I've noticed an influx of posts from newish parents about to celebrate one of their kid's first--or early years-- Christmas and having conflicting feelings on how to manage gifts, family, Santa, consumerism, and all the rest.A lot of people don't like the consumerism of the holiday and are uncomfortable with the idea of "managing" the presents they get from family.I want you to know, I was like you once. I was very particular about clothing styles, toys, and the idea of "too much". He doesn't NEED all this STUFF....and here comes grandma with her crazy, plastic light-up noise machine that goes against all of my special snowflake Montessori philosophy!One post in particular was like, "we are really frugal, buy-as-you-go people" and didn't see the point in celebrating the holiday. Some people are atheists.I ask you: are you just against having any surprises or any gift-giving in your lives? Because almost everything I am giving my kids for Christmas are needed, practical items.Allow me to share what we have gotten our children for Christmas, Boy 6 and Girl 4:STOCKINGSCrayola Crayons (we live outside the US, and my kids are literally down to 6 crayons in their art box. Crayola crayon boxes are, what? $5 max?)Dollar store stickersBrain Quest (We take a lot of road trips and international plane trips, and I loved Brain Quest as a kid!)SOCKS. Yes. Socks. New socks. My kids will actually show happiness about this, too. You know why? Because you can have Christmas without having spoiled children. Each child will get one pack of plain socks for school, and a small pack of novelty socks for fun. Legitimately, they are running low on socks. I would have gotten them anyways. Except now I am wrapping them in a stocking and making it fun! What's wrong with fun?Water Bottles. Yes, water bottles. They need them for school and the ones we have now are not practical for their backpacks...we will still use the old ones for hikes and activities, but both children have complained about the ones they have leaking at school. I bought 2 replacements for $6 each. It's a legitimate need. Except again, I'm just making it more fun. Again, are you taking some kind of unique stance against society to prove a point? Or are you just against fun? It kind of sounds like you're against fun.Dice game for my son. He likes numbers, we camp a lot....perfect camping game for the family. It's 3 dice and a booklet. Retailed for maybe $4?Go fish card game for my daughter. Again, camping and traveling. A very useful tool to keep the kids under control during long car rides, in foreign countries where we don't have immediate access to a playground.ACTUAL GIFTSBackpacks. My kids have really cute ones from SkipHop that they have had for 3 years. I was using them as a lunch box for them during preschool. This year it has become apparent they have outgrown their use for school--each child has a large folder that needs to come to and from school every day, and they are too big for the backpacks they have now. 3 years of lunches has left them smelling absolutely disgusting, despite frequent washing. We travel a lot and it would be more convenient to be able to bring bigger backpacks they can carry with their snacks and games for plane rides and vacations.Lunch boxes. Neither kid has ever had a lunch box. They will go ape shit.Electric toothbrushes. Yes, really. We've been using battery powered ones for about 6 months and I hate them. The batteries run out constantly, and the heads are not disposable, which means every time they need a new toothbrush I have to buy a whole other unit. No longer! I got ones with a charging stand and disposable heads. My dentist is very pleased with my choice.New sweater. Each child has outgrown their sweaters that we use seasonally. We haven't bought new ones in about 3 years. Again, we travel a lot and camp frequently so good sweaters come in handy although we live in a warm country. Each sweater has a fun design (animal-themed).Family will get them presents as well. You know what you do when you get a gift that makes you cringe inside? You act like an adult and you say "Thank you" with grace and gratitude, and then hide the toy from your kid as soon as you get the chance. Then donate it to Goodwill. This is a LPT that will save you so much emotional energy, fighting, power struggles, and bad feelings. Let grandma just get the kids those ridiculous light-up crappy plastic things. You can either get rid of them, or one day a few weeks from now have them as a special "grandma's house" toy! It's fine.Like many of you, I am very turned off by the whole "circling in the toy magazine, I WANT I WANT" consumerist hype with Christmas. You CAN celebrate Christmas without having to turn your child's life into one big philosophical statement about society. You CAN have fun and make special memories without spoiling your children. You CAN actually enjoy gift giving and sharing memories with your child without alienating yourself from your entire family. I promise. You can do that.Christmas can be fun, and gift-giving can be practical. It's totally fine to wait a few months before buying a needed replacement toy (For those "buy-as-you-need" folks) in order to make the giving more fun. Fun does not mean rabid consumerism.I had a Facebook friend recently post a picture of her 5 year old posing with a PS4 and her caption was something like..."I'm a sucker! Just bought him his big Christmas present early! AGAIN!" I mean....eww, right? You don't have to be like that. You don't have to give in to your child's pleading for every new thing in order to have a fun holiday. You don't have to buy your kid a PS4. My 6 year old doesn't even know what those are. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2hR80Tp
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