# Have you ever known a child who’s not gettin’ nuttin’ for Xmas because of behavior?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 26, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705 "2018-12-26T00:08:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/1 "2018-12-26T00:08:04Z")
I’m not talking a kid in Juvie or homeless or with parents living in poverty.
I’m talking about an otherwise abled parent carrying through on their threat to not give their kids presents on Christmas because of their behavior. If you know of any how did it go over? Did the child end up killing mom and dad in their sleep later in life?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/2 "2018-12-26T00:27:10Z")
There was one year I got almost nothing because my mother literally forgot about me. It was right after I’d joined the Navy, and I guess it was out of sight, out of mind…
☹
It was more than 45 years ago, and yeah, it still bugs me.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/3 "2018-12-26T00:34:22Z")
I knew someone who took every gift their child got, away from her. She had mis-behaved ( don’t remember what she did) and her Mom laid down the law. It was about 3 mos. before the kid got her stuff back. The kid is now a wild and crazy teen. Mom posted on Instagram a post of her burning the teens new IPhone in the bbq grill. I expect any day that girls gonna kill her Mom. It’s bound to happen.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/4 "2018-12-26T01:49:39Z")
I’ve heard about one, it was a dual faith family, and would let the child decide and honor it and talked to her about that. When the child started to strongly associate with their Jewish side, the parents decided to give nothing for Christmas and all for Chanukah.
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### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/5 "2018-12-26T03:50:31Z")
My parents (my mother?) did that to one of my brothers. They actually put a gift, but in it was a flogger (there’s an “anti-Santa Claus” in France, depicted as holding a flogger, who supposedly visits unruly children while Santa visits the good ones).
I’ve no clue what my brother was guilty of.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/6 "2018-12-26T04:27:58Z")
I knew a guy who came pretty close without even realizing. His Dad _really_ wanted a son, so he had 6 older sisters all about 18 months apart. He was about 4 at the time, I believe. His parents had been up very late Christmas Eve, wrapping all the gifts. The little boy woke up early and first. Went down and, not being able to read, opened every gift knowing if it was for a boy it was his. The rest of the family came down to a chaotic mess. It must have been a nightmare to straighten out!
Can you imagine? He didn’t remember being punished exactly, but it wasn’t a very Merry Christmas !
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/7 "2018-12-26T04:47:14Z")
> [@elbows](#):
>
> I knew a guy who came pretty close without even realizing. His Dad _really_ wanted a son, so he had 6 older sisters all about 18 months apart. He was about 4 at the time, I believe. His parents had been up very late Christmas Eve, wrapping all the gifts. The little boy woke up early and first. Went down and, not being able to read, opened every gift knowing if it was for a boy it was his. The rest of the family came down to a chaotic mess. It must have been a nightmare to straighten out!
>
> Can you imagine? He didn’t remember being punished exactly, but it wasn’t a very Merry Christmas !
I could totally see a child of either gender with just one opposite-sex sibling doing this.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/8 "2018-12-26T06:40:19Z")
If my kids had been bad or naughty during the run-up to Christmas I would suspend punishment til after. I was a gentler/kinder Mom.🙂
Really the suspense of what punishment they would get was worse than anything I could dish out;) Reverse psychology and all. I was kinda evil. I loved putting the guilt trip on 'em too.
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### Author:  [@Phila444](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phila444)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/9 "2018-12-26T18:18:15Z")
Never for Christmas. I did have a friend one time whose mother cancelled his birthday party on very short notice for reasons unknown. When asked what to do if we’d gotten him a present, his mom told us to either keep them for ourselves or return them.
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### Author:  [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/10 "2018-12-26T20:51:16Z")
I think I posted this before - one year I tried to be sneaky and peek at all my Xmas gifts, “carefully” undoing the tape at one end to see what everything was.
Come Xmas, I received nothing. Every present for me was removed from under the tree.
Five months later, for my birthday, I received the same presents, still in Xmas wrapping paper.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/11 "2018-12-27T00:22:19Z")
> [@Phila444](#):
>
> Never for Christmas. I did have a friend one time whose mother cancelled his birthday party on very short notice for reasons unknown. When asked what to do if we’d gotten him a present, his mom told us to either keep them for ourselves or return them.
Wow! How old was he?
Someone on another board said she had a IIRC nephew, now an adult, who was about 10 years old, and he said all his Christmas presents were “dumb.” His parents said, “If you don’t want them, we can give them to someone who does” and they did indeed box up all his gifts the next day and take them to a local shelter, where he had to explain to the staff what had happened. Lesson learned.
