As you all know, we celebrate a 3 gift Christmas in our home. I am already able to tell that as our family expands, this will keep things simple at a time of year when things can easily get out of hand – or out of house, if you catch my drift. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t have time to clean up oodles of toys every day…I’m just excited when I have time to brush my teeth. So, yeah. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
Some have asked if we still do stockings – and yes we do. I love tights and pantyhose. Hardy, har, har. But anyway – yes we do stockings. I don’t spend an arm and a leg on them – I am usually buying stuff throughout the year as I find clearance…then I just trot down to the basement and fill their stocking up.
I buy clearance and used items for my kids…because I’m cheap and I’m making them suffer. 😉 Or at least that’s what I’ve been told. Or maybe it’s because I know they might break it in approximately 5 seconds, and I”m less likely to cry if I only spent $.50 instead of $10.
So without further ado (what’s ado anyway?), here are the gifts we decided on this year for our suffering kiddos.
Eli (age 3 months)
Gold
A chew toy. Let’s be honest. What does a 3 month old need? I’ll tell you – the ninnie and diapers. That about sums it up. So, a chew toy it is! Plus, it’s pretty cute and might turn out to be a lovey. Purchased from my favorite place to shop, Wee-Cycle It.
Frankincense
Each child receives their own nativity for their first Christmas. I am hoping to get a different one for each child so they are each special. I found this felt version on Amazon for Eli and I think it’s SO cute! Plus, if you get hit by a flying felt Wise Man, it probably won’t hurt as bad as a plastic version. Ahem.
Myrrh
I have a thing for hats. I found this aviator set at Wee-Cycle It and couldn’t pass it up. I wish I could wear it myself. But my sister would laugh.
Andy (age 2)
Gold
Andy loves the farm and tractors and little pieces of anything he can move around over and over again. Barry says he’s a tad OCD – I just think he takes after me. Anyway, we found this cute little barn at Wee-Cycle It and it came with all the animals and fence parts. I’m quite smitten with it.
Frankincense
My boy loves to dance – and he loves music. He won’t have much to do with movies or television. We’re still a little old-school around here, so I found these tapes (brand new) on eBay that he can put in our little Fisher Price cassette player. He’ll be groovin’ all day with Jesus.
Myrrh
A farm boy needs his farm boots. Plus, Mama enjoys the fact that when he gets all muddy, I can just spray him off with the water hose. Let’s hear it for plastic shoes! Found used at Wee-Cycle It. Because let’s be honest, who wants to wear new shoes through cow poop?
Annie (age 5)
Gold
Annie has been asking for a doll house – but as our family expands, we have less room to be taken up with large toys. So, when I found this FOLDABLE, FLAT book dollhouse, I snatched it up at Wee-Cycle It. Brand new! Woot! She already has small pieces that will work, but I may purchase some furniture and other accessories for her later on. Now I won’t be stubbing my toe on a dream-house. Boom.
Frankincense
Our family verse is Romans 13:8. Annie has already learned it and repeats it to me very often. 🙂 Since the Word says to bind the “word” on your forehead, we thought this might do. I’m not really cool with tattooing my 5 year old’s forehead. I found this wooden pendant on The Plaid Barn and it was personalized for free. The word FREE gives me happy shivers.
Myrrh
My girl LOVES boots. She wears them out very quickly – so I am always happy to pick up a pair or two at Wee-Cycle It (are you sensing a trend?). She can slip these on and play in the snow or wear them around the yard after Barry mows – because then I can spray her off with the water hose…I like the water hose.
TOTAL SPENT ON ALL GIFTS – $56.48
Now each child has something new and fun to play with…without taking over our house. That’s spiritual right there.
Just in case you’re interested in gifts from past years, I’ll link those below for ya. 🙂
You are on to something here. Anthony mentioned (when we were up until midnight on Christmas Eve wrapping presents) we are doing a 3-gift christmas next year. Boom.
Ha ha! That made me snicker. 🙂 It really does make each gift so much more fun. I can’t wait to see what you choose!
We do a gift from mom and dad, a gift from their sibling (because there are only two of them), and we do Santa in our house, so Santa brings one gift. I like the idea of not too many gifts because we have family that sends a lot of gifts and it’s just too much otherwise.
