After everything was added up, Kyle and I spent exactly $0 on gifts we are giving our children.
To clarify, the gifts we are giving them weren’t free either, because we aren’t giving our kids gifts for Christmas.
When we celebrated our first Christmas as a family, with a baby, he had everything he needed, didn’t play with toys yet, and wouldn’t be able to open gifts. So, I didn’t buy anything.
Then year two came and we witnessed our second round of how much joy it brought our family to give a gift to a child. They bring the heat… intensely! Our kids had enough that adding more to the pile felt like they wouldn’t notice it anyway.
Now on year four, the tradition we didn’t plan to start feels right. Feels like it will fit us again this season.
I have tried diligently to keep our Christmas focus on Jesus, first, and giving to others second. I’m avoiding the me, me, me trap that could easily suck us in on this holiday.
In an effort to build a closer relationship between siblings and to teach a love + awareness of others we are assisting the kids in gifting to each other.
We need to keep practicing and revisiting what it means to put others first…
I ordered clips to keep Karsyn’s bangs out of her eyes because she needed them. $10 from Etsy and then explained to Kade that he could give them to Karsyn. He is super excited! I think wrapping them together will help build even more excitement! Will see if he thinks that’s enough or if he can think of something else she would like.
The plan is to take Karsyn to Runnings to pick a toy for Kade. Odds could go either way if that ends well.
Still undecided on how to go about having them get a gift for Kooper. As of now, I’m planning to ask their ideas, then follow their lead.
Perhaps I should have prefaced this at the beginning, but you should also know — I’m a gifter. I love finding the perfect gift and delivering joy to people. LOVE.
When I find something that my kids would love, I buy it and gift it right away. There is so much joy in making random weekdays special by opening packages together rather than stashing them away to open all at once on a holiday.
The packages they usually receive are something they need anyway; clothes in a bigger size, new shoes for the season, or something else they need at home.
We run an extremely thin toy lineup here. It’s served us well to keep it lean which means we don’t buy new toys, books or puzzles often. When we do, it’s fun to pick them out together at the store and bring them home.
This method might not serve us forever, but for this year, again, they will have enough and I’ll continue to try to foster the gift of giving more than receiving.
