Tell me if this is bad - we're not doing much for him for Christmas this year. And probably will not many other years, either. His birthday is Jan 12, so we didn't want to bombard him with useless crap - and have asked our parents to respect that, as well. We're getting him the 4-wheeler, some VegiTales books and DVD's (I bought them at Church yesterday!) and some sort of little Fisher Price or Leap Frog toy (I'll let him play with it in the store before I make my decision). That's not much. But, he has whatever he needs, whenever he needs it. And, he'll be 11 months old, so he totally doesn't care. And, I don't want it to be about "stuff".
When he gets older, we're going to let him pick out an animal each Christmas from The Heifer Foundation to help children who are not as fortunate as he is...and at the same time, get the point across that Christmas isn't about seeing how much mess we can cram into his bedroom. Now, don't get me wrong, Brian & I are not going to deprive our little guy of things he really and truly wants. But, there's got to be a limit.
I was going thru a few boxes at my mom's house last weekend looking for something specific. I couldn't get to ANYTHING because of all the crap I had left down there for her to store. Useless items that I had forgotten about, and now can't even remember why I kept it. I don't want Braiden to get lost in the hoopla...so we're going to try our very best at teaching him early.
.........I have absolutely no idea what I'm up against!
5 comments:
I struggle with this as well - not making Christmas about the gifts. We really want our kids to know that Christmas is about Christ and giving than Santa and lots of presents. Each Christmas Eve we act out the nativity story with a plastic nativity set I have so Gage can play long too. It's hard though, because all the toys are sooo cute and they love them so much!
The four wheller pictures are soo CUTE!
Oh, I really struggle with this!! I hate how expensive and commercialized Christmas is....yet I have been so guilty of buying TOO MUCH for my kids in the past. It is so hard b/c all the toys are so cool, and its stuff I wish I'd had. BUT....that isn't teaching them to appreciate. This year I am going to take the kids shopping with their allowance they have saved to pick out toys for a toy drive at church.
Oh, and you can tell grandparents all day long not to go overboard....but they still do anyway!
Yes...but, if they do, they'd better have room for it at their house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, I'm so not kidding!
I am this way. I don't do big Christmas. I don't want them to get caught up in the gifts they recieve from us but the one we recieved from God. I also don't want something to happen one day to where I can't do a big Christmas and then they (and I) feel awful about it. I think teaching our children to give is much better.
I work hard too not to make it all about the gifts. Before every birthday and Christmas we clean out gently used toys that we don't play with anymore and carry them to a shelter nearby. I also want them to realize what a blessing it is that we have the things we do and that everyone doesn't have things they need. I want them to be giving and help others. I can already see these traits in Isaiah that have blossomed and Eli is learning too. The boys can't play but with so much so I ask my family to buy to keep at their house since they will want toys to play with when at their house anyways. It has worked well so far. Another thing I struggle with is being sure we are keeping toys age appropriate and not rushing them to grow up. I think that is why a lot of kids are board these days they have gotten too many things too soon. Hopefully that makes sense. I love the four wheeler pictures and by the way going to Toys R Us gets to be more fun and more of a work out too LOL!
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