A family from Utah who cancelled Christmas this year - which means three children will not be getting any presents from Santa Claus on Dec. 25 - is falling under scrutiny.
John and Lisa Henderson are forcing their children who have been acting up and being ungrateful for months to write Santa a letter this year asking him to give their presents to someone who needs them more.
"Our kids have been acting so ungrateful lately," Lisa wrote in her blog Over The Big Moon. "They expect so much even when their behavior is extremely disrespectful. We gave them good warning, either it was time for their behavior to change or there would be consequences. We patiently worked with them for several months and guess what, very little changed. One day after a particularly bad display of entitlement John said, 'we should just cancel Christmas.' And, so that's what we did."
The family isn't cancelling all Christmas traditions - there will still be traditions, decorations and the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The Hendersons are taking this as an opportunity to strip the mountains of presents from Christmas and focus on what the holiday is all about - giving.
"We will be taking the money we would have spent on presents and put it towards service projects and giving gifts to others this season. We are trying to teach them the pleasure of giving rather than continuing to feed their childhood desire for more," Lisa wrote.
Since cancelling Christmas in late November, which understandably resulted in a lot of crying from the children at first, the Hendersons already organized a clothes drive in their community, Lisa wrote in the blog post. They also plan to donate to needy families and to invite several older widows and couples in our area that don't have family around to eat with them on Christmas Day.
The blog post prompted a backlash, with people calling her "a lazy parent" and "mean," but the Hendersons don't regret their decision.
"My kids are in no way hurting for things. It's not like I took Christmas away from Tiny Tim here folks," Lisa wrote in response to the negative comments. "They have good clothes, shoes, and so many toys they can't keep their playroom clean. They are not sad about what we have done! They have reacted by making gifts for each other and sneaking them into each others stockings. They are learning exactly what we wanted them to learn, because they are not moping around feeling sorry for themselves. They are thinking of others."
