Julia Sims: Call me Scrooge

My husband sometimes jokingly calls me Scrooge.

The nickname started back during Will’s first Christmas. That’s when I told Mike I didn’t think we should get Will any Christmas presents. My husband looked at me like I’d just grown a third eye!

My reason? Well, he was all of 10 months old so it wasn’t like he would know. Plus, I pointed out since he was the only baby in the family at the time he’d likely get plenty of presents from relatives. (Yep) Thankfully, Mike begrudgingly obliged for the first four years.

At age five, I finally caved in. That opened the floodgates to piles of presents.

I understand the joy and “magic” of Christmas. I really do. But after two years of obscene amounts of presents, I put my foot down again and asked relatives to curb their Christmas cheer. Again, the Scrooge!

But as I told them, we are so blessed in what we do have and we need to recognize that. I don’t want Will to grow up with the “person with the most toys wins” mentality. (And honestly, we just don’t need more stuff.)

I want Will to know what Christmas is really about: Our faith and our family. This should be a time to celebrate the things and the people that matter.

Fortunately, I think Will gets it. The other day I asked him if he was excited about Christmas and he told me: “Yes! It’s cousin time mama!”

So, go ahead and call me Scrooge. I’ll take it.