On Christmas Gifts

This year will be M's first Christmas, and it makes the whole season more fun, but also a chance to be strategic about setting the patterns for Christmases to come. That's not to say that everything we do this year will be guaranteed to be repeated, but I am thinking about what new traditions we want to establish. For example, we started a family gratitude turkey last month for Thanksgiving (each day of the month we wrote something that we were grateful for on a different feather). I also got us an advent calendar that walks through the nativity story, and each day in December you add a new figure to the nativity set. One of the traditions husband and I have discussed is the idea of minimalist gift giving with M. Minimalist giving involves two elements - first, setting a limit on how many gifts you purchase, and second, trying to get as many gifts second-hand as possible. Pinterest had a short poem to use with minimalist giving for kids:

Something you WANT

Something you NEED

Something to WEAR

Something to READ

(and three optional additional lines - Something to DO, Something for ME, Something for FAMILY)

This model sets up the expectation that  there aren't unlimited toys at Christmas, rather just one thing you want. And I really like that it has something to read as a part of the list, because as I've grown up I've realized I took reading for granted, assuming everyone read as much as I do - which I have found is not true! Some of my best memories are my dad reading aloud to me when I was young, which got me to want to read to myself, which introduced me to reading for pleasure - I'm hoping M feels the same and looks forward to a something to read gift each year.

So with that, here's what I've done for M's first Christmas, in line with the poem:

Something you WANT - I picked up a play toolset from our Buy Nothing group. M is a little too young to actually want anything, but this should be fun for him. Eventually we will have to decide if M writes a letter to Santa or not (I never did) for me to determine what he wants, but that's a future concern.

Something you NEED - I got M a new pair of shoes for this one, also from Buy Nothing.

Something to WEAR - Matching Christmas PJs for the family! This is one of the traditions that probably can't continue every year because husband & I don't need new PJs annually, but I wanted us to have it for this first year. And hopefully in future years I can find M pairs that are at least in the same color family, if not the exact same pattern, as the ones husband and I now own.

Something to READ - This is the one gift husband and I selected together. Part of the goal is that we will select at least one gift together in person every year, instead of always ordering online. Going and picking out the book to read with M was a great night!

Something to DO - I got M a felt Montessori style Christmas tree to decorate with velcro ornaments. I hope it's something he can enjoy playing with for many years in a row. When I was a kid my mom and dad would get us craft kits to do on Christmas day, or Lego bricks, so while I may not do this every year, I like the concept of an activity. I've already let M play with his tree this year.

Something for ME - this year it was a "my first Christmas" ornament. The idea of this one is something personalized with the kid's name, and again, isn't a part of the base poem so I don't know if we'll do it every year. I've also already hung this one on the tree, because it was as much for me as it was for M.

Something for FAMILY -  This is food or an experience gift, usually, like a family bowling trip, but for us this year I went with a second set of matching clothing items, so that we can do a photo shoot together (which will be the activity). Husband and I decided not to get each other individual gifts this year, so something for Family allows him to have something to unwrap on Christmas morning.