Christmas and Stuff

My kids have never really believed in Santa - and we have never pushed the issue.  Somehow they've always known that Santa isn't real.  Whenever they would ask, (which was never very often) we would tell them that mom and dad buy their presents.  Now that they are older (10 &13) they are past that age anyway.  We have told them the basic story of the real St. Nicholas - but somehow over the years Christmas has turned into a ME frenzy.

What we have tried to teach them over the years, is that Christmas isn't about them.  We want our girls to have generous hearts despite our innate selfishness.  I don't think that Christmas is the only time of year, you should promote this idea, but Christmas time is always a good reminder time of year.

For us, Christmas is about Jesus - His birth, and that is what we rememeber and celebrate on Christmas.  I'm not saying that my kids don't get presents - because they do.  They are blessed little girls with lots of grandparents that like to spoil them.  But that needs to be balanced out.  We are blessed to be a blessing, and while we definitely don't have tons - we have more than alot of people.

So this year, we are going to start a new tradition with the girls.  We are going to give them each a set amount of $, and they will get to pick how they want to spend the money (the focus of course being someone else - with some guidance from us).  Brandon and I try to demonstrate this for them through the year - whether it's buying someones meal in line behind us at the drive through, or giving the homeless man on the corner a value meal for lunch.  Our kids have started looking for those little opportunities to give.  That's what I want to focus on this holiday season.  I love that our church also puts the focus on others.  Every November, we have the opportunity to buy gifts for people in our community that wouldn't otherwise be able to.  So that is also something we do as a family.  This year we bought for a 5 year old little boy.  It feels so good to give - and to know that you had a part in making someone else's day a little brighter.

What are some things that you do as a family to teach generosity?

-M