This week we’re talking about gift giving – it’s Biblical, you know! But how do you manage it without being immersed in the commercialism of a secular holiday, while glorifying God and having fun together? We’ve found that being more intentional and deliberate in choosing gifts and even in how we open them together, and encouraging our children to think of people rather than stuff at Christmas, has great benefits!
Biblical Passages We Mentioned
The wise men who brought gifts to Jesus – Matthew 2:1-11
How Our Family Christmas List is Structured
We described how our family keeps up with everyone’s “wish list” – not just at Christmas, but all year long! Here’s the basic framework – each person’s section of the family list is divided into price brackets, and it’s the responsibility of each person to keep their list up to date. And when the shopping happens, gift-givers quietly delete items so others don’t duplicate their gift!
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Updated: (be sure to make a note here when you make changes to your list!)
- $1-$5 Gifts: Your categories may differ, depending on the ages in your family and your personal budgets. We have to consider young children, teenagers, college students, and adults of all sorts.
- $5-$15 Gifts: If you have specific items in mind, you might include links to places these might be found. Many in our families are avid readers, so we often have lists of books here – and links to Amazon.com or Thriftbooks.com to make it easy
- $15-$30 Gifts: Grown-up level
- Big Gifts: Because you never know when someone might find a great deal, or several people collaborate
- Crafts, Work, and Services: Busy people may appreciate help with a particular hard-to-schedule need. One of Hal’s hopes last year was for help replacing our garage door – and two of our adult sons came over and made a weekend project of it!
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