Christmas Eve and Christmas day were enjoyed at home this year, gathering after Mass for seafood pasta, enjoying a family Christmas concert. Our tradition is to let the kids open the box from Aunt Terri on Christmas Eve, but we wait to open everything else Christmas morning.
Through the years we have tried different approaches with gift giving. What seems to work for us is to let the kids browse through some pre-selected catalogs (Mind Ware, Timberdoodle, Museum Tour, HearthSong, Magic Cabin, Nova Natural, home school catalogs like this or this, etc.), circle and initial items that catch their interest. The next step is to write letters to St. Nicholas on December 6th because that helps us narrow down the choices that fit into a reasonable budget per child.
Obviously, the more kids you have, the more quickly gifts add up. And, the more years that go by, the more expensive things seem to get. This year I left most of the ordering to my husband so I wouldn't be the one to get into trouble since I am the one who tends to go over budget. Thanks to him, I think we mostly stayed within budget! Yeah!
This process can be a difficult time of self-doubt for us - are we encouraging materialism? Does gift giving detract from the real meaning of Christmas? Do the kids get it from me - do they see my hungry eyes when I get my favorite catalogs in the mail?
We do our best to balance our wants v. needs and live within our means throughout the year, but at Christmastime we do indulge in a few of those wants. Our usual response to the "I wants" is "put it on your Christmas or birthday list"! This is definitely a time of year when I am grateful to be Catholic. We are not Puritans, nor do we indulge in rampant secularism. We take the ancient/pagan holidays, explore their history, baptize them and make them Holy Days, and celebrate them in a meaningful way. Christmas, after all, means Christ's Mass.
To fend off gift gluttony, we abide by a few ground rules. First, we pray before opening gifts. Second, we open them one at a time beginning with the child who found the Christmas pickle. Third, we remind the children to thank the giver. Fourth, we save some gifts to open on Epiphany. We thought about saving them all for Epiphany, but one of our children has a birthday very close to that date!
A few more random thoughts -
Sometime in the course of gift opening, our 5yo observed with glee, "Christmas is the only time we ALL get presents!" So funny - like it's everyone's birthday on Jesus' birthday! (although the Nativity is much more than just Jesus' birthday)
It's also funny how we buy our kids fun toys and games for Christmas, then when are adults we get "extra" things we have been putting off buying for months, years, or decades. Do you do this too?
Joe and I took advantage of sales, coupons, free shipping deals, and Kohl's discounts to splurge on many wants/needs. Firewood to fend off the inevitable sub-zero temps, bath towels to replace a faded ten year old set, jeans to replace those with gaping holes, dress pants for Joe to wear to work, boring things like that. Well, boring to the kids - not so boring to parents who have waited so long for them!
Here are a few things that have refreshed our lives ~
Immaculately new cookie sheets, non-stick pans, and spatulas to replace ten year old warped and cruddy ones -
New slippers for Joe to replace twelve year old battered ones -
New Dansko clogs to replace the worn-out eight year old pair that were hurting my feet -
And some fun Solmate socks {next best thing to Smartwool!}
Here are some quality items that were on the kids' wish lists:
A balance board -
Rush Hour game -
Musicals on DVD, including this boxed set -
Capitol and White House 3D Puzzles -
A life-sized doll! (this was a huge hit)
Yes, I realize Christmas is nearly over and none of these ideas are of any help to you for Christmas 2012, but birthdays come throughout the year so maybe some of these ideas will be helpful to you later. Since friends and family sometimes ask me about quality toys I've created a category titled "Toys, games, and gifts". Hope that helps somebody out there!
{I do receive a small commission (see disclosure at the bottom) on anything (anything!) you purchase after entering Amazon through one of my links - as long as you are on my actual blog page, not via Google reader. I tell you, this (along with a few nice comments) is a great incentive to keep blogging!}
One more thing: I did get a fun toy of my own (thanks to sales and rebates) that I have been wanting for an infinitely long time -
I am completely giddy about this! Hopefully, by my next blog post I will get past fumbling around with the lens caps and lens changes and all those buttons and actually have some pictures to share!
