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Mom's hilarious plea to leave cookies out for Mrs. Claus instead of Santa is so spot on

Because who do you think is ACTUALLY making that list, and checkin it twice? 😂

@pennymiddleton/TikTok

Give Mrs. Claus her plate of cookies already.

Every year, moms around the world take on even more responsibility to create Christmas magic for their families, often without ever being on the receiving end of any sort of holiday cheer themselves.

Even Father Christmas himself, Santa Claus, gets all the credit—and more importantly, all the cookies—while poor Mrs. Claus remains an unsung Yuletide hero. When, let’s be honest, if this fictional couple were in fact real, it would be Mrs. C making sure those presents were getting where they needed to be.

And that’s exactly why Connecticut mom Penny Middleton is calling for a new tradition.

Back in 2023, Middleton created a hilarious PSA explaining the invisible labor that likely happens “behind the scenes” at Santa's workshop.

“We’ve all been believing in this collective delusion,” Middleton dryly said while holding Santa and Mrs. Claus dolls. “You cannot tell me that this man ... organizes Christmas and goes around the world, makes a list and checks it twice, without the help of this woman.”

She then drove this idea home by acting out a conversation between the imaginary spouses. The ever organized Mrs. Claus has not only digitized the gift list, but is reminding her husband for the upteenth time to check it twice all while handling Rudolph's red nose (which is actually COVID).


@pennymiddleton Mrs. Claus doesn't just deck the halls; she's the unsung hero ensuring the North Pole runs smoothly while Santa gets all the credit. 🤶🏾 👏🏽 #mrsclaus #christmas #newyork #ticktock #comedy #new #holiday #TikTokMagic #feminism #intersecionalfeminism ♬ original sound - Penny Middleton

Meanwhile, Santa needs help finding his hat…which is on his head.

And this is why, henceforth, Middleton and her family are leaving cookies out for Mrs. Claus and Mrs. Claus only, for she is the true unsung hero of Christmas.

In an interview with TODAY, Middleton said that her idea came about after one Christmas Eve where she had stayed up late assembling her daughter’s Barbie Dream House so that she could play with it immediately on Christmas Day, rather than sitting and watching it being put together.

This was something her husband found “incredible,” and he admitted, “I never would have thought to do that.”

This is just one example of how moms go out of their way, often at the expense of their own wellbeing, to make magic happen. And like Mrs. Claus, they rarely get credit. Which is why so many moms found her plight incredibly relatable.

“Santa is out shoveling snow and painting the reindeer’s barn on Dec. 23 with zero sense of urgency about the list.”

  • “He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, he left it at home, he’s texting his wife.”
  • “And who else packs his snacks for the road, a water bottle and snacks for the reindeer? I know it’s not Santa.”
  • “I told my son to take a pic with Mrs. Claus because she’s really the one doing the work while Santa works one night a year.”
  • “Justice for Mrs. Claus! We see you sis!”
  • “1000% he has no idea what’s inside those presents.”

For Mrs. Claus, and all the moms ensuring warm holiday meals, perfectly wrapped presents, and meticulously decorated trees and every other well thought of details that conjures up those warm and fuzzy Christmas feels…may you get that plate of cookies this year. You deserve it.

Find even more of Middleton's funny, relatable content on Instagram.

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Joy

Sorry, Santa. Doctor issues warning about kissing bearded men.

It's more dangerous than most people think.

via Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels and DermDoctor/TikTok

A TikTokker has an adverse reaction to a make-out session.

Sorry to all of the people out there who might have their game ruined by the following story. But the truth is that if you have a beard, you should take the necessary precautions to ensure that the next person you kiss doesn’t wind up with a major case of beard burn.

A disturbing video went viral on TikTok featuring a woman with red spots on her chin who claims to have “kissed a guy with facial hair.” The clip caught the attention of Dr. Muneeb Shah, known on TikTok as “The Derm Doctor.”

@dermdoctor

PSA: clean your beards @Rylee Kriete #dermdoctor #impetigo

The Derm Doctor is incredibly popular on the platform, with over 18 million followers. His response to the red-faced woman racked up over 19 million views.

In the video, the Derm Doctor confirmed that making out with someone with a big beard can cause problems. “Clean your beards,” the doctor said before explaining that they can cause minor cuts in the kiss recipient’s face. Further, if the beard isn’t clean, bacteria can be transferred to the open wounds, resulting in impetigo.

Impetigo is a bacterial infection that can be cleared up with antibiotics.

