Being a parent giving gifts to my kids is the best version of #Christmas.
As a child receiving gifts, I always felt an awkward pressure when receiving gifts, which made the process uncomfortable and took away from the experience.
Now that the script is flipped and I'm giving the gift, I find so much joy in seeing the glee on my children's faces as they unwrap the gifts that we got for them.
This must be a taste of how Yahweh felt giving the gift of salvation through his son, Jesus.
It is fun.
That being said, sometimes my son isn't grateful for all he has. He has been obsessing for the past 2 months about what he was going to get for Christmas. This Christmas, we had each person say something they were thankful for before opening each gift. It was a good, new tradition.
We've found that donating old things and simplifying the amount of "stuff" they have throughout the year increases the value placed on each thing.
Kids can definitely be ungrateful, and sometimes less is more, especially on Christmas morning. This year we simplified stockings and gifts to fewer, bigger-ticket items, and there's already been far more enjoyment in each gift.
Even during the unwrapping process, it was less of "let's hurry to unwrap the next thing" and more focus on what was actually gifted.
I do like the new tradition idea!
