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| Christmas 2010 |
Christmas and kids. This is kinda a hot button issue with me. These days kids get a lot of crap toys for Christmas. Where do you draw the line? How much is too much? I don't really know the answer to these questions but I can tell you what we are trying to do in our home.
Lilly usually gets one big gift (and by big I mean in size, not dollar amount) and then a few little things. Last year Ben and I (err... I mean Santa) gave her a tent and some blocks and... I CAN"T EVEN REMEMBER! That kinda proves my point though doesn't it? I can't even remember what we gave her that isn't pictured. She also received Christmas presents from her grandmas and aunts and uncles so she still had more then enough when all was said and done. I guess what my point is (since I haven't really stated it) is that as parents we should teach our kids that their are more important things this time of year then getting the newest toy. If we always get them the latest and greatest (and lots of other stuff too) aren't we setting them up to become greedy and/or materialistic? In the end gifts are fun but they aren't really important (I mean, sometimes we can't even remember what they were). Instead I hope to teach Lilly things like generosity, the importance of family and tradition, and what real joy is like.
I certainly don't have it all figured out. She may be too young this year to grasp concepts like generosity but by setting a standard she will grow to understand when she gets older. My prayer for Lilly at Christmas time is that, in the new year, she will have a renewed spirit and joy. That she will be even more in love with her family and that she will understand that real and lasting happiness comes from the ones you love and not from what is under the Christmas tree.
♥
that is one awesome tent!
ReplyDeleteour problem doesn't lie in what WE get our kids, but what our relatives do. my mom tends to go overboard with the kids, and there has been more than one occasion that we couldn't put everything in the back or our element when it was time to go home.
I 100% agree with you, I mean with me growing up we were always on welfare (when we lived with our dad and step mom) so christmas was more of a shameful time because all the kids around us got all the greatest and latest thing. We were lucky to get anything at all. Then when I got older and became a believer I was confused with christmas, its taking forever for my heart to catch up with my head as to why we celebrate christmas the way we do. Its easier for me to be over the moon for Easter than Christmas.
ReplyDeleteBut Judah won't get a billion gifts, although my love language is gifts and I love to give them. But I don't want to spoil him and have him think that Christmas is just all about only gifts.
Hopefully I raise him right in this, Im thinking of starting a tradition of giving away a big chunk of his toys/gifts ect maybe in November a month before Christmas (and his birthday that is in december)
I'm not anywhere even near being a mom, but I love reading your blog and your thoughts on all of these parenting things. I love that you actually sit and contemplate so many different aspects of raising Lilly. I think you are an amazing mother, and Lilly is going to be a wonderful person because of that. <3
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