Time for Giving - Part 1

November 25, 2008

With Christmas just a month away, I sat down with my kids this evening to make up their Santa lists. Just like other children, my daughters have bins of dolls, toys, and gizmos that were asked for and are never played with. My requests to our family and friends - No more modeled plastic!! I will likely go wild if they receive another stuffed animal! My personal goal is to teach the children about giving to others and to focus less on receiving; not just at Christmas, but all year around. But as a parent how do we do this??

A friend of mine suggested that the children ask for money, then they donate it to charity. Nice idea - but the idea of opening a bunch of envelopes on Christmas morning will not go over well with my six year old. Another friend suggested volunteering for a soup kitchen on Christmas evening. This might be too much reality and a one time meal could easily be forgotten.

So, I decided to get ideas from my daughters; how would you like to help out at Christmas? They have decided to make baskets for all our friends and neighbours, filled with homemade goodies and purchased gifts. We will deliver them as a family on Christmas Eve. They each have made their own list of who to give a basket to and that to include for each person. They are so excited! Hopefully, I haven't bitten off more that I can handle. But, there's no turning back now! Maybe we can make this an annual family tradition.

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