It's that Christmas time of year again. Everyone is out shopping. In our family we don't really do much of a gift exchange with the adults. I usually exchange gifts with my partner, but that's about it. However, kids are a very different story.
This year we've decided to go for a break from traditional. I was originally going to hand-make all of my gifts this year, but that ambitious goal turned out to be too ambitious for me. I figured that would cut down on consumerism, but the truth is I'll still end up buying things to make the present. It's not like I have a sheep to sheer, then wash the fleece, card it, spin it, knit with the yarn, and some time in the process, dye it with home-made dyes that I grow at my own home. The consumer process does happen in there, and while home-made gifts are typically the best, I honestly think there should be a some value placed on time. Right now, it's something I just don't have enough of.
That being said, I wanted our Christmas present theme to be useful items. Now, I know I'm going to be expecting some toys for family. No matter what you say, nor how much you beg people not to, there are always going to be people who insist on giving toys to kids. I've decided I'm not going to fight it. More importantly, it's good for kids to receive toys for holidays and birthdays. How else will they end up with new toys as they outgrow the old?
Every year my aunt has always been fantastic with flooding our house with useful things. She sends us crayons, markers, and pencils. There's been drawing paper, workbooks, and coloring books. There's been crafts to decorate with and lots of other stuff to inspire creativity. She sends books, which are always good to have. There's so much variety, but I noticed that most of it has been useful, at least for the older two, even with a good number of toys sprinkled throughout.
Because of my aunt's inspiration and looking at my children's insane number of toys, I decided this year it's time for something different. Last year Santa was a huge hit for bringing games to the whole family. This year he's planning the same. They encourage family time, togetherness, and fun. However, this year our family is focusing on things that can inspire outside interests, and we're going to carry that through birthdays and everything. It means knowing a lot more about my kids than what a kid of their gender and age would like. However, it's totally worth it. This is what makes gifts that wow.
Taking my daughter as an example, we can see what appeals to her quite easily. Archery would be a good direction to choose. She loves it. She's been begging me for her own bow and arrows ever since she shot her first arrow. She's all about art, always wanting to draw, paint, color, or otherwise create masterpieces. I want to pick something that will appeal to those interests of hers.
My older son is really into art and music. He likes to sing and make music on anything he can make noise on. He loves to draw and paint too. I want to encourage him in those fields because he needs to have interest in something other than toys. He's got to start developing his own tastes. He also loves science, but finding science stuff for his age isn't something I'm particularly good at.
The littlest one is really only into making messes right now, so it's hard to pick things he'd like. He's good with coloring and seems to like the idea of painting. Anything he can squish in his fingers is also good, so soft clays may not be a bad choice either.
I'm starting to realize that my kids have very limited interests. They haven't experienced life as much as I might wish. They don't really have much of an idea of what they might like to be when they grow up because they haven't experienced enough to know. My daughter wants to be an artist and my older son wants to be a rock star, but how do they know for sure? They haven't really had a chance to dabble in other areas of life. Maybe my older son will always want to be a rock star, or a musician of some kind. Maybe my daughter will always want to be an artist, but at least I hope I can open up some other options for them so they know for sure. More importantly, if they do decide to keep those career choices, at the least maybe they'll know what direction within those careers. Maybe my daughter will decide she wants to be a painter, an illustrator, or a potter. Perhaps my son will want to grow up to be a classical guitarist or a musician with the orchestra. We won't know until they get there. All I can do is take this time to give them as many opportunities to explore as possible, and Christmas is just as good of a chance as anything else.
I feel pretty good about this Christmas. I feel like I'm finally doing something better than just getting toys and leaving it at that. I'm hoping that they find it as wonderful of a Christmas as I'm planning it to be. After all, if I can't get away from consumerism, I might as well use the holiday season as a time to help my kids advance their own goals or find new areas of exploration in life. There are plenty of people to make sure they have toys. I know them better than anyone else, so it really should be my job to pick out the things that will inspire them this year.
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