In any given year it can be tricky to navigate the hustle and bustle of the holiday season with children. But add in a pandemic, disrupted routines, uncertainty, and exhaustion – it can be a perfect storm for impulse and disaster.
This year, I am challenging all of us {myself included} to make sure our families {especially our children} don’t get carried away in the commercialism and materialism of the holiday season, but instead, focus on loving, serving, sharing kindness, and giving to others.
So, what can we do?
Full disclosure: we are a work-in-progress, but here are six ideas that our family is implementing our Holiday Giving Challenge:
GIVING IDEA ONE: Do a giving challenge.
Talk to your kids about ways to give back at home and in the community and show them how they can give of themselves daily, not just around the holidays. Since our children are still young, we like to print a list of suggestions, cut them out, and put them in a jar. Each day, they can draw an idea from the jar and implement it. Here’s a printable list of ideas we like to use.
GIVING IDEA TWO: Have rules with allowances.
If your children are old enough to receive an allowance, consider implementing a rule that encourages them to divide their money into three categories: spend, save, and give. You can decide as a family how these splits will be made and used. We created a three-jar system so our oldest can physically take his money and divide it into the jars accordingly. (I think is more impactful when he is the one physically doing this.) With this system, he always knows when he has money to spend, when he has money saved and when he has money to give away.
GIVING IDEA THREE: Donate old AND new when finances allow.
Trust me, I love a good pre-holiday purge of toys, and instead of selling them, we often donate them. However, I want my children to understand that while donating our used goods is great, it’s also nice to buy and give new items to people in need when finances allow. If possible, consider adopting a family from a local Mid-Michigan school district (just call the administration offices to find needs) or from the Whaley Children’s Center. This year, we are taking our oldest shopping with us and letting him choose items for other children, so he can experience this act of giving first-hand.
GIVING IDEA FOUR: Have a Thankfulness Tree.
Last year we started a new family tradition with an old Christmas tree we had. We bought plain, plastic bulbs and started writing the names of all the people in our lives for whom we were thankful. We said a prayer of thankfulness and blessings for every person added to the tree, and as we encountered more people during the season, we added more names. As we unpacked the tree this year, it was fun to be reminded of all the people that impacted us last year and to add even more names to the tree this year.
GIVING IDEA FIVE: Follow the “Want, Need, Wear, Read” rule.
I truly love giving, so when it comes to Christmas shopping, it is easy for me to go a little crazy. Implementing the “buy something they want, need, wear, and read” method for our children has been a sanity and finance saver. This rule is a great accountability check, and I do believe it will help our children to appreciate what they get as gifts instead of being expectant and entitled.
GIVING IDEA SIX: Lead by example.
We know our children will emulate what they see from us. We are making a conscious effort to not let society’s expectations of a commercial Christmas determine our joy this season. We are committing to stopping the comparisons. We must remember that WE make the rules and traditions in our families, not pop culture.
