Friday, December 9, 2016

Christmas Giving

cookies for the neighbor
I want my son to be raised thinking of Christmas as a time for giving and not just receiving. But Christmas to a little one can certainly seem like a time for getting. The magical month of December when presents are being given to you left and right; We have a Christmas party this weekend. Little Abe will receive a few gifts there. We will be going to another Christmas party next weekend and he'll get a few more. The weekend after that he'll open a few presents at a Christmas Eve party, even more on Christmas morning, and more still when we go to my in-law's house Christmas afternoon. My dad's family's Christmas party is not happening this year but you can generally add that to the regular list of gift stops.

I honestly don't remember Christmas being like this when I was little but we also didn't live near extended family. It seems crazy to me. I love how excited he is at every gift. I love how truly amazing the whole month of December is for him. I love to see that playing with his cousins is just as much fun for him as receiving new gifts but back to where I started, I'm trying my hardest to remind him that Christmas is a time for giving too.

We've certainly been talking about giving and talking about the gift that God gave us. The reason we celebrate Christmas, the gift of Jesus's birth. This whole month we've been finding little ways to give. Last week we went through all of Little Abe's books and picked five to donate to the little free library at the elementary school near our house. The little free library is just a box, kind of like a mailbox in front of the school where people can leave books for others to read, or take books to look at themselves. We've borrowed books from the library box before. We return them when we're done with them but this is the first time we've given books of our own to it. Little Abe really enjoyed giving away books for other kids to read.


A few days ago he made an adorable card to mail to someone, a Christmas card from specifically him. He's planning on making a few more. He'll probably send a card to each of his cousins. I think he is realizing that making a card for someone and then getting to mail it to them is a pretty fun way to give something small to someone else.

We also went through his room and took out many, many toys that he no longer plays with, toys he's grown out of. He likes the idea of giving them away to other kids who will enjoy playing with them. I just have to figure out the best way to donate them or who we know that might like some of them.

We've made cookies twice and both times planned to bring them to our neighbor. The first time I wasn't happy with how they turned out. Go figure right, the time you plan on giving them away they don't turn out well. The second batch was very involved. We made cut out cookies from my Grandmother's recipe box. They are the same cookies I made each year as a kid with my mom. Abe helped the whole time, mixing, rolling, cutting, and sprinkling. We brought them over to our neighbor's house today. I think that was the first time this year either of us said Merry Christmas to anyone. 

making peanut butter balls
There are some really fun lists online of giving ideas, things I would have never thought of. We plan to put many of the ideas to use this month. One of my favorites (something I can't imagine I would ever in a million years think of on my own) is to leave a note at houses with really great Christmas lights thanking the homeowners for putting up such beautiful lights/ decorations for everyone to see. I think that's such a neat idea. Two of our neighbors across the street have lights up that little Abe really likes so hopefully we'll stop a note over at their homes this week.

Of course there will be more cookie making, more Christmas card crafting, and more brainstorming but Christmas this year will be a time for giving and something about that just makes me so much more excited for Christmas. It is better to give then to receive.

8 comments:

  1. AS you know I love Advent! This period of waiting before Christmas is very special and I've signed up to an Advent Challenge. It's different everyday but each day there is a Bible passage and then a challenge about giving or caring for others and I'm finding it fantastic.

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    1. We definitely didn't observe Advent when I was a kid but it's certainly turning into my favorite part of Christmas. Doing something in observation each day of the month before the actual Christmas day comes IS fantastic.

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  2. Oh, and I love reading about the exciting things you do with your son!

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  3. Your plans are great! We are lucky in that our kids get a relatively modest number of gifts. I actually got more growing up due to the number of relatives that exchanged & both sets of my grandparents/aunts/uncles lived nearby. Because M's family is out of the country, and most adults agree not to exchange at all, it really limits the gifts. Which I LOVE! The kids are old enough to understand. This year, they worked hard on report cards, chores, etc & earned almost $100/each. They were able to put part of that money straight into their college account, decide how much to donate to their school toy drive, and then spend the rest on gifts for their family. It's been really fun to watch.

    I love the idea of making their own cards. Nick is super crafty, so I'll have to ask him if he'd like to do that one.

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    1. Yeah, I didn't live by extended family growing up. The opposite is true for my son. All of his aunts and uncles and grandparents live quite close. It's wonderful really but boy does December involve A LOT of gifts. I'm certainly not complaining but I do think it can blow things out of perspective for a little one.

      I know that today's youth aren't as "in to" mail as older generations were. But I still think it's fun for kids to be able to send and certainly to receive mail of their own. I bet Nick would really like making a few cards to give from just himself.

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  4. Kudos to you and your Christmas plans. A giving heart has to be developed and you are doing a fine job developing one!

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    1. Thank-you so much. I feel like the holidays can be so, go, go, go, get, get, get. I want to focus each day on slowing down a little and on giving to others.

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