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2018, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/12 "2018-12-27T01:38:49Z")
no but my mentally disabled brother thought we did… mentally hes 5 or 6 and he lived in a special home for a while due to moms 2nd marriage slowly dissolving
Well since me and 2nd bro was about 14 mom just gave us 50 )each to buy the family something (most of it was for 3rd bro) and put 100 in a card each for me and bro which we got on xmas and and lil bro has his usual pile (we did the whole “santa” thing for him)
he kept looking over and thinking we didn’t have anything because we were “bad” he slowly divided his toys between the 3 of us … and proceeded to being them over one by one we thought we just wanted to play so we did and gave them back which getting visibily upset he then brought back and made sure we know he was giving them to us for keeps after the 3rd time …….
Mom seen what was going on and took a few minutes to “chat” and figured out why he was giving us his toys… after that we still got the same amount but we made sure we bought what we wanted before hand and wrapped then and found out he loved gift cards when someone else bought him one and he got to run around toys r us taking stuff off the shelf …… so it didn’t bother him as much
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### Author:  [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/13 "2018-12-27T17:17:39Z")
A late uncle of mine, in the 1940s. Heard this from my father, my aunt ( his sister ) and uncle in-law. He was known to be difficult and misbehaving and was threatened that if he continued, Santa Claus would bring him only a bag of coal. He persisted I guess, because they say he really did get just a bag of coal one christmas. From what I understand, the “bag of coal” threat was fairly common during that time, or in that area.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/14 "2018-12-28T00:50:52Z")
> [@BrickBat](#):
>
> A late uncle of mine, in the 1940s. Heard this from my father, my aunt ( his sister ) and uncle in-law. He was known to be difficult and misbehaving and was threatened that if he continued, Santa Claus would bring him only a bag of coal. He persisted I guess, because they say he really did get just a bag of coal one christmas. From what I understand, the “bag of coal” threat was fairly common during that time, or in that area.
My grandmother (1915-2007) said that was an oft-used threat when she was a kid, and she told the story about one of her brothers, who could be a handful, who did indeed get a stocking full of coal one Christmas. Thing was, it was actually useful because that was how they heated their house.
I don’t remember the whole story (there was more to it) or even which brother it was, but at her funeral luncheon, I sat with a cousin I had never met, the daughter of one of her brothers who always claimed that an elephant was buried in the town square of a nearby village that is now basically a ghost town, and added, “I was a special ed teacher for many years, and I’m convinced that if Dad was growing up now, he would have been classified as BD.” (behavioral disordered)
p.s. It wasn’t this one.
> **[Norma Jean, Elephant Killed By Lightning, Oquawka, Illinois](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/3619)**
>
> Norma Jean was the star of the Clark and Walters Circus until a bolt of lightning killed her in Oquawka's town square. Signs pointing toward "Elephant Killed By Lightning" direct you to Norma Jean's grave from all points in Oquawka.
> **[Norma Jean Elephant (1942-1972) - Find a Grave...](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15631829/norma-jean-elephant)**
>
> Norma Jean was a full grown elephant with the Clark and Walters Circus. She was the main attraction when one night, on July 17, 1972, she was struck and killed by lightning. Her trainer, Possum Red, was knocked thirty feet by the blast. She was...
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/15 "2018-12-28T00:56:51Z")
Wait. What? An Elephant? I don’t get it. I must have missed something.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/16 "2018-12-28T01:00:46Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> Wait. What? An Elephant? I don’t get it. I must have missed something.
I guess he had a bit of a rebellious, smart-alecky attitude, and nobody else knew anything about an elephant buried in the town square.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/17 "2018-12-28T01:43:53Z")
Oh, I see the links now.
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### Author:  [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/18 "2018-12-28T14:52:58Z")
As a matter of fact, yes.
Back in, like, 1986ish, some teenage cousins (sisters) were due to get multi-disk CD-changers (a yuge and expensive deal at the time). However, a couple of days before Xmas they were caught smoking pot. Their parents took everything back and they got literally nothing for Chirstmas.
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### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/19 "2018-12-28T15:28:12Z")
(thought I posted this earlier).
My brother got a train set but then was warned if he continued to misbehave it would be taken away.
He did not stop and the train set was taken away.
He did eventually get it back 30+ years later.
Brian
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-known-a-child-who-s-not-gettin-nuttin-for-xmas-because-of-behavior/826705/20 "2018-12-28T16:02:28Z")
A classmate in the second grade did. I do not remember what action prompted it but, despite being pretty glum, he didn’t whinge about it being not fair–most unusual in an eight-year old…
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