Years ago we heard the idea of giving gifts that fit into these categories…
- something you want
- something you need
- something to wear
- something to read
For the most part, this guides our gift-giving for our children, although there are times when something we want to give them doesn’t necessarily fit into these categories…and that’s fine. 😉
I’m always on the hunt for good gift ideas for our children, and most of what I got this year came from suggestions from others. I wanted to pass along the ideas in case you are still deciding on gifts for your own family. Just be sure you don’t tell my kids what they’re getting if you happen to see them. 😉
For reference, we have a nine year old boy, seven year old boy, and almost 3 year old little girl.
My boys love and need to have outdoor activities, so this is fulfilling their WANT item this year. They already have roller blades to go with it!
For our daughter’s WANT, we are giving her baby doll clothes. She has countless baby dolls, and likely more on the way, and has started dressing and undressing them, so I wanted to give her some more outfits to go along with her play. It’s so fun watching her pretend to be a little momma!
Another WANT we got for our daughter is this lacing board – she loves colors and rainbows, and I’m hoping this is the beginning of a sewing handicraft that we grow in and learn together in the years to come!
This fit into the NEED category in my mind because my boys have SO MANY HATS! They had seen one of these before and asked for it, so we found this on Etsy – we love supporting small businesses!
For our daughter’s NEED I’ve been saving this on Etsy almost since she was born. Contrary to her brothers, I’ve decided to begin her handwriting with cursive instead of print. So this is the first step in letting her play with that – she’s always wanting to doodle during her brothers’ school time, so now this is an additional activity for her.
My husband often wears a headlamp when we are camping as he does things after dark around our RV. The boys always fight over his (and usually end up breaking it or running down the battery when he needs it most, ha!), so when I saw these functional, cozy hats from 1000 Hours Outside, I knew this would be a great gift for their something to WEAR this year.
And when I saw this little hat on the same website, I got it for our daughter, in her favorite color of course (pink!). I’m pretty sure she will love it, and I’ll love how it keeps her warm if we ever have another snowstorm here in Texas again.
And now for my favorite category of the four – something to READ! Here is what we got each child this year, oldest to youngest:
I learned only this past year about this stories from the Lamplighter series – we have loved every one we’ve read or listened to on audiobook! There’s a bit more expensive since they are a rare collector series, so I saved it for Christmas! The books are categorized for boys and girls, various age groups, and character traits. This is the one we got our 9 year old boy.
And this is the book we chose for our seven year old boy.
Patricia Polacco is one of our favorite authors, and this book was one I read as a girl. It’s definitely one I wanted to pass on to our daughter, who has recently started sitting still for longer periods of time to listen to our read-aloud books.
In addition to the gifts we open on Christmas morning, and since we don’t do Santa Claus giving gifts on Christmas Day, we instead celebrate St. Nicholas’ Day on December 6. We include little gifts for this in their stockings, and this year chose this clay set along with a Christmas puzzle to work on together throughout the season. (Don’t worry – we’ll explain that the Magi weren’t actually there the night Christ was born.) 😉
I pray you find this helpful if you’re still on the search for gifts for the children in your own life this season. I have additional ideas on my Amazon Gift List here, which we may still buy a few things from, or may save for Birthdays or Christmases in the future.
What are your favorite gifts you are giving this season? I’d love to know! Please comment below and share with us!
jami lee gainey 