Danny and I have been going to a parenting class twice a month. We LOVE it. Last week they spoke about responsibility and work. One idea really stuck with me and I wanted to share it. It is about teaching your kids the lesson (and blessings) of giving and the lesson of grateful receiving.
They have twin daughters. When their girls were 5, they made their little Christmas Lists filled with inexpensive trivial things. Their mom didn't see any reason not to get everything on the list because it wasn't much to begin with. She completed her shopping. Christmas morning the girls were complaining about not getting some of the things on their lists--she had forgotten that she put some of the gifts in her closet! She went and got them and the girls were happy. Afterward she thought about the situation and decided that this is not how she wanted Christmas to feel. It was supposed to be about giving. Gifts were things meant to be chosen and given by the giver, not selected off of a list provided by the receiver.
The next year, Christmas lists were banned (never to be let into the house again). She had all of her kids wrap the gifts they had bought to give in the same wrapping paper (so each child had a pile of gifts with their own colored paper). Then on Christmas morning, everyone collected the gifts they had purchased/made from under the tree and each person had the opportunity to give their gifts--not having them dolled out by papa. In turn, each person was able to really receive the gifts as well--physically--from that person.
I LOVED this idea and we have decided to do this with our kids.
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3 comments:
I have mixed feelings about the Christmas wish lists. I guess my issue is that I hate giving something that isn't going to be wanted/used. Ideally, though, you would sleuth and figure out what the person truly wanted . . . those are the best gifts to give and receive!
I do agree with the whole philosophy of giving and receiving though. It's definitely how I was raised: returning a gift someone gave you was never an option!
i love this idea for little kids! i really, really like the idea of helping your children to understand and really personally feeling the concept of giving a gift. i think we're definitely going to implement this idea in our house at christmas. i can see how it wouldn't always work during some stages in life (like when you're kids are all grown and no one's home), but when you have little kids growing up, i think it is fantastic. thanks for sharing!
I think this is so brilliant! Ryan read this post a couple of days ago and we've been talking about what we want to do too. Jo's birthday is next week and we keep asking her what she wants. But now she thinks she's getting what she's asked for. It just shouldn't be like that. Thanks for sharing!
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