The Minimalist Christmas Gift Plan for Kids

I’ve been asked a number of times lately: What do you guys buy your kids for Christmas? Do you have a plan for gifts?

It’s a good thing my kids don’t read my blog…so I’ll tell you. 

In the months leading up to Christmas, I keep a running list on my smart phone of items the children mention they’d like to have or need. This list is a great place to include items my kids would consider buying with allowance money but haven’t yet been able to save it all up. When one of these items is given, it’s a double surprise because they also have allowance cash available again. When the holiday shopping season arrives, we choose a few of the items on the running list to provide for our children and share the other ideas with grandparents, uncles and aunts who ask for hints as to what to buy our children. (More on this list idea here.)

I cannot take credit for the plan I’m about to share with you. I’ve heard it from a number of other people and admit I don’t even know where it originated. Just the same, I think it’s quite helpful and makes for a simple experience of buying gifts for our kids.

SOMETHING THEY WANT
SOMETHING THEY NEED
SOMETHING TO WEAR
SOMETHING TO READ

If this plan doesn’t work for you, you might want to change some of your views on giving. Remember that every holiday giving experience can be simple if we remember that not all gifts are tangible and experiences together count for a lot.

This year Chris and I are giving our best gift yet to the kids under the “Something They Need” category…will share more about that after Christmas. (Hint: it requires a passport. Don’t tell my cuties just yet! They’ll find out on Christmas Day.)

Would you like some creative ideas on what to give loved ones on any occasion? Download a free copy of Minimalist Gift Ideas today!

Minimalist Gift Ideas: Change Your Views on Giving

If you’re struggling to find gift ideas for a person you’d like to give something to, stop and ask yourself what you want the outcome of giving the gift to be:

* If the goal is to remove guilt, wasting time and money on a gift won’t do that for you.
* If your purpose is to appreciate them, give them something you know they value (which might not be an item but an experience or a donation to a cause that matters to them).
* If your purpose is to meet a need, don’t assume you know what they need. Ask them. Then experience the joy of knowing you’re providing something they’ll use, value, and thank God for upon receipt.

Here are some perspectives on giving that, if you adopt them, will make for a better experience:

Define the victory before you begin. What will be a win when 1 January comes around? Will it be the memory of your friend’s expression when she opens your gift or the receipt of a credit card bill you can’t pay in full? Make your decision now and act accordingly. No one you’re gifting would enjoy it so much if they knew you were paying more than you can afford.

Trust that quantity doesn’t trump quality. Similar to the thoughts shared in this peaceful shower post, having a few targeted, intentional, and specifically selected gifts is better than crowding the floor around your recipient with a lot of wrapped items. Just because your friends give their kids many presents doesn’t mean you have to. Ask yourself, “Would I rather have 10 ho-hum trinkets or a few awesome ones?” Your loved ones feel the same way.

Remember that bigger (or more expensive) often isn’t better. While wealth isn’t the minimalist’s goal, remember some of the examples shared in The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy (affiliate link). Appearances don’t count. People who matter don’t place a dollar value on your gift; they know you gave them something you believe they’ll love. Trust that your loved ones value the gift because it’s from you and not because you felt the need to impress them.

Need help with specific gift ideas that bless the recipients and don’t break the bank? Download a free copy of Minimalist Gift Ideas today!

Previous posts in this series:

Minimalist Gift Ideas: Introduction

Minimalist Gift Ideas: How to be Easy to Buy Gifts For

Minimalist Gift Ideas: My Definition of a Gift

Minimalist Gift Ideas: Receiving Gifts

Minimalist Gift Ideas: Receiving Gifts

Receiving gifts makes up for about 50% of your minimalist gift experiences in life, therefore a lot is riding on how well you receive gifts. Are you forth-coming about what you’d like or need? Do you refuse to let others give to you out of pride?

Are you like me, appreciative of the experience of receiving a gift of something you can use? When I wear my favorite shoes 3-4 times a week, I think of my sister who bought them for me. I wear the cozy fleece robe my mom bought me nearly every morning. My smart phone was actually provided by a family who donated to our non-profit organization last year and knew I wasn’t receiving a salary at the time. They said the money should specifically provide something to help me do my job better. At that time my old smart phone was on the fritz, and receiving their gift met a practical and fairly immediate need. How cool is that?!

Today I challenge you to not buy what you’d like to simply because you can. Consider that your money might be put to better use and your wants or needs could be met by someone else on a different – though less immediate – time schedule. Start leaving a gap in what you own and what you’d like…to see what could happen in due time. If you’re always providing for yourself, you’re missing out on the joy of receiving gifts.

Need help with specific gift ideas you could ask for next time someone wants to give you a treat? Download a free copy of Minimalist Gift Ideas today!

Previous posts in this series:

Minimalist Gift Ideas: Introduction

Minimalist Gift Ideas: How to be Easy to Buy Gifts For

Minimalist Gift Ideas: My Definition of a Gift

Minimalist Gift Ideas: My Definition of a Gift

Sometimes we have to give way until the time is right for us to own or experience something. Two years ago I saw a purse I really like, and I immediately wanted it. I thought about it regularly, and it seemed everywhere I went I saw an ad for the bag or saw someone carrying it. The price of the purse meant I’d have to save up for a few months straight without really buying anything besides groceries. I chose not to buy the bag even though I was still interested, because the opportunity cost was just too high.

