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Having recently moved house and packed all our belongings up into boxes, I have come to the realisation (once again!) that our kids really don’t need anything for Christmas. As I packed up the children’s bedrooms a few months ago, I found lots of broken knick-knacks and toys that I had stuck in their Christmas stockings last Christmas, and it was again another reminder of the fact that so often these little gifts we buy them, while fun to open on Christmas Day, clutter our spaces and end up in landfill eventually.
This year we’ve decided that Santa will come and fill their stockings (as he does every year), but we’ve asked Santa to bring only practical things: water bottles, books, knitting yarn, socks, undies, playing cards, lip balms, zinc sticks, surf wax, etc. You know those wooden rackets with bouncing balls? Or Whoopie cushions? Or those little plastic guys with sticky limbs that climb down windows? Those were the types of things my parents put in our stockings and I have always put into the kids’ stockings, but this year I am breaking tradition and skipping these altogether.
In addition to the stocking gifts, Michael and I have decided to give the kids each one gift. Just one! We’ll give them something special or substantial that they will love and use throughout the year. Quin is getting a new penny skateboard, for example. Easton is getting a waterproof camera, which he needs for his big Year 8 project next year. Ivy has asked for a polaroid camera. Wilkie is getting a Tonka dump truck. And I still need to figure out what I’m getting for Marlow (it was just recently her birthday, so she really doesn’t need anything!).
When I was little, my siblings and I would each receive around 10 gifts on Christmas, and it would often take us hours to open presents on Christmas morning. My parents would give us several gifts each, and then we’d get gifts from grandparents and aunts and uncles and god parents, etc. (I come from a big family!!) When I think back to my childhood Christmases, it actually makes me sick to think of all the stuff we got each year. I always piled up my presents in my bedroom on Christmas afternoon after we finished unwrapping gifts, and often that pile of stuff would sit in my bedroom for months. There was one Christmas where, I’m embarrassed to admit, I remember taking note that my pile was smaller than some of my siblings, and it affected my overall happiness and impression of that Christmas. Of course I know, and have always known, that Christmas isn’t just about the gifts… but still, as a child, there was a correlation between presents and happiness on Christmas.
This is, I suppose, what I am hoping to avoid with my own children. I want them all to be super excited for Christmas, and I want it to feel magical and exciting and worth the big countdown… and yet, I don’t want their happiness to be tied to the number of gifts they receive.
I guess maybe it’s about lowering their expectations. We’ve never given them heaps of presents, but in years past they’d each get a few. This year, they know they are getting one. We’ve explained that they already have enough toys and tutus and craft sets, and they just don’t need more of those sorts of things. Thankfully, I really think our kids are totally onboard, especially the older ones.
I’m thinking we might, in addition, do a family gift exchange where we all draw a name out of a bowl and have to make a present for whomever we choose. This is a nice way to get the kids into the giving spirit and to show them how fun it is to make a present for someone, to wrap it up nicely and to be excited about giving it to your special person on Christmas Day.
I’m curious how it works in your family? How many gifts do you buy your kids? Do you do a gift exchange? What type of gifts does Santa bring?
Courtney x
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