Posting this in the Simple Living community a well, but thought I might a different perspective and additional input here.
Christmas is coming and I have a two year old and a five year old. My wife and I are pretty stumped about what to get our kids for Christmas. The two year old is easy; he doesn’t care, will be thrilled with a ball, and just happy to be included.
The five year old is very down to earth and grateful for anything, but he already has everything he needs because up to now we’ve tried to be smart about buying him things that will last and give him good enjoyment mileage. He has plenty of Legos, an assortment of figurines (farm animals, fantasy creatures, little play houses, action figures, cars.), plenty of outside balls and whatnot. He also doesn’t need consumable stuff (has plenty of candy from Halloween, crayons, coloring books, crafty supplies)
He doesn’t need more stuff, but we still want Christmas morning to feel special and exciting and we want him to have a good “Santa came!!!” experience. I like the idea of giving experiences like tickets to Disney on Ice or a voucher to an ice cream shop, but that just doesn’t have the same effect for a five year old, cause he can’t hold it and it’s really just a promise for the future.
Any advice or suggestions would be really appreciated!
Thank you all and much love from me to you!
This is always a difficult question that I face every year! Sometimes there is a big item they need like a bike or a drawing tablet - but often there isn’t anything obvious.
Something that I’ll often do is get them digital goods, because they take up no physical space. Often, it winds up being a new downloadable video game or an expansion to a game they already own. I try to be thoughtful about what they like & I research the games in advance to find something unique to them and fits their interests. I download the game to a device in secret on Christmas Eve and then find something physical that they can unwrap (like cardboard with a game picture inside or something). Then as soon as they open it I explain why I choose it & why I think they’d like it & etc and I get in their hands quickly so it feels more visceral.
Others will disagree about this strategy, I know, but it prevents accumulating a lot of junky unnecessary items. My kids are in middle school & high school now & they have very few possessions compared to their friends. What’s nice is that they take a sort of pride in only having few high quality items rather than a room full of junk.
We also stop buying them (& ourselves) “necessity”-type items like clothing beginning around September, and then they get to unwrap a bunch of boring things like socks & pants & and soap at Christmas. Lol! Are we the worst? Maybe.
This is a great idea having a physical representation for an intangible gift, thank you!