What are some of your fondest Christmas memories? Traditions? Caroling? Making candy? School programs? Church pageants and cantatas? Parades and floats? Shopping? Decorating? A gift? Christmas lights? Sounds and smells?
Whatever you chose, it was something evicting a strong emotion involving people you care about.
What causes you worry and stress during the holidays? Probably finding the right gift, having enough presents, and making sure your gift is liked. Yet gifts were probably at the bottom of your memory list.
Why, then, do we spend so much time doing what stresses us that no one will remember? We even go in debt for these gifts.
There is another way.
Since Jesus was God’s gift to us and it is His birthday, why not make memories with our gift giving? It’s less stressful and way more fun!
Doing this helps our kids focus on the true meaning of Christmas, over gifts they want.
Gift-Giving Memory-Makers:
- Focus on buying for others
- Create / decorate uniquely wrapped presents
- Play games when opening presents
Focus on Giving to Others
No matter the age, it does the heart good to think about others and put them first before our wants.
Special purchases
Every child loves for a parent to take them shopping for the other parent. They love drawing names for a cousin and buying for grandparents. Some enjoy buying for teachers, coaches, or church leaders.
Community
- buy for a toy drive
- buy a coat or gloves for a child at school or a homeless shelter
- donate a toy to a shelter for abused women or toward children whose parents are in prison
- tree angel gift
- food for local pantry
- blankets for recovery houses
- homemade cards, coloring books, or lotions to nursing home residents
Other Ideas
• kids can do a Samaritan’s Purse shoebox for a child their age in November.
• Older children might prefer ringing a bell for the Salvation Army
• If a grandparent has everything or is deceased, give a monetary donation to their favorite charity in their honor.
Gift Wrapping
• make a memorable wrapping party with snacks and music. Assist when necessary and compete with older children.
• Wrapping in different papers – comics, sports pages, grocery sacks or butcher paper. Decorate with paint, crayons, highlighters, stamps, or stickers. Dip objects in paint for a print or roll a car – even blow a design with a straw.
• Create special bows, using wonderful Pinterest ideas.
• Trick someone – hide a gift inside an empty box from their favorite snack or electronics. Hide smaller boxes inside of bigger ones
Games for Opening Gifts
While children may not always remember what their gift is, they are sure to remember the games played to open them, and what fun it was.
• Give clues to hidden presents. Our kids like it when we buy one present that is alike and hide them. They race to be the first to find their treasure.
• Give a child a scripture reference for each gift to locate the package displaying that verse.
• Hand your child a Bible fact to match with the person or place on their package
• Younger children can match colors (crayon or balloon to a construction paper square) or numbers with pictures of that many objects (or number words). They can be given a shape or a letter and find the identical one as well.
• If educated-minded, you can create individualized math problems they will match to the correct answer on a gift that is theirs. The same could be done with scrambled words and words on the packages. Utilize trivia from sports or movies if you like.
• Play “Name that Tune.” Put titles of favorite movies or old TV shows on gifts, then play a clip for a particular child whose turn it is, and they have to find the right gift.
• Buy a small puzzle everyone would like. Match two pieces for every gift. Tape one on the gift and put the other in an envelope for each family member to give to on their turn. By the end, the family has put a puzzle together. This is my sister-in-law’s favorite game my brother thought of.
When a gift is too large to wrap or hide, make a list of special instructions for your child to do while you go grab their gift. (i.e. sing Happy birthday” to Jesus three times, exercises, sort shoes, tell jokes, or brush your hair fifty times).
The ideas are endless!
I pray some of these ideas will make memories for your family in your gift-giving this year forward.
May you enjoy time together celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – with less stress.
Merry Christmas.
Thanks for sharing these ideas with your friends. Please add other ones in the comments.
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© 2024, Jena Fellers. All rights reserved.
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