We do Santa.
We’re not die-hard put-footprints-on-the-roof types, but we love the excitement of going to bed on Christmas Eve wondering what we’ll find when we get up in the morning.
My 8yo straight-out asked me last Christmas Eve if Santa was real (he’d lived in denial for several years), and so now my five-year-old is the only one who doesn’t know the big grown-up secret. (Though I’m pretty sure she’s purposely living in denial as well.)
Anyway, her big gift this year was a Barbie House. A Barbie house that required some assembly.
Once it was assembled, we were left with a box. A big one with a picture on the front.
Since it was Christmas morning and all, I just shoved the box back into my closet and hid it with the sheet that had been covering it since Santa went shopping at Costco in November.
An okay solution . . . except that the box had displaced the humongous suitcase I use to store out-of-season clothes.
Displaced it to the middle of the master bedroom floor.
When the box contained a wonderful Christmas surprise, I could justify the TEMPORARY displacement. When the box was empty . . . it was much more difficult to justify.
My (totally lame) excuse:
I would have had to take the box out to the curb at just the right time (after my daughter left for school and before the trash truck arrived), but had never (in the three months since Christmas) thought to do that.
During my 90 minute master bedroom transformation last week, I arrived at a point where I had to tackle this problem in order to move forward with the rest of the room. I could no longer wait for those elusive 20 minute windows that come twice a week.
At first, I tried peeling away the picture. When that process started getting on my nerves, I just stomped the box down and shoved it into its very own black trash bag.
I also stomped down my inner-turmoil over “wasting” a black trash bag on one single item that could technically be put out for trash without even being placed in a trash bag.
That kind of inner turmoil turns into outer turmoil when I let it paralyze me and keep me from doing what needs to be done.
Is peace in my master bedroom worth the cost of a single black trash bag?
Yes.
Christie says
As usual, I can relate all too well!
Kathy @ Some of These Things says
Been there, done that.
I hear tell that, sometimes, Santa leaves the boxes, because it would take up too much room in the sleigh to take them back to the North Pole. He also sometimes borrows our wrapping paper to wrap things up. 😉
Sally H says
The most beautiful explanation of Santa that I have come across was a little book written by a long-time department store Santa. He said that, when children asked if Santa was real, we should answer, “yes.” Then, when they ask if there is more than one Santa, we should explain that, when people want to do something extra nice for someone, but don’t want that someone to know who did that nice thing, we should do it in the name of Santa. Using Santa’s name keeps everyone enjoying the extra-niceness.
I think this is a lovely way to explain to children why their parents keep this Santa secret. Because, frankly, lying to my children, without a really good reason, is way outside my comfort zone.
Erin K. says
I can sooooooo relate to this. I once had two HUGE bottles of generic conditioner that sat in my bathroom for a year because of the strange conversation that happened in my head when I thought about getting rid of them. The conditioner was awful and I hated it but it took me more than a year to just throw them away!!! As I’ve become aware of my slob-brain it’s amazing how dumb some of it is. 🙂 Glad I can now see how dumb it is and instead be empowered to do something about it!
Joan says
Totally off subject of boxes and Santa, but here is a great used for ‘that’ kind of conditioner, ie any that you use once or twice and don’t like.
Use it for shaving gel for your legs. It works wonders and makes your legs very soft. Sorry to have this great idea AFTER you’ve thrown them away.
Heather says
When my kid asks if Santa is real, usually around 7-8 yrs. old, I always ask them, “what do you think?” And they will usually say, “yes” sometimes hesitantly, and then I say, “well, there you go!” Buys me another year before they have to grow up! 🙂
Kristie B says
I’ve also had a moment’s pause at wasting a trash bag. Times like that, I have to giggle at the effort it takes to get over myself!
Michele says
Addressing big boxes like that is something I had to deal with for years because we cannot set things out by the “curb”. Next time try turning it inside out. open top and bottom then cut down one side. You can either reassemble(only plain sides showing with a little packing tape if you need to use it to hide things or leave flat and all the plain sides showing package tape it shut.
Pam C. says
I was going to suggest something similar to what Michele said, except it’s even simpler. Just open the ends, then the box folds flat and can be stored flat (hidden) almost anywhere. No problem to reuse it. Pop it open, fill it, and tape shut the ends! IF you want to make the picture go away when you reuse it, THEN slit open the side to turn it inside out.
Anita says
Should I be scared? I just got turned on to your blog last week, and it’s really spooky how normal you and your thought processes are to my own.
You are obviously very intelligent, that’s probably why your brain QUITE CORRECTLY had you pause at using an expensive black trash bag for this.
michelle says
OMG!!! Noni get out of my head, lol!!! So I’ve gone thru about 5 baskets of clothes and have a donate box full of clothing that I’m having problems taking to Goodwill because I have a few new nephews and friends that could make use of the clothes. Which means I had to redistribute the clothing according to the people in mind and then make sure the respective persons bag/box is in the car when I next visit their home, cause well I don’t have company. Well that didn’t work so I put them all in the back of my van so they would be with me when I nested visited them. Well its been 3 months and the only time I remember they’re back there is when I’m loading groceries, bikes, or laundry. Which means they go back in the house until I get tired of seeing them in my living room and the vicious cycle begins again. I’m pitiful. Tomorrow I will drop them at the donation bin, period, end of story. #FingersCrossed
Twyla Hajdukiewicz says
I applaud your ingenuity in maintaining the dream. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having used one trash bag for one box. However, if there is another big box in the future that needs to be masked while waiting for trash pick up, you can open it flat and then fold it in half with the picture inside (and therefore not visible). It will be flat and take up less space and you don’t have to wait to get rid of it. And if the young’un tends to look at things like big boxes, a little tape to keep it folded should do the trick. I’m so LOVING your blog!
Colleen P says
Yup-what Twyla said-I just turn them inside out and tape them-my husband has an electronics habit that we don’t necessarily want everyone in the neighbhorhood to know about, so we do this with pretty much all boxes. Fold the flaps down to the inside as well. 🙂