Giving Meaningful Presents for Christmas

We all love to give presents for Christmas. We like to receive presents, too. But sometimes I find that the real joy is in spending time with my family. All those little wrapped packages are fun, but more than that, they’re a reason to spend time together. We make the gift opening last as long as possible because every second it continues is a second we’re together with no other obligations.

Sometimes, though, that translates to a lot of stuff you don’t really want or need and feel obligated to keep. I hate giving gifts like that. So this year, I really thought about it and decided that neither I nor my kids need a bunch more clutter in our house. Instead, we’re going to focus on meaningful presents for Christmas. If you want to try it with us, here’s the list we came up with.

Giving meaningful presents for Christmas

Here are some meaningful gifts my family is giving this year!

1. Handmade items, especially edibles

When you take the time to make something, it means something special. When you take the time to make something edible, it’s delicious and doesn’t clutter up the house. Plus, depending when you give it, it may be a load off a busy hostess’ mind in the holiday season.

2. Charitable gifts

My kids love those catalogs where you can pick presents for Christmas overseas. My son ‘gave’ his sister a set of soccer balls for a village in Africa. To make it  more special for her, he drew a picture of the kids playing soccer and carefully wrapped it so she’ll still have something to open on Christmas morning.

3. Making room

Let’s say you just can’t face Christmas without boxes of toys and stuff to open. That’s OK — you can still add some meaning to the holiday season and clear out your closets besides. As a family, go through your rooms and find a pile of donations — clothes, toys, books, etc. — that you don’t need anymore. Give these gently used items to charity. Or, hold a mid-winter garage sale for friends and family and use the proceeds to buy toys for charity.

4. Themed gifts

Another idea to give more meaning to gifts: have the whole family collaborate on a gift for one person. For example, if you buy your daughter an Xbox, grandparents could buy a Kinect and siblings could pitch in for a game. It shows that the whole family was thinking of her and creates that fun feeling of Christmas secrecy.

So this year, let’s abandon that last minute mad Christmas rush. Instead of buying dozens of unnecessary gifts, buy a few presents with meaning, or better still, focus on handmade items and charitable giving. You’ll be surprised at how even the youngest children enjoy these presents for Christmas.

 

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