The good news is that this infection of passion can be prevented with a bit of prevention. “On the receiving end, using a barrier cream or moisturizer before contact can help,” Dr. Kautilya Shaurya, MD, board-certified dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in NYC, tells Real Simple. Dr. Shaurya also suggests that those with beards keep them short, moisturized and clean so they don’t injure their partners.

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Parenting

Mom perfectly explains how emotional it is to accept kids letting go of 'childhood magic'

'But I know that this year is probably the last year we'll have our Elf on the Shelf, Peppermint.'

Photo by Misty Ladd on Unsplash

Mom explains the emotional process of kids letting go of childhood magic.

One of the best things about having children is being able to pass along your family traditions or starting new traditions. Many families let their kids experience the magic of fictional characters like the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. But eventually they get older and they slowly start to realize the truth.

For parents, this can be an emotional process because it signals that their kids are growing up and moving into the next stage of life—adolescence. Soogia, a mom on TikTok, perfectly explains her youngest child's gradual realization that things in her childhood have been "pretend."

Through tears, Soogia talks about the Elf on the Shelf she has for her daughters, saying, "But I know that this year is probably the last year we'll have our Elf on the Shelf, Peppermint." She described how her daughter has started to ask questions about the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy and now Elf on the Shelf.

But Soogia refrained from just telling her daughter the truth on the last one. Instead, when her daughter asked, "Is Peppermint real?" the mom of two asked, "Do you really want to know?" Soogia explained that her daughter started to cry before admitting that she didn't want to know the answer. Oh, my heart. You just want to hold on a little bit longer to that childhood innocence.

Soogia says she thinks it's her daughter's way of preserving the magic for herself a little while longer. In the end, the mom reveals when her kids figure out the elf isn't real that they will get their turn at hiding it around the house. It's always a little sad when we realize the "last" is happening or has happened. Soogia's explanation of experiencing her children's "last" piece of childhood magic is so relatable.

Watch the video below:

@soogia1

Feeling super emotional this holiday season but who isn’t? #elfontheshelf #peppermint #childhood #magic

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Wellness

Video of Santa questioning 'naughty or nice' labels is a moving statement on mental health

NAMI/Youtube

Most depictions of Santa Clause fall along the traditional narrative we know and love. We see the rotund, bearded fellow making a list and checking it twice. With a twinkle in his eye, we expect him to ponder each child's behavior for the year and place them into a category—naughty or nice—to determine their deservedness in getting a gift.

Though there's obviously no jolly, omniscient figure putting children into binary categories, there are plenty of adults who do just that. If a kid doesn't conform to a specific standard of behavior, they're "naughty." If they say the right words, do the right things, and don't cause any trouble, they're "nice." Children are categorized and labeled—some good, some bad—and those labels often follow them throughout their lives.

But such a simplistic view doesn't square with what we actually know about children and behavior. Kids—and all humans, really—are not that cut and dry. People of all ages are complex, nuanced, and multi-faceted, and motivations for people's behavior rarely fall neatly into "naughty" or "nice." There's a whole range of reasons why people do the things they do.

RELATED: A huge thanks to those who openly share their mental illnesses. You saved my daughter.

That's the premise behind a new video released by NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In it, we see Santa sitting on a rooftop, contemplating the categories he's used for 1000 years, in a surprisingly moving soliloquy about labels and children.

"I think I did this all wrong," he begins, before pondering how his habit of "reducing these growing, varied, intricate beings to some binary code of this or that, naughty or nice" might actually be doing them harm. "As if some kids son't have enough to worry about, only to have me judge them without context, without perspective, without any sort of doctorate psychology—honorary or otherwise."

"Did I condemn every kid who already felt like a misfit toy?" he asks. "Naughty or nice? Isn't it possible that they're nervous or nice? Uncomfortable-in-their-own-skin or nice? I'm-angry-and-I-don't-know-why or nice? My-impulses-are-beyond-my-control or nice? Hurting or nice?"

"And who can blame them?" he ponders. "With the news, the lockdown drills, the internet, the world is bearing down on them. And we expect these struggling kids to just...what? Speak when spoken to?"

"Show me an interesting, fully formed person and I'll show you a once difficult child," Santa continues, asking what would happen if we looked at kids in a whole different light.

RELATED: A mom describes her tween son's brain. It's a must-read for all parents.

It's not your typical Santa video, but it certainly has a magic of its own. To see children as layered beings instead of good or bad, naughty or nice, is perhaps the best gift we can give them.

Watch a contemplative Ol' St. Nick share his thoughts on the "naughty" or "nice" question, and prepare to have your feelings meter moved a few notches.

NAMI - “Naughty Or…"www.youtube.com

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