The Christmas, New Year and Kings parties are associated with gifts, decorations, a 'plus' of sugary desserts, and something of interest for children to have much prominence. All these celebrations have a pagan origin, which perfectly explains each of the traditions (although the truth, in today's world, these have been a little distorted).
Meet with family and friends and have a desire to share meals with them, it is normal, the entrenched community feeling (not so long ago that we have become individualists) is part of social coexistence. Exchanging gifts as a sign of affection, also within reason, provided that we do not enter into the excessive consumerism of giving away as a gift without taking into account the needs of the other, and only for the eagerness to 'demonstrate'. It is not difficult for children to 'get impregnated' with the pseudo truths that advertising tells them about toys, and even if we want to rely on the goodness of marketing campaigns, we will have to recognize, that it is difficult to choose, they tend to ask without too much judgment. That is why we remembered the other day that more gifts does not equal more happiness.
How to balance the 'attachment' to the material, and the things that really matter?
With a little common sense we can get our children to receive the fraternal spirit (and keep it); At the same time they will understand how lucky they are simply to be able to taste typical Christmas meals at home and have new toys. Others do not have it so easy, and although it seems hard, it is a good reflection exercise, to which not everyone lends
further a certain dose of persistence from the parents is necessary, and it would be desirable that it be so in every home. In practice, what happens is that gifts are sometimes given as a kind of contract: I give you and you 'behave yourself'; and this is a huge trap for many reasons, but the main one is that (I have seen and heard it with my own senses) there are many children who decide to have a behavior more in line with the wishes of adults in the two days before Christmas and Kings, and then do not keep it.
The important thing should be the ability to deliver (even before receiving) the children, who parents can empower with simple messages and actions:
Help your child give meaning to Christmas
Gifts: We can write the letter to the Kings with them, interested in the reasons they want to receive such and such a gift. We must also invite you to shorten the list until it is a reasonable number of requests. It is not worth thinking 'ask, that they will bring what you can', because we are teaching you to prioritize and make decisions.
More on gifts: with older children who are far away 'the big secret', we can go to craft fairs to buy gifts for grandparents, and even better if part of the benefits of the purchase are intended for charitable purposes.
You can't have everything you want: although advertising makes us believe otherwise. Beyond the properties of certain products, and that conform or not to what is announced about them, we must all be clear before buying our needs, and we do well to children when we face this dilemma.
Money: Most children receive money from their grandparents or uncles for Christmas. My mother kept everything in a bank book. My children also don't have the capacity to manage large amounts for them, so they may have a little left to replace broken school supplies, or buy a special snack on occasion.
The rest must also contribute for their expenses that we do not want to fully cover us: this year we have indicated that they are going to pay part of the end of course excursion. And finally they can decide on what is left knowing that if they want to buy a new bike that they have not been given, or another video game, they will have to pay for it; This is conditioned on adults assessing the suitability of the purchase.
Y there is always the option that they save for future expenses, I think it is good that they learn to value what they have, and above all to strive to achieve goals (to give up some planned expense), it is not going to be that in a few months they really need something, and the parents ask for a contribution.
- Do things yourself: Children feel important if they make congratulations for the family, or write a story to give to the sick grandfather, or when we tell them that they should take time to phone friends who live far away. We just have to keep an eye on these little gifts and remind them.
The time of love should be extended throughout the year, not reduced only to Christmas, but Since we all enhance this meaning, it’s good for kids to think about their family, to find out how to make the time they spend together, a happier and more productive space for everyone.
Images | rjones0856, Paul Hamilton On Peques and More | Christmas with the same purpose and different ways of celebrating, This year we Europeans will celebrate Christmas with more moderation but the same joy
