Christmas Magic

Christmas is such a magical time of the year.  I have always loved it and try to make it a really special time for my family.  It is then by no surprise that our aspie loves the holiday season.  He honestly loves all the holidays, but Christmas for him is the pinnacle.  You could say that he is a Christmas expert.  He knows every Christmas tale, can tell you specific facts about Santa, his elves, his reindeer and knows the words to pretty much all holiday carols new and old.  Everyday he wakes up and asks if its Christmas eve  even though we have a calendar in the dining room. When I say no not yet, he then runs to check to see if "Blaze" our elf on the shelf moved from the previous day's location signaling his trip back from the North Pole.  It's actually awesome to see his excitement and curiosity towards the holiday; the only issue being that our son is too smart for his own good causing his father and I to scramble for answers to questions or comments that arise when one movie conflicts another or when toy advertisements come in and he happens to see them.

I used to love getting the Sears catalog when I was little to see all the toys in it and to circle things I wanted from Santa.  It was awesome, and yet not once did I wonder how the toys in the store were the same toys that Santa brought. Santa and his elves are suppose to make these wonderful toys in his workshop and yet you can buy them in a store?  And honestly I still never thought of it until my aspie came to me one day with the Toys R' Us catalog stating that he wanted to go to the store to buy a certain toy.  "Well honey, Santa is coming soon so maybe we should put it on your Santa wish list."  "Mommy (said in a whine), these toys are not made by Santa they are made by com-pa-nies (still not getting the word out well).  Santa doesn't make these toys, he makes toys you can't get in stores."  It was at this point that not only did I panic thinking of the stack of toys I have in the basement, but also a light bulb went off for the many things he keeps telling us he wants that we can not figure out where he is getting it from.

If you ask our aspie what he wants from Santa he will tell you he wants a long fluffly blue sword, a toy switch blade knife and a new Kindle.  Everyone in the family has been scratching their heads trying to understand where these toy ideas came from.  We have asked him, "Honey, where have you seen this sword/knife?"  "No where, its what I want, Santa knows."  Okay, as we have googled, searched and questions again about fluffly swords online.  It was then, when he made that comment did I realize that he understands that stores have certain toys and the magic of Santa can create whatever toy he wants.

Yep, we are so totally screwed.  We have tried to convince him that the toys from the companies are different elf families that make the toys.  For instance, Mattel, Fisher Price, etc are all different elf families.  It didn't go over to well, which led to more questions about the elves and their families and then the viewing of a few more Christmas movies to see if they mention the elves.  It then also led to the question of why can you buy these toys in stores.  We told him that the magic of Christmas doesn't go away just because the day is over and Santa sends the toys to the stores to kids can have toys any day of the year if they are good and earn it.  "Then why do we have to buy them?"  "Because that is how Santa earns the money to pay the elves."  "No Mommy, elves work for cookies."  "Well, how do you think Santa gets the money to buy all those cookies?"  And around and around and around we went until finally I think he just got tired of talking.  Since talking is not his favorite thing, that was probably the longest conversation I have had with my aspie ever. 

So our Christmas morning should be pretty interesting.  Hopefully he will be completely excited and forget all these questions and just enjoy the day.  I am sure he will along with the rest of us. 

And presents and toys have not been our only issue.  The issue of Santa being here, there and everywhere is also an a major concern for our aspie.  Why is Santa coming to my school?  Why is Santa at the store?  Santa lives at the North Pole and is busy this time of year.  Why won't they (people) leave him alone?  All these questions keep popping up so my husband and I decided not to take our aspie or the baby to see Santa this year.  Unfortunately, these Santa questions make our aspie aggravated and that it not what we want to happen, which can in times ruin his whole outlook on a specific subject.  For instance, his baby brother started playing with trains, the "wrong" way and our aspie stopped playing with trains for good.  Just like that.  No looking back.  And so we do NOT want that to happen to his love of Christmas.  If something would go wrong or someone would say the wrong thing, he could just be done with Christmas, as quick as a blink. 

And so with Christmas only 10 days away our house is gearing up with excitement of that magical day.  Our house looks like Christmas threw up on it, with every room being decorated.  And even with all these decorations, our aspie still says that we could use more because he is worried Santa won't think we are sincere enough.  (Wondering where that comes from, it comes from Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin Patch, where Linus wants to show the Great Pumpkin that he has the dearest and most sincere pumpkin patch.)  And instead of cookies, our aspie wants to leave Santa a healthy snack because he is worried that Santa will get a belly ache from all the cookies and won't be able to fit down the chimney. 

I mean the kids isn't obsessed and thought of every detail or anything.  I am sure there is something he has left out and will think of before D-Day.  But still there is something so amazing watching your kiddos get so excited for the holidays.  It honestly is magical.  I hope that all of you find some magic this holiday season! So from our house of crazies to yours have a very Merry Christmas!