The return of the Christmas Detectives


 I wrote this post last year, my little Christmas detectives are sure to start their investigations soon. This year I will really have to be on my guard, they'll no longer be Dr. Watson's, I'm sure they'll be  Sherlocks by now! I'm half expecting my son's homemade lie detector to be involved:






The Christmas Detectives


I am normally a ba humbug type of person in the leadup to Christmas, annoyed by all the Christmas hype which seems to start earlier and earlier every year. This year, however, I have to get into the Christmas mindset now, as I am in a bit of a dilemma...
On the one hand, I am very much pro-Santa, encouraging my children to believe as long as possible (case in point, I was secretly delighted when my son briefly fell out with a friend at school for telling him Santa wasn't real). On the other, every year they get that little bit more suspicious, like little Christmas detectives, and it becomes quite tricky to keep up the pretence. I recently saw a novelty Santa door key for sale in a card shop, a nice idea and I was tempted to buy it... until I realised they would all be trying the key in the door and telling me it didn't fit, so it would be yet more stories to invent. I didn't bother buying it







I learned a few years ago, that I cannot use the same wrapping paper or labels, for Santa presents as I do for mummy and daddy presents, my son picked up on that faux pas straight away. I also disguise my handwriting for the Santa labels. Sounds simple enough, but a few days later when they are asking if a certain toy was from us or Santa, it gets confusing.
The reindeer food we bought from a school Christmas Fayre was always put out happily, no issues there. Last year, however, my son was suspicious about the glitter in the food, he figured out that glitter did not seem normal, or healthy, for animals. I got away with that one by saying they were magic reindeer, so glitter was ok for them to eat. I was also told I should be leaving out 9 carrots, one for each reindeer. I told them the reindeer wouldn't be able to fly if they ate too much, so they better just share one. I will also have to grate some carrot and leave it on the floor and plate- they remarked on Christmas morning last year, how it was amazing the reindeer didn't make any mess when they ate. See what I'm up against?


The dilemma: In October I was lucky enough to re-house two baby rabbits from a local animal park. The kids had been asking for a pet for a while, so I gave in. The cost for the hutch, food, hay, toys, vaccines etc soon all added up. There is also the unexpected expense of having to get them neutered, as my two male rabbits turned out to be one male and one female! I made it clear that they wouldn't be getting much else for Christmas. To my dismay, I was told "that's ok, we'll just ask Santa for the things we want." It seems like nearly every day they are talking about new items for their Santa lists, and I am currently trying to think of the best way to handle this. I don't want disappointed children on Christmas day, so "Santa" better come up with a half decent excuse for his lack of generosity soon.
My ideas so far: the elves are on strike... that wouldn't work, because they'd wonder how all their friends still got toys.
The reindeer are sick, and the medicine is very expensive, so Santa can't make so many toys this year...they'd be upset and possibly start a school fundraiser for poor Rudolph and his friends.

No, I think a letter from Lapland is in order, something referring to the fact Santa knows they have two lovely rabbits and they are very lucky boys and girls. Other children aren't so lucky, so Santa has to make sure that everyone gets a fair share of Christmas presents. I'm sure a slight threat of lumps of coal for Christmas next year if they don't keep looking after their pets wouldn't go astray either.

Wish me luck!




Do you have little Christmas detectives at home?  How do you deal with ever lengthening Santa lists? At what age do you think it's time to  let children realise there's no Santa? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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