Do you do handmade Christmas presents with your kids for their siblings? Do you even have them give gifts to each other? Do you have them draw names?
Just curious.
We have done Christmas's where the kids don't do anything for one another. I don't think we will do that again, now that my kids are getting old enough to actually be involved in the gift giving.
We have drawn names in the past, especially when we have my step-kids for Christmas, because we bought the presents, so it saved money, but I don't feel like that is really teaching anyone the true meaning of giving-going out and spending mom and dads money.
Last year we did a fully handmade Christmas.
We made all of the gifts. All of them.
Santa brought each kid a gift from their wish list, but every other gift was made with love.
It was fantastic!
The kids made meaningful gifts, spent a lot of time working on them and making them just right, and were more excited to see their siblings open their gifts than opening their own.
Which is what Christmas should be, right?
Problem-now I feel like we have to do that every year.
It makes me tired just thinking about it! :)
Plus, I feel like we need to do just as good as gifts as we did last year-which will be a challenge, since mommy just had a baby and is in school; and daddy is in the last year of his program before his internship which means he is not around much.
I guess we just need to bite the bullet and get going on it huh? Christmas is only 61 days away...
61 days people!!!
Here are a few things we did last year...I have some ideas up my sleeve for this year-but I have four kids which means 12 handmade presents from the kids and the ones from me and dad-I've got some more thinking to do that is for sure!
...and she made this beanbag chair for Christopher.
Porter made his siblings each a jar of play-dough, which I think is what Oliver will be giving to everyone this year...so that takes care of three of the gifts, and Bekah has her ideas all ironed out, so that takes care of three more.
Six more gift ideas needed.
Anyone got any fantastic...not too time consuming, but still a good quality gift idea that a 2 or a 4 year old boy could make for his siblings?
I just made a freezer paper stencilled t-shirt with my 4 y.o - I cut a circle out of freezer paper and he had to draw simple pictures or shapes that fit inside the circle - turned out really cute and he is so proud it is his drawings! I should add I did the cutting :-) Now he wants to make one for his little sister too.
ReplyDeleteMaking arm warmers out of the long socks are really in right now, and easy to make.
ReplyDeleteFor the 2 year old you can get some pans (try ebay, amazon if you don't have any) and let them make the recycled crayons. Car crayons for a car fan, hearts for girls or they have ABC pans -- you can spell out names. All the child has to do is break crayons and put them in the pan. Mix colors, have solid colors. Pretty fool proof.
ReplyDeleteWow, 61 days?! Ah! Wayyy too soon. We had 11 kids in my family, so we always drew names. We never had a lot of money growing up, so we often made gifts for eachother too. I made pillow cases for my siblings one year when I was like 13, and made pajamas for another year. I am not a sewer though, so that wasn't an easy task.
ReplyDeleteGood luck finding some fun presents!
I have been searching for good ideas too... I just want to do more meaningful gifts than in the past...
ReplyDeleteOlder kids could make a scrapbook for each of their siblings with photos or pictures of all the fun things they have done together this year.
This is a tutorial for a puppet theatre... very inexpensive! Sometimes you can find puppets at places like Michael's Crafts http://dandeedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/08/puppet-theater-tutorial.html
Good luck, I can't wait to see what your kiddos come up with!!
I made fleece pajama pants for the guys out of fabric with their favorite sports teams on them. They were a hit! even with the picky 13 year old!
ReplyDeleteLove the homemade gift idea, but with 5 kids there is NO WAY they(I) am attempting that! SO we rotate names each year, so they will make a gift fot the kid just younger then them, and the next year it is the one two younger then them. Still homemade, but not so many!
ReplyDeleteHere is an interesting blog, done by a mom of 8 kids. This particular link goes to how she does Christmas, and what all the kids make for each other for Christmas. It is a fun and interesting read: http://www.se7en.org.za/2008/11/05/clearly-christmas-how-se7en-do-christmas
ReplyDeleteHere is another site, chock full of homemade gift ideas:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.make-homemade-gifts.com/index.html
I'm going to be using several of these ideas for Christmas.
I've seen several versions of Eye Spy Bottles floating around blogland. Basic instructions include using a pop bottle, fill with small objects (marble, animal figurines, noodles, etc.) Once you have all of your chosen items, fill the rest of the bottle with rice or a similar filler, leaving enough room for the items in the bottle to move around. You can make a picture card to go with it so the kids know what they are looking for. Once your bottle is filled use glue to secure the lid and decorate the top if you want. I can't remember where I saw this but I'm sure you'll find it with a search. I've seen them with themes and just everyday objects. Fun quiet activites for the recipent, and easy for a four year old to put together, minus the picture card of course :).
ReplyDeleteHey tiff, good to see you are up and going again. Hope all is going well. Although after reading this post I think you are absolutel insane! Just a suggestion that we did growing up before you make this too much of a tradition! We had 8 kids in our family....that would be even more insane if we all gave eachother gifts. So we drew names, each getting one person that they had to give to, and the gift had to be home made. It was always a blast! When we were young there wasn't a cost limit, but as we got older, more talented and more creative they put alimit on it. The best part is we still do it as adults! $10.00 limit, they have to be hand made. We have seen some pretty incredible things over the year and it's probably what we look forward to the most...seeing what everybody comes up with! Anyway, just a thought to help you in yoru absolutely insane, crazy, I don't know how you do it world!
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