Five gifts

[pegkerr]

I don't recall if I've written about this before, but I thought it might be helpful to other parents to expound a little bit about the five gifts policy that Rob and I use for Christmas, which we have found to be very helpful. My sister Betsy told me about it, and I am sorry to say I have forgotten the author she got the idea from herself. Every Christmas, we get each of our girls five things:

Something to read
Something to love
Something to do with a parent
Something to make them artistic
Something to make them active

It's a very flexible guideline, and we find it helps keep us from going overboard on gifts. In fact, some of the gifts can be very modest indeed. It makes us give some thought to the philosophy behind our gift-giving.

Something to read, well that's obvious. Don't forget magazine subscriptions as well as books--kids love getting stuff in the mail.

Something to love. This teaches nurturing and other responsible social behavior. This could be a doll, or a pet, or a plant, although we've stretched the definition at times to something like a cozy bathrobe that encourages snuggling with mom or dad.

Something to do with a parent. This can be very modest: a puzzle or a board game. Use your imagination: you might give a set of gardening tools and a pack of seeds, and then you can create a garden together. Once it was tickets to see "Cinderella" at the Children's theatre.

Something to make them artistic: paints, paper, crayons, Spirograph, modeling clay, beads, knitting and needlepoint kits, simple musical instruments like a recorder or penny whistle, etc.

Something to make them active: a ball, scooter, stilts, etc.

So, I offer this to all you other parents out there. This has worked really well for us.