Parents: Christmas time was better for you as a child or as a parent?

The excitement and joy I see in my daughters eyes at Christmas outweighs any of the presents I received when I was their age.

Even watching them decorate the tree puts a big smile on my face.

Yeah, for it to better my own childhood xmas memories is saying an awful lot, but it does & then some.

That would be hard to decide. I used to be so excited for Christmas that I couldn’t sleep, and for a kid that sleeps like a dead man, that is saying a lot. But my excitement was equally intense when I had four little ones. If I had to choose, it would be the Christmases with the kids, as I did more stuff with them than my mom did with me. We made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, candy and frosting. I helped them make presents for each other. We decorated the tree with pink popcorn balls and gingerbread men. And the weeks before Christmas, we watched every Christmas movie. One of their favorites was “The Christmas Toy” with Jim Henson’s muppets. They showed it one year, and then it never came up again. Then, just last year, my sone found it on line somewhere and burned it to a DVD for his daughter. If you haven’t seen it, you really need to find it.

@ucme My parents went all out on Christmas and I couldn’t wait to open the presents but it is only now that I understand the joy they must have felt viewing our cheerful faces as we opened each gift with astonishment.

@JimTurner Absolutely, we’re understandably selfish as kids at xmas, gleefully enjoying it to the max, but as parents, you appreciate the experience from both sides.

@ucme Agree

Child. Although the look of joy and excitement on my own kids faces when they were young was also something I took great delight in.

They are about equal for me, fantastic Christmases when I was a child and also when my daughter was younger, yeah, about equal I reckon, different but equal.

I loved Christmas as a kid, but it’s more special as a parent, watching my children get all excited and happy as they open their gifts. It’s SO much fun!

I’m not a parent but today I’ve come to hate the whole fake materialism thing, so the spirit and spark of Christmas in this consumerist society has burned out for me. Maybe I’m just a Scrooge. I definitely liked it better as a naïve child. Plus, I was a religiously-obsessed child, too, so having dropped that makes it even more less important to me. I’m not going to Christmas if isn’t part of my faith, specially if it promotes indulgence of gifts….how fake and hypocritical is that? I find other ways of giving gifts to people. I told my family that their presence is the only present I need at Christmas.

This is a tough one.

I’ll have to get back to you.

Christmas was best when I was a young married with small children.
When i was young, I didn’t have money, and wanted to give things to others, but I couldn’t.
When I was older, the wonder of the day was gone from my kids.

I definitely enjoy watching my kids more. To see them get excited where the Elf on the Shelf is hiding each morning is so much fun. He travels at night to tell Santa how good they were during the day and returns in a different spot by morning. Its so fun to have them notice that the Elf forgot to travel(mama’s fault…she forgets sometimes). I tell them he was probably tired and also that he needed an extra day to give Santa all the news about if they were good. To be so nieve and carefree in their thoughts is….priceless.