My sister sent me an email today linking to another blog and their holiday tradition (that they got from another blog.) Basically it boils down to giving your child 4 gifts – something they NEED, something they WANT, something to WEAR, and something to READ. These are the gifts from the parent(s). Santa can also bring a gift I suppose!!
photo from dandee
We’ve thought long and hard about the types of toys we want to buy our kids. This year, we decided to order them a Waldorf-style kitchen (click here to see it) and matching icebox. We discussed what we wanted them to get out of the kitchen and how we wanted them to interact with it. We looked at several play kitchens and kept coming back to this particular one. There’s no plastic, no batteries, nothing fancy. They will have to use their imagination – gasp! – to make it do whatever it is they choose to make it do. (As a certified ‘gadget-girl’ this is a really big deal for me.) We’ve asked family who want to buy them presents to stick with this theme – wooden & felt food, play dishes, etc. We know they will love it – we have to tear them away from the very similar one at the art studio we’ve been going to.
* edited to add…
I had the thought… one more tag to add. One that says “give”. We really want to instill that giving back is a big part of being a part of this world. Steph’s work sponsors a family each holiday season and we buy things for the family to have on Christmas. I’d like to do something on a kid level once our kids are a little older and can grasp the idea somewhat.
I love the want-need-wear-read idea SO much. We should all limit ourselves to that list!
A client at the salon the other day mentioned this is how her family has done this for the last few years. She and her spouse realized things had gotten out of hand and went to this option. She shares the list with family members to use. A great idea with the "give" added in.
This idea sounds great and all but just too hard to follow thru – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas!!! Love the whole thing – LOVE them waking up and super excited to see what Santa brought!! I have video-taped my older son walking down the stairs and so incredibly happy to see EXACTLY what he wanted – how did Santa know!!!??? Our stockings are 5 feet tall – LOVE them! We have a HUGE Advent calendar filled with goodies every morning, he cannot wait to wake up in the morning to run and see what is in there (just small trinkets, candy, etc) – Love this!! LOVE decorating – we have 7 Christmas trees in our home – xmas lights line our home on the outside. LOVE Christmas!!! Too hard to tone it down now! My parents also did the same thing for me and the memories are wonderful! Did I say I LOVE Christmas??? We have thrown a Santa party every year where Santa comes, reads a book to the kids, gives them small gift, we decorate gingerbread houses, eat cookies… LOve this tradition! LOVE giving gifts!! We do also adopt a family at my older sons school and we go to Target and buy a ton of stuff and give to "Toys 4 Tots" – makes my son appreciate what he has – Just love Christmas!!!
@Joy – You do everything big!! I would expect no less from you!!
I love Christmas too, it's my favorite holiday right after Thanksgiving. (I think my favorite part is just the gathering of family & friends) Now, I would love to see a pic of your decorated house – I bet it looks fabulous!! And to think, last year I was all excited just adding a lighted grapevine snowman to our single strand of lights around the roof line. But – I think family holiday traditions are wonderful. I love hearing about others… and starting our own!!
I love, love, love this concept and am going to implement it this year!
Love, love, love this idea and am thinking about doing it too! Thanks so much for sharing!
we saw this on a blog and are thinking of doing it this year too. Our guy loves his play kitchen. Very simple (though not as simple as the one you are getting. We found ours at a garage sale. It's mostly wood.
I've been researching play kitchens as well. I had settled on a retro one and then decided I wanted something smaller. Oddly enough, just before I read your tweet about your purchase, I looked at the same kitchen! My dad does custom cabinetry, so I'm going to have him make it for them, so I can stain/paint it how I want it. I'm so excited!
you might like to check out "community playthings" as well. the furniture is all beautiful, but also industrial- it's made for child care centers… We use their furniture and some toys in our child care center and the trucks and wooden people are a big hit- the largest sizes of trucks, I think it's a bus, you can ride on… which is great fun for toddlers. The items are pricey, but they are an investment… I love the kitchen you found!Joey
I love this idea. Sadly Xmas is my least favorite holiday. It just seems about getting more STUFF! I'm trying really hard to get the hubster on board with this. When I showed him this post he just looked perplexed and then he said "well what do they need?" So it does take some thought. We have 3 kiddos… 18 10.5 and 7yrs. We're going to take this idea and run with it. Then we're going to spend the rest of our $$$ helping those in our community. I love this idea so much…hope you won't mind if pass it along.
love it all!!
We always make a donation for our nieces and nephew and cater it toward their particular interests now that their older. Our nephew loved the charity we chose for him so much that he used it as his bar mitzvah charity.Just a note, let Steph's work know that what they do is sponsor a family. Adoption is a permanent relationship. See this link: http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/articles.php?aid=739
@Rachel – I changed the word adopt to sponsor; you are right. I have no idea what Steph's work calls it, that was just the word I used
Thanks for the info!!