Giving Before Receiving

Christmas day at the Grandparent's house

This year we changed the way that Christmas was prepared for and celebrated in our house.  After two years of being overwhelmed by the massive amounts of consumption that occurs at children's birthday parties and holidays we are now choosing to instill a bit of selfless giving into our children.

Our new policy: we give before we receive.

To prepare for the holiday we first went through all our the kids current toys and divided them into three piles.  Pile #1 was compiled of toys to keep. But there were limits; toys in this pile had to find a permeant home off the ground and had to be played with within the month or else they went into pile #2.  Pile #2 was toys to donate and pile #3 were toys to sell.  Both kids get to keep the money from their toys that we sell at our local consignment sale but half the money goes straight into their savings accounts. The other half can go into piggy banks.

These are all the toys living on the main floor now.  I know this does not seem impressive, but if you have kids you know that this is a huge accomplishment.

I know it all sounds very confusing but I was surprised at how well it went. Miles was a great helper and choose to donate most of his toys.

As for celebrating, from now on the kids will only get five gifts each. I have to admit that I stole this idea from a wonderful blog about living simply but I can seem to find the link anywhere.  If I find it I will pass it on.

Here are examples of the five gifts:

1) Something they need
2) Something they want
3) Something to read
4) Something to do
5) Something to watch

I love the simplicity of this idea.

I love that it puts limits on our consumption but most of all...

I love that it means that I wont have to do so much shopping.

Just one of many examples of the over-consumption we are attempting to change.

Finally, our last new tradition we are borrowing from good friends. We are really attempting to focus more on the giving aspect of Christmas (if you haven't noticed by now) and thought it would be a wonderful idea to start volunteering to help out an organization of our choosing each year.

How will this work?

Well, at the beginning of the year we will find a specific charity that we would like to become more involved in.  We will spend the first part of the year learning about their mission and will find a way to donate money to them.  Then as the the year comes to an end we will, as a family, volunteer in any way needed.  This way our children are exposed to all the various aspects of life and the hardships that people face.

In 2011 we will be focusing on adoption.  Since adoption plays such a special and vital roll in our family we thought it the best way to begin our giving.

I know that these are some significant changes but we really could not be more excited for them.  The idea of simplicity and living simply has really been pulling me in the past few months ( an entirely different post as I could go on and on...) and these are just a few of the major lifestyle changes we will be making in the coming year.

Stay tuned for some exciting announcements.

...and no I am not pregnant.