In a brief phone conversation the other day, one of my
siblings said to me: We’ve been
talking about
the best things about Christmas and not ONCE have you mentioned
what you GOT for Christmas!
Now, even as when my children were little and growing up, I
still love to focus on the GIVING at Christmas and not the GETTING. I am so happy to see some of my
children repeating my tradition of keeping Christmas as simple as possible and
focusing on family and giving instead.
Some of the ways I did this and still do this:
Make a way to visit lonely people over the holidays to make
them feel special.
Deny yourself to give to others. Instead of giving more gifts to people who don’t need them,
adopt a family in need and focus on giving to them. One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is help a
family through tough times by getting together with them and giving them gifts
to give each other. Involve the
youngest family members in this:
this year Tessa (only a few weeks old!) and Alivia (8 months old) were
involved!
Let children hand out gifts and not just grab ONTO
them! They need to learn the JOY
of giving and will never learn that joy by taking taking taking.
Keep things simple!
Too much Christmas can ruin a child and turn him/her into a
MONSTER! Knowing my family was
large and that my children would get way too many gifts without my help, I
tried to keep my gifts very simple and geared towards “experiences”: I would give a ticket to the Ice
Capades in March for example, which allowed us to get together in March but
didn’t add to the commercial over-indulgences of Christmas.
Give a magazine subscription to young children that will
give throughout the year instead of having more gifts to open. Give them a ticket to a show. Make gingerbread houses. DO something instead of stacking
presents!
If your child has gotten way too many things from others,
hide them away and bring a few out every month to avoid getting your child used
to having way too much stuff.
The WORST thing you can do with little children is making
them think that Christmas is supposed to be STACKS of presents for them. Good luck when they’re teens and their
list is a little different! Try to
keep the gift list to three gifts:
as the wise men did!
If you truly believe it when the Bible says in Acts 20.35
that it is more blessed to give than
receive, then make SURE that you are giving WAY MORE than receiving at
Christmas time. Even MORE
importantly, be sure your CHILDREN are giving WAY MORE than receiving at
Christmas time!
Children are learning from how your focus is! Raise
and train children who will be contributors and not takers but teaching them early on! Unfortunately too many parents have the wrong focus and then
pass it on to the next generation…
I love to remember that the best gifts Jesus gives His children are
things that we can give AWAY: all
the fruit of the Spirit and gifts of the Spirit are things we GIVE! He knows what makes His children more
beautiful!
Take time to give extra toys away to children in need. Go through your child’s things with
him/her and wrap a big bag of extra toys to bring to a shelter, hospital or
group in need. Let your child be
part of sharing their overabundance of things.
Challenge:
Avoid materialism in your children starting at a very young age by focusing
on things that are more important at Christmas time and throughout the year. Fight back by focusing on people
and events instead of THINGS!
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