Today's topic: gift-giving traditions.
When Jared and I first discussed all this holiday tradition shenanigans a couple months ago, one of our key objectives was to come up with ways to make Christmas really special, meaningful, and fun for our family without focusing so much on big, expensive, or numerous gifts. Someday, even if we can afford it, I don't want to find myself in the common trap of better, cooler, bigger, and more expensive than the year before. Let's face it, both gift-givers and receivers can get a little carried away sometimes. My theory however, is that with a little creativity and careful planning, this can be avoided. My dream is that with some great traditions, and just a few meaningful gifts, those visions of sugarplums will dance away in my kids' heads.
For example, why not make the ACT of giving the gift just as fun as the gift itself? One of the most fun things at Christmas in my family is drawing names for the sibling gift-exchange. Does your family do something similar? A white-elephant, or one of those exchanges where you can steal others' gifts? I love when gift-giving has a game element to it. Why not spend more time in the presentation of the gift? Cool or creative wrapping? I read somewhere on the internet (and this is my tip of the day) about a family that plays a gift-giving game that goes something like this:
Before each gift is opened, the recipient has to guess what they think the gift is. Because of this tradition, the family goes to great lengths each year to throw each other off. They put little things in big boxes, they might pack a brick in the box of a really light-weight gift, you get the idea. I think this sounds like some rambunctious fun I would love to get in on. Throw in a simple prize for the best guess and one for the best-disguised gift, and you've got the makings of a GREAT gift-giving tradition that actually takes a little focus off gifts and adds a little more fun. Any other fun gift-giving games or traditions out there? Send them my way.
1 comment:
Another very fun and creative idea. When you were posting about cookies I wanted to give you another idea for a cookie I think you'd really like- and it involves no cooking and very little clean up. You get Oreos and cover them in white chocolate and then sprinkle crushed candy canes on top. They look really cute and taste great too. I would show you a picture, but I've already delivered them all (okay, I ate one too).
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