Posts
I received this email today:
Christmas Gift Ideas- No not a Christmas list or "gift" idea. But a new way to give to your children. In order to simplify things in your household this Christmas consider this idea.
For each child (or Adult) give four items to fit into each category of- NEED, WANT, WEAR, READ.
And then you can still do a Santa gift if you like, just for the Magic of Christmas:)
So give something the child Needs, Something they Want, something they Wear (PJ's as the Christmas Eve gift is a great idea) and something to Read.
It will make each gift much more special and you can perhaps be able to purchase more quality items instead of spreading out your budget over a dozen toys.
After all Christmas isn't about the presents anyway. This is a great way to control spending, and not end up with a bunch of plastic parts to lots of toys scattered all over the house after Christmas.
Trust me your Children will not miss those, and neither will you!
Pass this idea along!
My Thoughts:
This is truly a great Idea. That old worn out cliché, “It’s the thought that counts” is really a very intriguing piece of wisdom. Instead of going out and purchasing a bunch of low quality, cheap and otherwise useless bunch of “stuff”, actually think about the four things. Plan your purchases instead of going to the store and throwing the brightest colored box in cart and waving around the almighty credit card in some idiotic gesture of indulgence. Think, that’s the thought part, about what your loved ones really need, and really want. Your loved ones, and your wallet will thank you. I have seen my family spend exorbitant amounts of money on my kids for Christmas. They want to see the glimmer of glee in their eyes that they had as a child. The only problem is that everyone is so overloaded with ‘stuff’ these days that the thoughts are hollow, and the glee isn’t there. We have donated so much “stuff” to charities after Christmas, sometimes still in unopened boxes that it’s difficult to imagine what “thought” went into those gifts. In my observation, there are generally only two toys each year that my kids play with constantly after Christmas time is over. That’s it 2 toys per season. So say you have a budget of $100 per kid. You do have a budget, right? You can buy ten, ten dollar gifts, of which two will make the cut(maybe). Or you can get two $50 gifts that will most likely be cherished, especially if you put thought into it. One way, you waste $80, the latter, you get your money’s worth. Besides, those $10 gifts usually aren’t a high enough quality to last till next year, while some $50 gifts will last a lifetime. I.e. I still have my original Legend of Zelda cartridge from when I was a kid. I occasionally play it just to remember those “Good old” days. So THINK about the gifts you give and who you will give them to, and everyone will be much happier this Christmas, except maybe Wal-mart’s CEO.
