Okay, so my next post is not about the rest of our Thanksgiving vacation, but I suddenly realized I forgot about something I wanted to share about. This morning, I heard on KLOVE, our Christian radio station an idea that I thought was pretty great for gift giving. I know recently, that some of of my friends that have little ones try to keep the gift giving to a minimum and really push the meaning for Christmas so that they don't grow up thinking that it is mainly for gifts and more, more, more. I find that I have thought about how I would do this with Jon and my kids in the future as well. I have some ideas already thought out, but I liked this radio idea. The host of the show was saying that her kids had several rubber tubs full of toys and thinking about Christmas and adding more was stressing her and so on. To help her young children not get into the craziness of gifts, she has been talking to them about the Christmas story and how Jesus got three special gifts from the Maji, so they are going to do three gifts for them this year. Even though they are young, she said that they seem to understand it and bring up the subject while reading the story again. I'm sure other family members are giving gifts, but I think that it's nice to have a small Christmas and just appreciate Jesus' birth and our time, our time with family, and the thoughtfulness that it would take to decide on three gifts. She said that she's been asking what they would like and she tries to be really intentional and figure out what three would be good to give. Another similar idea I saw on the KLOVE radio website was to ask them for:
1. something they want 2. something they need. 3. something to wear. 4. something to read.
Now, I don't want to confuse people to think that I am against gift giving, I love picking out and giving gifts to others and I love the surprise of receiving them. But, I also love a "simple" Christmas and enjoying Jesus' birth, family, and of course the weather!
Although I do not have kids, I'd like to keep these ideas in my own head for the future as well as share them with you to remember that things don't have to be crazy whether it be events, gifts, or whatever surrounding Christmas. Merry soon-to-be Christmas! If you have any ideas that you use or have heard of, feel free to share them!
1 comment:
But I love to shop and especially use my coupons!!! You have GREAT ideas there, though. Another good one I heard was a family who donated to a charity in each other's names.
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