Tweens not feeling the Christmas spirit

MaryBeth Matzek

There’s a little bah-humbug in our house this year and it’s not coming from me. Instead, it’s the kids. I’m not sure if it’s their older ages (12 and 11) or that they’re busier with school and extracurricular activities, but they show little interest this year in our annual Christmas traditions.

We are now less than a week before Christmas and we’ve seen one animated holiday special – and that was just the other night at my insistence. They used to eat them up – watching them over and over again. Now when watching my favorite “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” my son pointed out plot holes while my daughter pointed out faults in the antiquated animation (“Why is all of that stuff gray? It looks so fake.”) Let’s just say I won’t watch it the same way again.

Then there was the tree. Usually, the kids can’t wait to help decorate the tree. This year, they were too busy playing Pokemon to lend a hand so I did it myself. As for the nativity scene under the tree that held so much fascination, I think the cats have looked at it more as they’ve tried to find a napping spot.

We also have a stack of Christmas-themed picture books that I take out after Thanksgiving. This year, they just collected dust. No one is interested in the classic “The Night Before Christmas” or the more recent “Bad Kitty’s Christmas.”

The kids also haven’t clamored to make cookies and when I finally did make some – it’s been a busy month – their only interest was helping to “test” the cookies when I was done to make sure they weren’t poisonous (their own words.) No one wanted to help mix or decorate.

I’m not giving up. We did start one new tradition this year — an Advent wreath we light before dinner each night — that the kids seem to like. And before Santa arrives – and for the record I think my 11-year-old still believes – we’ll all pile in the car and drive around to look at the Christmas lights while playing Christmas songs. That’s one tradition I hope will still hold their interest.