My "Don't Do" List: Special Holiday Edition

I have a very long list of things that I don't do (see here and here). In honor of the impending holiday season, I therefore present My Don't Do List: Special Holiday Edition. 

10. Elf on a Shelf

This is something that has exploded in popularity the past 10 years. I am sure our children would love the Elf on a Shelf; there something inherently fun about trying to find the Elf each morning and seeing what surprises are in store. However, as someone who can barely remember to sign my daughter's planner each night and who has forgotten to leave Tooth Fairy money three nights in a row, there is no way I could implement this without it being an Epic Fail.

9. Cookies for Santa or Reindeer Food

I had a lovely conversation that Annika initiated a couple of months ago where we talked about how Santa is a really fun, magical tradition that parents get the joy of implementing. Her first comment was, "Does that mean that parents eat the cookies left for Santa??" I was surprised by this, given that we have never, ever, ever left cookies for Santa, or the new tradition of "reindeer food." Stores close on Christmas Eve at 6 p.m. and the thought of getting cookies does not enter my mind until well past that hour.

8. Take Down the Tree at a Reasonable Time

We consider ourselves the most awesome organized people ever if we can manage to take our Christmas tree down by Epiphany, on January 6. One year I think it might have actually been April before all of the decorations went away.

7. Save Wrapping Paper

Rather than attempting to save wrapping paper for re-use, it all gets thrown away and dumped in landfills in giant trash bags. Despite political quizzes that show I am the most closely aligned with the Green Party (?), I have shockingly little concern for the environment.

6. Drink Egg Nog

I think that the idea of egg nog is nice - a fun, creamy drink that only gets brought out each year between Thanksgiving and New Year's. The actual taste, however, is....not so nice.

5. Start Christmas Shopping Early

Our tradition is to wait until after finals and semester grades are turned in before worrying about Christmas shopping, in accordance with our One Stressor at at Time family plan. This might back-fire this year, given that grades are due on December 23rd....

4. Wear Matching Pajamas

Family Christmas moments with matching pajamas are sweet and wonderful, but require planning well in advance of December 23rd. Instead, we insist that everyone wear a shirt when opening presents on Christmas morning since we are photographing the event, which causes enough wailing and gnashing of teeth.

3. Write Letters to Santa. Or visit Santa in the mall. Or heck, just about anything involving Santa.

Neither of our children has ever visited Santa....because who wants to spend more time in the mall than absolutely necessary during the Christmas season? It shows how strong the societal norm is toward Santa that Daniel is a strong believer and Annika was for over 9 years when we put zero effort into anything Santa related.

2. Read The Night Before Christmas (regularly)

I asked Will for suggestions on what our family doesn't do for the holidays, and he said that we don't read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. I was shocked because I consider this one of the things we actually *do* do, but he had the good point that it is pretty hit or miss, and mainly miss. So even holiday traditions that I think we do, we actually don't....

1. Have any ornaments left on our tree. 

This picture above is from last year (see here for story). As you can see, on the first day that we put up the tree, we had no ornaments left on the bottom 2/3 of the tree. By the end of the Christmas season, the ornaments were just about all gone from the entire tree, a causality of having three cats. Even our children were never this destructive as toddlers.

What about you? What would be on your "don't do" list for the holidays?