Did Santa Buy My Toys from Toys R Us?

December 28, 2005

Did Santa Buy My Toys from Toys R Us?

When I grew up, in my family we follow Dutch tradition on Christmas. Instead of calling him Santa Claus, we called him Sinterklass; and instead of waiting for the gifts on Dec 25th, it's Dec 5th. And instead of bribing Santa with cookies under the Christmas tree, we bribe his reindeers instead with grass on our shoes that we place outside our home!

But now with my son grew up in US and Canada, I was facing a dilemma at which customs to follow. So I compromise it! For the past 3 years, I taught my son to put grass on his shoes AND put cookies on a plate under the Christmas tree.

On the first year, my son was only 3 years old and he can’t even write. So for his letter to Santa, I asked him to draw. Since that year he wanted to have a train set. I asked Kai Kai to draw a train but he couldn’t, so he just drew the train track. I guess that’s good enough for now. Then he cut some grass for his shoes and place so many cookies on the plate for Santa that it took his mom, his grandpa, his grandma, and his dad to finish the cookies so that it looks like Santa eat them up!

What funny about that year (2003) was that my husband drew very tiny foot prints on the fire place and told him that those foot prints belong to Santa! My son truly believe that and he think Santa is so amazing because he can turn himself small to pass through the chimney but then he can change to his original size when he is already in the room.

On 2004 Christmas, I made my son wrote a letter to Santa. It took several tries but he manages to write a very nice letter to Santa. That year, he wanted a Rescue Hero toys. It was a disaster because when he started playing with the toy he decides he did not like it after all! The problem was false advertising. On the box the Rescue Hero toys looks nicer and more complete than what is inside the box. It turned out that wasn’t true. In order for the toy to look as nice as the picture on the box, we need to buy so many more toys! So that year we ended up returning the expensive Rescue Hero Toy ( I think it cost more that $ 100 ) with cheaper toy but my son definitely loves it.

Then for this year, my son wants a Monster truck toy that he can customize it himself by changing the tires from Monster tires to smaller tires. So first I took him to Toys R Us to pick what kind of toy he wants. Then he wrote his letter to Santa based on that toy.

5 days before Christmas, my son use an empty tissue box to make a home-made car for a gift for Santa! I thought that was so sweet of him to give Santa a surprise under the tree! My cousin Eliza said she never heard a child who wants to make a home-made gift for Santa before, usually they just waiting to get gifts from Santa only.

The night before Christmas, Kai Kai first get a plate for Santa’s cookies. I learn from my past experience that he tend to give too many cookies to Santa. So I told him to only put 2 cookies on the plate. I said “ Kai Kai put just 2 cookies on that plate, we don’t want to super size Santa right?”…(we just watch the documentary “Super size Me” on TV )…But KK said, “ But Santa is already FAT! “…. I answer him back “Precisely!”.; so at the end Kai Kai really only give Santa 2 cookies on the plate.

Then he went outside to the garden to cut some grass with his little scissor. He put them carefully inside his cleanest shoes. He wanted to put some more but Richard told him not to. He thinks it’s enough. But then Kai Kai said “ But Dad, Santa has 2 reindeers so I need to get more grass! “…my husband made a mistake of correcting him…he said “ Santa has 8 reindeers, not 2! “…Big mistake….!!!! You can imagine what happen after that right????

So when my son finally sleeps, I went downstairs to throw the grass back to the front yard first. I did it in the dark because I am not sure if my son already sleeps or not. I told you this for a reason that you will find out why later on. Then when I want to put the cookies back to the cookie box, I thought… wait a minute…I can’t do that…Why? Because the cookies was wrapped individually in a plastic wrap and in order to make it more believable that Santa truly eat them, I have to eat the cookies and left the wrapper on the plate! I am SO glad that he only gives Santa 2 cookies…. Because I don’t like the cookies!!! Plus I am already super size myself!!!

Since I feel bad to throw away the home-made car that he made for Santa… I decide to just leave it there. The car is so nice!

To cover it up, I told Richard to write a thank you letter from Santa to Kai Kai ….

That night, for unknown reason, Richard was sick…sick…sick…and I have to take care of him all night. So that morning, when Kai Kai called us down stairs to see what Santa brought for him, Richard chose to stay on the bed and I was the only one who came down with Kai Kai to take his picture and video tape him as well. Usually we split the tasks.

First thing I heard was my son complaining that the reindeers made a mess with the grass ! I guess I made those mess when I have to do it in the dark last night! I told him that he can’t expect reindeers to eat as neat as human, right?

Then he asked why Santa did not put a bow on the gift? My son has this kind of thinking that when you give someone a nice gift, you should wrap it nicely and put a bow on top of the box! I still remember how many stores I have to go to in order to find a bow big enough for his first Santa gift!!! I thought he outgrow this thinking… I guess not….

And he was disappointed because Santa did not take his gift! Lucky, when I read him the letter from Santa that my husband wrote, he can accept it. I explain to him that Santa is very thankful for his beautiful gift but Santa think it’s better if he keep the gift so he can play with it better than Santa….phew…..

So it’s finally time to unwrap the gift. My son loves to tear his gifts as fast as possible. While I video taping him… I saw a white piece of paper float down to the floor from the gift …. It was the receipt!!!!! Oh my goodness. In my haste to wrap the gift I didn’t notice that the receipt was stuck on the toy’s box! My son saw it and he said “Oh look mama… Santa bought my gift from Toys R Us! Did he owned Toys R Us?”…Oh man… I hate to think that Santa has gone commercialize…Instead of the elves making the toys in North Pole… Santa has gone shopping to Toys R Us!!!