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.