When AG’s first Christmas rolled around I immediately felt stressed by gifts. Not because I didn’t know what to buy her but because I wasn’t sure when to stop shopping. After the magical Christmas chaos was behind us I thought about what we’d do differently the next year and started to research how other families did Christmas gifts. I stumbled upon an article from a sweet Christian mama about how she shops for gifts and something about it just stuck with me. She implemented a five gift rule for each of her kiddos. Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read and something you weren’t expecting. I loved the “challenge” of finding the perfect thing in each category. I also loved that if we started this Christmas gifting tradition early on, our kiddos would be less-likely to grow up expecting everything they wanted to be under the tree. I keep a note in my phone with Christmas gift ideas and thoughts on what worked / didn’t work the year before. This is always a helpful note to reference when it’s time to start shopping for gifts. Pro tip: It’s also a good place to make notes about which box/location your Christmas decorations are stored in! We also do one or two small things from Santa. This year we also let the girls shop for each other which was a fantastic teachable moment!
Here’s what the girls got this year:
Need: Warm Clothes for CO! Snow boots, the cutest toboggans, fleece lined leggings and turtleneck sweaters.
Read: Dash Into Learning Reading Curriculum for the biggest! AG is so interested in learning to read and these will be a lot of fun to practice with. Millie is getting a boxed Angelina Ballerina set (found at Costco! They have the best book selection!) that I know will be a hit.
Wear: I always do Pajamas but I also sort of cheated on the rule this year and purchased mermaid tails from HomeGoods that are basically snuggie blankets. They will absolutely be more excited about these than the PJ’s! They’re kind of like these but the HG options are available in less obnoxious colors. Go grab one!!!!
Want: AG asked for dollhouse furniture this year so I grabbed some of the Maileg mice and Maileg furniture she’d been eyeing in a local shop. Millie doesn’t really know what she wants (she’s 2) but she mentioned a “car” when I asked her so she’s getting a sweet little Le Toy Van car that the Maileg mice can fit in.
Not Expecting: I’m sooooo excited to gift Millie this sweet princess train set. She has a ton of fun with the train table in our local toy shop and our little IKEA $9 train set just doesn’t have the same wow factor. I’m also thrilled to gift AG a very special coco and wolf liberty print picnic blanket that I know we’ll all get so much use out of for many many years. A special heirloom the girls can keep in the family forever.
Santa: Santa’s bringing Millie a Nemo helmet (found at Ollie’s for $10 one day and knew my nemo obsessed girl would die of happiness if she had it!) and pretend sweets (my dad got them the sweets cart that goes with it!) He’s bringing AG disney princess chutes + ladders as well as this play dough ice cream truck she asked him for!
I don’t feel like I went overboard, the girls will be thrilled on Christmas morning, and shopping was so much fun. Grandparents, aunts and uncles get to do as much spoiling as they’d like. And they reallllllly run with that haha!
I’ve received some messages about how we’re handling Santa in the Fussell house so I wanted to chat about that about that a bit in a child-free zone. We do Santa but we don’t overdo Santa. He’s not the hero of the story. We don’t use naughty/nice language and don’t let Santa get the credit for the good presents lol. We don’t have an elf that reports back to Santa (absolutely no shame on anyone that does though!!!) Christmas is all about Jesus and I think the girls are really starting to understand that. Now I’m not sure what the heck we’ll say when they start asking if he’s real or questioning the whole operation. We’ll probably point back to Saint Nicholas and share about how there’s now a character (like the ones at Disney!) inspired by him, here to help us celebrate Jesus! Santa is fun. Frosty the Snowman is fun. Rudolph is fun. I love Christmas and all that comes with it but just try to keep reminding my littles that all of the celebration is for Jesus!
