joni470 Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 ...every year I try to come up with some way to focus on the reason for the season. I am looking for new creative ideas and your thoughts on presents for the children. We've scaled way back but I'd still like to see an improvement. Thanks Savannah http://www.hammocktracks.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 It sort of depends on what you see as the reason for the season. If it is the birth of Christ, then going to a Christmas pageant, going caroling, putting up a special nativity might be ideas. If it is charity/goodwill to man, then spreading some of that charity and goodwill would be the way to go. Did you want the presents to tie into the reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cougarmom4 Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 Dh and I have decided we're going to really focus on giving this year--giving from the heart. One thing we are trying this year is to give homemade gifts to one another. It seems that with our kids we tend to take them to the store, let them pick something out for each other under a certain budget, pay for it, they wrap it up, and it means hardly anything to them. We've tried having them earn money to pay for the gifts they give, but it doesn't always work out well either. Our idea this year is to have each child make something for the other kids, M&D, and grandparents. We'll help with ideas, how-to's, and help with the purchasing of materials. We want it to be something that will take a little time and be useful and be meaningful. The kids don't know this yet and I'm not so sure how excited they'll be at first, but we're hoping they catch the vision of giving from the heart rather than focusing so much on the 'gimmes' and 'gotchas'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMW Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 A favorite memory when the kids were little... We didn't want them to grow up having a pile of presents on Christmas morning. So, to control that area of the season we would keep an eye on the number of presents that they were acquiring... and we'd pass out a present to them after dinner in the evening. You have to stay with me here and get the big picture. If a box came in from grandparents, we'd enjoy a nice dinner, light candles, sing some Christmas songs and share a present with them and talk about WHO sent it and have them be thankful. As I said, we'd keep an eye on how many presents there were and our goal was to have them open one present an evening and save a special one for Christmas morning. This worked beautifully because they learned to stop and think about who sent them something. And it made the Christmas season SO much more than one morning's focus. We'd always try to make it to a Christmas Contata or musical. We'd play favorite movies. Lots of music. To me, Christmas is it's own season... for several days... and this year I am going to try to plan special things for the day AFTER Christmas because all too often it seems like Christmas ends after the 25th.... Just my thoughts... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in AZ Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 How old are your dc? I love traditions that help us to stay focused on Jesus. Every year we celebrate Advent. Here are some of our Christmas traditions. We try to give experience gifts, such as tickets to see a musical with grandparents. One year, my dd received The Year of the Dollhouse. She loved that gift! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elise1mds Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 We are making these (http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/marblemagnets/) for the family this year. The kids are going to help. The cost to make 50 of them was about $20. The kids are going to decide what goes on the magnets, whether it's specific images for a person (one of my BILs is a *huge* OU fan, so the kids are thinking of doing his name in red and white lettering with the OU logo on two magnets to go around it) or whatever else. Between that and the bread I make every year, those will be the family gifts. I am also going to insist that we stay HOME on Christmas Day this year. We did that last year when a blizzard blew in and cancelled Christmas dinner, and it was lovely to spend an entire day with just us and not have to host or go anywhere. We broke out the china and turned on some music and just had a quiet day of family time. We have several other traditions that we follow as well. I leave the tree up till Epiphany, and I'd like to start a Twelfth Night tradition before taking the tree down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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