They Are Luckier Than We Are
Jan 9 2009

That is what my kids kept saying every time we drove into our neighborhood during the Holidays and saw all the houses decorated with fabulous Christmas lights.  “How come they have their whole roof lit up, a fire truck, 7 reindeer, and Santa all in their front yard?” was a constant refrain every time we drove home at night.  “That’s not fair.  They are luckier than we are!” they would say each time.

I tried to explain to them that just because people have a bunch of lights on the outside of their house during Christmas time doesn’t mean they are luckier and that we have no idea what was going on inside the houses.  That explanation fell on deaf, young ears.

I also told our son that when he was old enough, he was more than welcome to hang up as many lights on the house as he’d like but until then mommy and daddy were just too tired (and frankly not interested).   He thought that was a good idea.  I’ve also thrown that logic on him when he doesn’t like what we are eating/cooking.  So he’s going to have to do a lot of cooking and light hanging when he’s older.  I’m guessing he’ll conveniently forget all of this when he’s about 10.

In previous years, just to keep slightly up with the Joneses, I found a North Pole candy cane light, some wooden stand-up Santa/reindeer thing, and some Santa singing lights (we turned off the music so as not to annoy the neighbors).  Their dad wasn’t initially too fond of the candy cane light.  But this year that wasn’t enough.  They wanted more and better lights so this time he gave in to their whining and got some lights for our small bushes and hanging lights to put above our door.  Of course we hung the door lights up about 2 days before Christmas and that seemed to appease them for a little while…until our son asked us why they didn’t get any gifts in their stockings.  I told him that the gifts from us and Santa were just too big for the stockings and we didn’t want the stockings (that were hung up using scotch tape) to fall down.  He didn’t buy that especially after going to my best friend’s house and their son told them about all the things he got in his stocking.  I repeated my explanation and said “maybe next year you’ll get something in your stocking” until we put the stockings away and he stopped asking.

So the grass (or Christmas lighting) is always greener (brighter) on the other side as they say.  And I keep thinking to myself “what if someone doesn’t like grass or Christmas lights and doesn’t want to pick sides?!”

Author: Aruni | Filed under: parenting | Tags: christmas lights, grass is greener, holiday lights, keeping up with the Joneses, Santa | Comments Off on They Are Luckier Than We Are

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