For the last few Christmases, my dear family unit has been experiencing a bit of a downward spiral. I am not someone who points fingers or lays blame at everyone else's feet, but saying that...my kids are totally at fault. My wife has fallen in with their general mindset, only because she's an awesome mother and has tons of empathy for them. Well, if they want to start sneering and shooting annoyed glances at one another every time the word "Christmas" is uttered, then that's as good as a declaration of war for me. My weapons of choice shall be humiliation and Christmas t-shirts.
To understand what an awful blow this recent attitude shift has been to the family unit as a whole, you first have to understand how crazy we've always been about Christmas. Even when the kids were really young, the wife and I would put boots in the fireplace ashes and make footsteps all around the Christmas tree to make the youngsters think that Santa had visited the night before. All of that giddy excitement is long gone now, dissipated into the wind of pubescent change. That's why these kids need some Christmas t-shirts with lots of kittens and angels and rhinestones.
I wanted to get started with my plan as soon as possible so that perhaps I could fix the attitude problems my family was currently having. I asked my son if he would help me put up Christmas lights two weekends before Thanksgiving. I immediately got that face he gives me when he's thanking the words, "God, you're lame." I stopped him in his tracks. I was prepared for that face, so I immediately threw something at him that he caught despite his surprise. It was a Christmas t-shirt.
I informed him very calmly that we were instating a new policy that every time someone in the house went against the Christmas spirit, they would have their picture taken in one of our new Christmas t-shirts and it would be posted on the bulletin board until after New Year's. You should have seen the horror on his face. I told him that if he didn't want to comply, that would be fine...but he would lose his phone for a whole week. With as much reluctance as he could possibly muster, he put the shirt on...and then there was a picture of him on the bulletin board just minutes later and he was helping with the outside decorations.
Talk about a huge attitude adjustment! Everyone ended up with their picture on the Board of Christmas Shame that year wearing the most ridiculous Christmas t-shirts you can imagine. Yes, even I had to go up on the board a few times. Holiday stress can put anyone in a foul mood sometimes, but I'm a good sport and no one can say that I don't play by my own rules. The best thing of all is that it became a fun game for all of us after the first few pictures were put up. We had lots of great laughs and the Christmas spirit was restored in our home.
To understand what an awful blow this recent attitude shift has been to the family unit as a whole, you first have to understand how crazy we've always been about Christmas. Even when the kids were really young, the wife and I would put boots in the fireplace ashes and make footsteps all around the Christmas tree to make the youngsters think that Santa had visited the night before. All of that giddy excitement is long gone now, dissipated into the wind of pubescent change. That's why these kids need some Christmas t-shirts with lots of kittens and angels and rhinestones.
I wanted to get started with my plan as soon as possible so that perhaps I could fix the attitude problems my family was currently having. I asked my son if he would help me put up Christmas lights two weekends before Thanksgiving. I immediately got that face he gives me when he's thanking the words, "God, you're lame." I stopped him in his tracks. I was prepared for that face, so I immediately threw something at him that he caught despite his surprise. It was a Christmas t-shirt.
I informed him very calmly that we were instating a new policy that every time someone in the house went against the Christmas spirit, they would have their picture taken in one of our new Christmas t-shirts and it would be posted on the bulletin board until after New Year's. You should have seen the horror on his face. I told him that if he didn't want to comply, that would be fine...but he would lose his phone for a whole week. With as much reluctance as he could possibly muster, he put the shirt on...and then there was a picture of him on the bulletin board just minutes later and he was helping with the outside decorations.
Talk about a huge attitude adjustment! Everyone ended up with their picture on the Board of Christmas Shame that year wearing the most ridiculous Christmas t-shirts you can imagine. Yes, even I had to go up on the board a few times. Holiday stress can put anyone in a foul mood sometimes, but I'm a good sport and no one can say that I don't play by my own rules. The best thing of all is that it became a fun game for all of us after the first few pictures were put up. We had lots of great laughs and the Christmas spirit was restored in our home.
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