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Your mother canceled Christmas. What happened then ...


Photo: Lisa Henderson / Over the Big Moon

Last year she canceled Christmas. She never expected the consequences

Christmas to fail? That sounds very hard. But Lisa Henderson did just that last year. But she never expected these consequences.

Last year, US-American Lisa Henderson wanted to teach her sons a lesson. Because their boys were extremely ungrateful, took many things as given and behaved very selfishly.

Therefore, the mother decided that Christmas should be canceled. Incomplete. There would be Christmas decoration, the birth of Jesus Christ would be celebrated - but their sons should not get gifts from the parents. The boys were forewarned for weeks, but they did not change their behavior, they did not want to hear.

Lisa wrote on a blog last year on her plans - but she never expected these consequences.

Her intention was to make it clear to her sons what Christmas is all about: charity. Together with her boys, she donated the money she actually spent on gifts. They invited people from their neighborhood who spent Christmas alone. Her sons did not seem sad.

The boys were not completely empty. Of course, they were allowed to keep their gifts, which they got from their grandparents and other relatives, or that they gave each other (which they did not do otherwise). However, Lisa also wanted her sons to value gifts more when they got so little.

But the internet was relentless. Her blog entry hit so many waves that Lisa met hostility worldwide, which she was unprepared for.

She actually wrote her article for the small readership of her blog: Mothers exchanging education tips. But her article has been shared and discussed worldwide.

She also got positive reactions. For example, teachers who wrote that they would wish more parents were so consistent with their children. But the negative reactions were more. Many misunderstood their intention as if it were a pure punishment for their children.

However, Lisa was not concerned with the punishment, but with the doctrine that the actions of her children also have consequences. And consequences do not have to be good or bad. And so Lisa learned through her children that these consequences would bring her even the best Christmas of her life.

So finally, the Christmas of the family was without presents:

Christmas with the Henderson family was, after all, beautiful in the end. Lisa even says it was the best decision to minimize Christmas presents.

It started when their children started to do something for others. They themselves began to package gifts for their brothers and put them under the Christmas tree - they have never done that before.

On Christmas Eve, the boys were much more excited and full of anticipation - even more than they are at Christmas.

When the boys prepared cookies for Santa Claus, her mother worried. Did her sons think Santa would come, though it was agreed that he would not do it this year? She talked to her boys and they said it was okay if Santa did not leave any presents. But he can have cookies.

The next morning, the children unpacked their gifts they made each other. It was wonderful, because the boys did not give anything, but they gave each other their favorite toys. It was, Lisa says in her blog, really touching, because the joy of both gifted and gifted was real.

As I said, consequences do not always have to be punishments.

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