Christmas - Some helpful tips & tricks
Christmas! For a family of 6 it is an expensive time… whichever way you look at it… but it doesn’t have to be overwhelmingly so, with some planning and the building of family traditions.
GIFTS…
When I was teaching in a primary setting, a parent once mentioned in passing a solution to keeping Christmas under control. You may have come across it yourself.
The kids each receive something from the following…
Something they want
Something they need
Something to wear
Something to read
When our kids were little my husband and I decided that WE wanted to get the accolades on Christmas morning, rather than our friend in the red suit, so we made the call to keep the stockings super simple - just one gift.
Is Santa stingy? Nah, but he has to get things to all the children in the world, so it makes sense to just get one thing from him. We make sure it’s something around the $25 mark but it’s something that is really wanted, so each child feels known.
This year, with our kids being 4, 5, 6 and 8 we split a page into 4 sections and they each gave me ideas for what they wanted (they could give more than one idea but I made it clear they would be getting ONE of these), something they needed eg a drink bottle, watch etc, something to wear eg a party dress/shoes and something to read - they gave me ideas of books they love at the moment.
TRADITIONS…
Family traditions are easy and inexpensive to establish and build upon. They help create wonder and delight in this special season and give children a sense of security and expectation. Here are a few that come to mind…
Putting up/decorating the Christmas tree TOGETHER. Allowing your children to participate in this, (rather than mum creating her perfectly symmetrical Christmas tree… as much as I’d LOVE this haha) allows the kids to participate in the delight and creation of something they can all enjoy and be proud of.
The person in our family who helps the most gets to put the star on the top of the tree!
The Christmas table - each year a little side board is set up with Christmas books, a nativity scene to play with, the Christmas Craft Project book (DK) and Christmas colouring/activity books. The kids love interacting with these things and gets them engaged in the season.
The Christmas Eve Box - the same Christmassy box comes out each year on Christmas Eve for us to open together as a family.
Inside it has: New PJs (Christmas themed), a Christmas book to add to our Christmas book collection, some kind of decoration/Christmas thing to add to our collection and a Christmas DVD, which has now been replaced with a family board game to play together due to the nature of streaming services!
Sibling gifts - The kids give each other the ‘read’ component of the Christmas presents and wrap this up for their sibling of choice. They LOVE this and I’m really hoping this little tradition will continue on well into adult-hood.
If you haven’t made a plan for Christmas, it’s not too late!
Some helpful questions may be…
Do you have any boundaries around your shopping that help you?
Do you have any little Christmas traditions? If not, what could you start this year that is simple and special for your family?
Just some food for thought…
Merry Christmas! x