Yes, it can quickly take over.
I need to think of something for the baby… err toddler (when did my baby become 18 months!!!????) We got a family game (because they ALWAYS want to play games and we found one we could get) and some squooshi’s to divide amongst the kids. I ordered the wrong package of squooshi’s from amazon to start out with, so ordered more… and now they will have a TON.
Baby can be hard to buy for unless you want a toy. What about a Nose Frida? 🙂
We do three gifts each too 🙂 This year I did one toy, one book, and one DVD each. The DVD’s are just the next “What’s in the Bible” episodes, and the sing-along one for my 20 month old little fella. I thought I was doing really well having spent only $140, but you creamed me 😉 Need to get better at my second hand shopping!
My five year old (our Eli!) loves Lego so he got a big bucket of Lego. I also got him “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.” Can’t wait to read it to him! The three year old just said he wanted “a BLUE present!” – whatever that means – so a blue airplane from Green Toys it was, along with “The Book With No Pictures,” which seems to be right up his odd-sense-of-humour alley. The one year old got some animal fridge magnets and “I Want my Hat Back,” which I only bought because it makes ME giggle hysterically every time I read it. If you’re gonna read a book 3.4 million times, it might as well make you laugh (can I get an amen!?).
As I’m looking over this list I’m thinking that some of these things could totally have been second hand had I just looked a little harder. I’m a sucker for Christmas shopping off Amazon from the comfort of my own sofa. Gonna go check out Wee-Cycle It – wondering what the chances are they ship to Canada?
Wee don’t. 🙂 It’s a local consignment sale. Do you guys have those up there??
Amazon sells used books and DVDs. I buy them all the time!
Oh – and I think you did a fabulous job!
Due to a tight budget, our boys never had all the gadgets and stuff their peers did. As they got older we would splurge on one major present. Santa never wrapped anything at our house. He is very ecological. The one thing I never minded spending for was books. A child (or adult) can never have too many books in my opinion.
Amen to that – I’m a book hoarder. LOL
Great gifts! We do 3 gifts, but we do spiritual, educational & fun. (We are lucky enough to have an abundant of clothes & shoes from cousins & grandparents typically buy a couple of new things, so we rarely buy any clothes.) We also do stockings, but like you I collect things throughout the year including extra crayons & school supplies & then add their favorite snacks, character toothpaste & toothbrush etc. (aka things they need or I would buy anyway but at Christmas they come in the stockings!) Every time I read your posts, I think we would be friends!
🙂 It sounds like it!
Wonderful choices at great prices! Although my children are now now grown, we were always thrift and second hand shoppers for toys and much clothing for our children at a time (the ’90’s) when this was not a popular thing to do. Nor did we subscribe to hosts of toys and other things to occupy our children; family time and activities, helping each other, others and around the house occupied our time.
Yes! I’m always amazed at how little my children play with “toys.”
Growing up we had a 3 gift ritual as well. Now as a parent that’s what’s in my mind, too, although I am a bit more flexible. Once I had a family (I taught their kids) that gave each of their 2 kids 24 gifts each for Christmas. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to say. She said that they were going to have to go to 3 gifts. This was during the recession. I told her that’s what we did growing up. Our society has too much stuff (including me). I am still working on simplifying too! I’m always trying to get rid of stuff. Anyway, Merry Christmas Myers Family, and thanks for sharing!
Merry Christmas, Sonja! 🙂 And 24 gifts. I can’t even imagine….wrapping. I hate wrapping. Ha!
I HATE wrapping too! Just did the wrapping for the kids last night. Each child got 3 gifts, too!
Bags were invented for ME. 🙂
Well done, Mama! It is good to keep Christmas calm from birth, then their expectations stay appropriate. It’s much harder to tell a teenager that we are moving from a crazy extravagant Christmas to a 3 gift one than it is to always have been that way.
This is so awesome – I told Barry when I finished this post: “Angela will be proud.” 🙂
Those are wonderful gifts with a lot of thought put into them. Your children are very lucky, certainly not suffering.
Until I make them clean their rooms – then they’re suffering. 😉