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Christmas is over, and I’ll always remember the wonderful family moments, looking at Christmas lights, drinking hot chocolate and the great wrapping debate.
It was my 7-month-old granddaughter Kennedy’s first Christmas. I tried not to go too crazy buying presents for her, but she got her share.
She saw three Santas — sat on two of their laps, if you count her arched-back resistance with one St. Nick as sitting.
The question came up between my son and daughter-in-law as to whether Santa wraps the presents he leaves.
My DIL said he did at her house growing up, and on Christmas Day, her dad confirmed that. However, Santa did not wrap gifts — Big Wheels, pogo sticks, bicycles, gaming systems or otherwise — he left for my sons. Never. So that’s what my son is used to.
I’m sure that was because when I was growing up, Santa did not wrap. I would find my dolls, or whatever special gifts he left, unwrapped under the tree.
My DIL boosted her argument with proof from movies.
“In The Santa Clause, Judy says, ‘I’m seeing someone in wrapping — in WRAPPING. Why would she say that if the gifts weren’t wrapped?’” my DIL argued. (She talked of law school at one time; I can see why.)
But, I pointed out that Tim Allen as Santa brings a doll and the kayak to a house, unwrapped! (Granted, a kayak would be a challenge to disguise.)
I also reported that in The Night
Before Christmas, the cover of the book I have shows Santa coming out of the chimney, unwrapped toys about to spill out of his sack — a doll, a stick horse, a horn.
I submitted that as definitive proof, but my logical husband said: “That just depends on the illustrator.”
When we drove around looking at Christmas lights, one house had a scene projected in a window. It was of elves working on an assembly line of toys, and the toys were automatically being wrapped. My DIL took notice.
That is purely the creation of a pro-wrapper, pushing his agenda. Is there actual video proof of that from the North Pole? I think not.
I saw a poll on a website, and one person said whether the elves wrap depends on Santa’s labor agreement with the elves — another said the elves were too tired after making the toys to wrap them, and another said all Santa gifts are wrapped, even in the stockings.
My son and DIL took to social media to conduct a poll to decide Kennedy’s Christmas future as it pertained to Santa gifts.
They put the question on Twitter and Facebook.
On Facebook, my son said, most of the responses said Santa’s gifts are unwrapped.
On Twitter, it was a tie, 13-13, and my son wasn’t allowed to vote
on his own question. (My husband voted no wrapping; I don’t have a Twitter account.)
My DIL asked her college sorority sisters’ opinions via Facebook. One young woman said her Santa presents were always unwrapped, but they had a bow on them. Another said “wrapped with fancy paper,” and still another said “wrapped so that the clothes don’t get lost in Santa’s bag.”
Huh? The conversation then degraded into a debate about whether Santa leaves clothes.
In the end, my DIL decided it was fine not to wrap because it would be a heck of a lot easier on the nights they, um, Santa, has to build things.
Smart parents.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 3270370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.