Children and Christmas

With Christmas less than a week away, I sat down and talked to my children again about Christmas giving. Grant it, my children are 4 and 5 and very much into "I want". We talked about the usual topics of toys and all of the other things they felt they had to have. I asked them what they planned to give for Christmas. Not much conversation there. I decided to help them out at this point.

I told them that there are many ways to give other than buying things with money. I explained that we could make our own gifts and it would be lots of fun. As well as we can give gifts from the heart and of our own free will. We'll see how this goes over...

So the fun began, we made place mats, ornaments and other crafts. Imagine three kids 5yrs old and under with glue and glitter. What was I thinking? They really enjoyed making ornaments. We went outside and picked pine cones (free), put glue all over them and then sprinkled with, you guessed it, tons of glitter. WHY? They loved making these ornaments. We then used pretty ribbons to tie around the end of the glittery, shimmering pine cones, of course they had to dry first. These can also be used to add sparkle to any wreath or place into a bowl for Christmas/winter decor. Take a look! 


The next idea went over better than I thought it would. I cut out colored card stock paper into box sized pieces. We then named all of the gifts they could give from the heart, love, lots of hugs, kind words, clean our room, and my personal favorite, "take my nap".  They were on a roll: put books away, be kind, pray for others, obey mom and dad, help others, were also gifts they could give.

On the pre-cut boxes we tied bows, wrote their gift down, and then used the dreaded "glitter". What is this fixation with children and glitter?? Gotta love it! Their gifts turned out very nice and were placed under our tree. They were very excited and I hope a seed has been planted in their hearts about giving. Kids are never too young to learn this principle. Here is a picture of a few of the completed gifts they made, enjoy. Hope you can read the writing.

Hope these inspire gift givng ideas for your children or the children in your life.

Merry Christmas!


Remember. "True empowerment comes through stewardship!"