Thank you for the article. Great information.

Every year we have the same issue with our daughter who has soo many toys already. your “want, need, wear, read” approach seems to have a lot of sense and we will try that this year.

We have used the idea in the past of buying items she needs for clubs and dancing lessons which also help financially in later months
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The idea is to gift gifts to each child that the 3 wise men gave to Jesus at his birth as a way of honoring Him, and our children. We purchase gifts on each child’s wish list which they have created with the following 3 categories in mind:
GOLD – most desired item (things like a Wii, bicycle, etc – big ticket items)
FRANKINCENSE – items which will help the child worship God such as music player, iTunes, CD’s, devotional book, bible, etc.
MYRRH – items which represent offering our bodies as a fragrant sacrifice, just as Jesus did, such as lotion, purfume, bath soaps, slippers, robe, bedding, pillow, clothing, any thing to do with our bodies.

Then we agreed on one color for each category, so all of the Gold gifts were wrapped in gold paper, all of the Frankincense items in red wrapping paper and Myrrh was wrapped in white – which gave a nice tree presentation!

Prior to the children unwrapping each category someone read a bible verse and explained the use and importance of each item given to baby Jesus. Then we asked the children to all open their Gold gifts together (there are 7 of them and it took too long to watch each one open individually), then their Frankin. gifts, then their Myrrh gifts.

The kids really enjoy it and seem to like having more meaning to their gift opening as well. The adults draw names as evenly as possible. Each child’s name with each category is on a slip of paper to draw – therefore, each child has 3 strips of paper.

For example:
Rachel/Gold
Rachel/Frankin
Rachel/Myrrh
Natalie/Gold
Natalie/Frankin
Natalie/Myrrh
etc.

We didn’t do this with them as toddlers, so not sure how well it will work at first but I wish we had been able to start them on this system of gift giving at that time in their lives. It’s been a great tradition these last 2 years for us!

We also let the kids draw each others names to MAKE their cousin/sibling something. They LOVE giving their handmade gifts! They also draw an adult name to buy or make something for. We feel it’s important for them to learn how to give, as much as how to receive graciously.