Thursday, November 18, 2010

How much do Kids really need??

Last year I felt a little overwhelmed with presents for the kids. I had a few presents for them and then i would think "oh, they would love this and I haven't gotten them hardly anything." So I would get it and by Christmas and between all the grandparents, Christmas parties, and friends gifts we had way too many things. I had heard my Aunt Tatha did Christmas a lot simpler and so I asked and thought I would share...

You get 3 gifts:

Wonder: wrapped in Gold (this is something really exciting or that they really want)
Usefulness: wrapped in Green like the earth (maybe clothing or other items they need)
Meaning or Love: wrapped in Red (this is often the hardest- I am thinking of doing a picture of Christ for each of the girls bedrooms.)

These 3 gifts are from you and the stocking is from Santa! There is a song that says that all SANTA really does is the stocking. Which I think is a great idea. So that is what we will be doing this year. I can't wait. I might do one other gift from Santa that wouldn't fit in the stocking (but that is for sure a maybe). Something unwrapped. We shall see. Hopefully this Christmas will be a lot simpler and more meaningful. Now if only I can decide what to get Adam and our families.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

5 comments:

Sandy said...

I am really glad you posted this. We didn't do Santa in my family and once I married Mike and saw how much his nieces and nephews got, I was blown away by the extravagance. I never realized.

With Olivia she gets 1 really big thing from Santa and maybe 1 or 2 small items. Mike seems to be okay with it. I guess I don't feel comfortable having Olivia think that she will get a massive amounts of toys/stuff from Santa during Christmas. Between grandparents and aunts/uncles she will receive plenty.

Tiffany said...

I like that idea... I thought about doing something like that for our kids... This year I got Cooper some Christmas pajamas and that's it. I think until they are older and in school they don't even care anyway. Once they do get older that thing would work really good and they would know what to expect every year

stef j. said...

ooh i LOVE this!!

Brooke said...

And I have stuck to it. I got fun things for the stocking and a unwrapped gift they will both share from Santa and the three gifts from Adam and I. I will let you know how it goes.

Shelly Traveller said...

We are doing this as well! Do you know where I can find that song? There is a great book called A Christ Centered Christmas that Leanne gave us for Thanksgiving that has some really great traditions and suggests the three gifts, love it!