A mum-of-three has revealed her family doesn’t celebrate Christmas, with her children growing up knowing Santa Claus isn’t real.
Michelle Foulia, 49, from North Wales, doesn’t mark the festive season in the traditional manner, with no tree, no presents, and no Father Christmas.
Suffering from ADHD, she often found the period overwhelming and quickly discovered her kids did too.
Now she and her children Mihalis, 20, Vangelis, 15, and Areti, 12, allow the period to pass by quietly.
“Lying to my children never felt right, not even for ‘fun’,” the author told NeedToKnow.co.uk.
“They never believed in Santa.
“Even when little and we would go to places with a Santa, I would tell them it was someone dressed as Santa for the festivities.
“How do you explain to a child that Santa gave the neighbours’ kids new phones and gave your kids a stuffed toy and sweets?
“With Santa, there are so many stories, versions of the story and some are very dark too.
“The whole thing gives me the creeps.”
Observing the traditions at first, Michelle found she was put under exceptional financial and emotional stress.
She said: “When our children were little, we did everything according to how society did it, true to tradition.
“But as the children grew older, we began to change the way we did life.
“Trying to conform to tradition, and societal expectations was causing so much pressure, financially too, but also in terms of stress, social anxiety, fear of forgetting someone or something, fear of getting something wrong, and fear of not doing it good enough.
“Not only are you dealing with visiting friends and family, but you are trying to do your shopping with Christmas lights galore, Christmas music on repetition which is just unbearable, crowds, and noise and smells.
“It is everywhere – you cannot escape it.”
Now, instead of celebrating traditionally, the family have adopted their own Christmas, far from blinding lights and loud music.
She said: “We then noticed how much calmer we all were, how we used the time to be more connected, to do more meaningful things together and to carve out that family time our way, not conforming to anyone’s standards but our own.
“It has been wonderfully peaceful, calm, and liberating.
“All this crazy spending, stress, food waste, conflict in families, debt, family fallouts, marriage breakdowns, all happening around Christmas because of a fantasy we have somehow bought into.”
The family do still exchange gifts to mark the end of the year, however, there is no tree or decorations.
She said: “We do presents and a special meal with all their favourite treats, and we use the day as a time of connection, to reflect on the year that has passed, to go for a walk if we feel like it, to discuss plans for the future, to evaluate everything and prepare for the new year ahead.
“We will chat, laugh, maybe play some games, maybe not, it’s very relaxed with no expectations.”
READ MORE: I tell my kids Santa isn’t real – people call me a terrible mum but they deserve the truth’
