HeritageBuilders

The right number of gifts for your children?

Every Christmas brings the same struggle trying to balance the number of gifts and money spent on
gifts for the children. Things can get out of hand. "Just one more thing…" turns into a Christmas
morning pile of useless gadgets and discarded wrapping paper. For some of us it takes most of the day
to open presents when you add in gifts from relatives.

A good way to gauge whether your kids are receiving the right amount of gifts is to ask each child to
name off the items they received the last year. They rarely remember more than two or three. So, why
all the gifts?

A friend of ours came up with a great idea. Jesus received three gifts from the "Wise Men." In Matthew
2:11 we are told that they brought: gold, frankincense and myrrh. gold was the gift fitting for a King,
frankincense was meant to be for deity and myrrh was a spice for someone who was going to die.

They explained this to their children and said that they would only be receiving three as well. Their gifts
would be modeled after Jesus' gifts where; one would be like gold - an extravagant or expensive gift,
one would be a spiritual gift for their personal growth, and one would be a practical gift, something
they needed. This became a good guide for us as we headed out shopping. The gift they wanted was
always the "expensive" one such as an iPod. The spiritual gift always gave us the opportunity to buy
them an age appropriate Bible, Christian music or personal journal. The practical allowed us to get them
clothes for school, a new coat, socks or a gift card to their favorite clothing store.

This simple tradition takes the stress out of gift giving, reinforces the Christmas story and makes it
come alive on Christmas morning. It also dramatically increases the likelihood that they will remember
the gifts received because each is tied to a meaningful symbol.

For more ideas like this, go to our resource center and look at the book "Family Traditions."

From all of us at Heritage Builders - have a blessed Christmas with your family!!