Tatos bugging me to put up the tree since bloody November. Complete with the whole guilt trip of who already had a Christmas tree while we didn't. The tree finally came up with a little help from ever-reliable Kuya Anton (the family's in-house Martha Stewart) who came armed with twin reindeers fresh from production for the boys to decorate.



The boys can now lay off the guilt trip even if Mak thinks "we have too little decorations". That boy wants the house to look like Christmas threw up all over us. Boohoo. Wrong mom. Technicality on our choice of decor aside, it's officially Christmas over here.

And then there's the whole business about Santa. As parents: Do we ? Should we? My parents and grandparents were all out with the whole Santa deal way back when. So, yes, over here, until the time is right, Santa "comes" over in the middle of the night, Christmas Eve when else, always while we are all asleep, gulps some of that chocolate drink we leave for him and brings THE presents. Assuming they were nice not naughty, of course. MammaMia used to tell us if we were naughty Santa would give us carbon. Spanish for a word I never quite figured out what exactly it was but assumed naughty kids received a sackful of charcoal on Christmas Eve. That was enough to keep me nice all year. (yeah right)

So anyway, with the tree up and the Christmas spirit in full force, it was time for the boys to write Santa Claus. Imagine how annoyed I was when I saw this from Tato. No hi. No hello. No please.


This was his sweet little note last year. What the hell happened in the last 365 days?


My blood seriously reaching boiling point, I told him there was no way I was sending that letter. And then I got this.


Change of mind with toy choice. No change with that ultra- fresh approach. One teeny tiny step closer to getting charcoal. Then the final draft.




The pleases and thank-yous and niceties all accounted for, along with the request for a ridiculously popular toy that isn't even available on this side of the world. Good luck, Santa. Then again there's always Santa's trusty little relative elves from the other parts of the world. Then again there's always carbon.


10 comments:

Marga said...

Teo had me with "Thengs!"

Nana said...

Thengs, Margs. Heehee

Barni said...

Now all that's missing is a response from Santa with reminders to keep up the manners. Check out http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/prepare-a-message/child. Super aliw!

Cely said...

Awwww! I love that post! And I love his Christmas letter to Santa, haha.
Hmmm... hopefully, on this side of word, Santa will be luckier, who knows? ;-)
Hugs!

Nana said...

Never heard of that site, Barns. Will definitely check it out! Thanks for the tip.

Hugs too, Cely. Wait until you get Emma's letter!

Unknown said...

Kudos to him for being honest. To them the whole point of the letter is to ask for something and that is exactly what he did. No beating around the bush. My sort of guy.

Nana said...

But not even a PLEASE?!

An Accidental American said...

Well...the song does advise that 'he knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good...' but I'm with you on the please, thank you, how are you, Nana!

Hmmm...I don't think I ever wrote a letter to Santa. Chonana must have missed that memo, did your MammaMia?

Nana said...

Yup, PLEASE is our non-negotiable here. Without a PLEASE they don't get anything. No exceptions. So same goes with Santa.

I don't remember writing either. Come to think of it, they did "fish" a lot right before the Santa Claus Party.

Unknown said...

I get you on the importance of being respectful and decent but when the please comes without sincerity it absolutely bugs the hell out of me. I catch myself reminding them to say please when they forget and almost every time this happens I hear a meek and superficial please. Yeah, yeah I know that they will learn from this whole process but patience has never been my strong suit.