Recently Chris told me we had some extra money at the end of our month (after our tithe, all bills, and savings were accounted for) and he casually said I could buy this purse I’ve wanted so long. It was a great surprise and a gift to me to have waited and been rewarded!

I set out to buy the purse, but my local store didn’t have it in stock and I had to order it online. It’s not a big deal to wait 5 more days for delivery, but I had to laugh at how even though I’ve wanted this purse for 2 years it still ached a little to discover the “immediate” gratification wouldn’t come.

The final (and much better) part of this story is that the bag represents to me so much more than it would have 2 years ago. It represents having paid cash, having waited more than long enough to know it’s of benefit and still liked, and not having come up on the wrong end of an opportunity cost due to giving in to the temptation to buy something the very moment I discovered it. It represents a purchase in favor of quality counts.

Unexpected, undeserved, affordable, useful, and paid for in cash: Now that’s a gift! Is there something you’d like, but don’t need, that you’re willing to wait for? A big part of receiving it as a gift (instead of purchasing it yourself) could be the thrill another has in providing it for you.

Note: This post refers to the definition of an actual object being a gift. As a minimalist, I also classify some experiences or actions as gifts, too. To learn some specific examples of wonderful gifts you could give, download a free copy of Minimalist Gift Ideas today!

Previous posts in this series:

Minimalist Gift Ideas: Introduction

Minimalist Gift Ideas: How to be Easy to Buy Gifts For

Minimalist Gift Ideas: How to be Easy to Buy Gifts For

Are you an easy person to buy gifts for? In many cases, we want what we want when we see it. There’s little delay in gratification today, meaning we buy things on the spot. We are an independent culture. It feels good to say we bought something for ourselves, even it it causes us to incur debt. We like to appear we can meet our own needs. We leave no gap for others to provide. We value having it all right now. Some of us don’t know what it’s like to wait for something and eventually realize we don’t want it so much anymore!

How do we take steps away from the habit of gifting ourselves all year long?

• Recognize that some things we think we deserve, we don’t. Let’s say someone lost 20 pounds – does this mean his monthly budget should suffer because he’s been conditioned to “earn” (or buy) himself a reward? Seeing the purchased object as the reward for losing 20 pounds is a mistake, in my opinion. Having lower cholesterol, loose-fitting pants, and more energy is the reward.

• Keep track of things that could be of use or that need to be replaced. I like to use this Pinterest board and a note on my smart phone to do this for me. I have a list for our whole family that made sharing Christmas ideas pretty simple this year once I took the time to review them. Sometimes I use this list to surprise one of my kids but most often we use it as a guide for birthdays and holidays. We do provide unexpected surprises, but we want to do our best not to train our kids to want more and more or confuse needs with wants, and having a running list helps us all do that.

• Recognize that most of our needs aren’t legitimate if they aren’t immediate, and someone else could help meet them. Look back at a previous post’s example of waiting to buy supplies for our first child. I remember sitting in Blake’s empty nursery and longing to see an assembled crib with bedding, ready for his arrival. But he still wasn’t due to be born for several months, and the need wasn’t immediate. Having a crib wasn’t going to move up his birth date. As tough as the lesson was, it was proven true that when Chris and I were faithful to stick to our plan of using only $100 per month, we would have all we needed in time for the baby’s birth.

Need help with specific gift ideas that bless the recipients and don’t break the bank? Download a free copy of Minimalist Gift Ideas today!

Previous posts in this series:

Minimalist Gift Ideas: Introduction

Minimalist Gift Ideas: Introduction

Giving gifts used to be an act of providing something a person needs. I don’t believe that’s necessarily the case these days.

Today, when a birthday comes, a baby is born, wedding vows are exchanged, or a holiday comes around, we’re often giving gifts that simply aren’t needed. Have you ever gone shopping for, wrapped, and given an item that you knew deep down wouldn’t mean much among the over-abundance of similar items?

Ten years ago when I was pregnant with our son Blake, I recall having a conversation with my husband where he explained we could afford to spend about $100 during each month of my pregnancy to prepare for our son’s arrival. If you do the quick math, this meant that we saved a few months of the $100 to set aside for a crib then put the remaining money towards a crib mattress, a little paint for the nursery, and his bedding.

When a baby shower was provided for us, nearly everything we were given met a need! It wasn’t easy looking at an empty nursery for months, but by the time Blake arrived we had all we needed. To our great surprise, just a few weeks before Blake was born, someone gifted us a new crib. As a result we had some extra money, which was a big help to us at that point in our lives.

Why was this gifting experience such a success? We didn’t overspend while on the tight budget we had at the time, yet our son had all he needed.

I learned a lot from that experience a decade ago that I’d like to unpack on the blog over the course of the next few posts in an effort to shed light on the differences between our personal preferences and pride, what culture encourages us to do with money, the definition of a true gift, and what the minimalist mindset would encourage if you’re struggling with the idea of buying and receiving gifts. In this Minimalist Gift Ideas series I’ll be sharing stories, suggestions, and challenging some common practices in an effort to help you feel great about your next gift exchange.

Need help with specific gift ideas that bless the recipients and don’t break the bank? Download a free copy of Minimalist Gift Ideas today!