My goal this year is to Commit to Spend less on gifts, Give more Presence, and Love like Jesus teaching my children the true meaning of Christmas.
Today I asked my youngest if he wanted to make his Christmas list he responded with "It's so hard, are we really only getting three gifts?" I used this as a teaching opportunity asking him why we celebrate Christmas, asking him for his ideas of what could we do this year to give more presence and love like Jesus would to others and to our family. We discussed ideas such as delivering treats to our local firemen, collecting food for those who may not have a Christmas meal as he will and taking time for others. It was fun to see him beginning to get it - That Christmas is not all about the gifts and what we get but about celebrating the best gift that was given to us Jesus.
Looking forward to the days ahead as I continue to find ways to teach my kids the true meaning of Christmas.
Have you seen this You Tube video on the Advent Conspiracy - it just might inspire you to join my family this Christmas as we Spend less on gifts, Give more Presence, and Love like Jesus
I'm pretty much doing the same thing with my daughter. I want her to know the reason we celebrate Christmas. In addition to the three gifts, we will bake a cake on Christmas Eve for Jesus's birthday. We will then sing Happy Birthday on Christmas day with candles lite in celebration of Jesus's day. I think there's too many out there loosing site of the real reason for the season.
ReplyDeleteIt must be very internally satisfying to know you're doing right by your children. :) Teaching the true meaning of Christmas is really wonderful. Kudos to you for putting the secular in second place, where it should be.
ReplyDeleteI started years ago limiting the amount of gifts my children receive and I asked relatives to not go overboard with their gifts to my children, also. My kids get 5 gifts each and at least one is a book and one is a clothing item. We focus on Christmas as a holiday to celebrate Jesus's birthday (with cupcakes), as a time to spend with family and friends and a time to reflect on the many blessings in our life. I have found that with the smaller number of gifts my children really appreciate and enjoy the presents they receive and we are all a little happier for not having gone overboard trying to buy out the stores. This year money is really tight and I am thankful that we have this tradition, because there is no way I could provide a pile of presents this year.
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