Making the Magic: Part Two

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This year I’ve seen a whole lot of people looking for an earlier influx of Christmas joy in their lives.  How do I know?  The countless friends who are putting their decorations out early, the radio stations playing Christmas music in October, the Black Friday sales that started weeks ago and will continue through the season… the list goes on.  I’m not judging.  I started Christmas shopping in August!  Some of our traditions, the way we do gifts for our kids, and the timeline we follow will remain unchanged, but my preparations for those things started happening MUCH earlier than anticipated.  Let’s face it, it’s the second week of December and I’ve completely finished my shopping.  As a result, I’ve gotten text messages, emails, private messages, and phone calls about the way we handle gifting and even WHAT we are giving this year.  So, this post is an answer to those questions.

The Five Gift Rule

My husband and I agreed a long time ago that we wanted Christmas to carry more meaning for our kids than just the gifts they receive. Granted, kids are always going to be excited about gifts – and there’s nothing wrong with that! It’s in their nature… heck, it’s all of our nature, isn’t it!? But, we know that there’s so much more to the story of Christmas than just that. So, we have placed an emphasis on kindness, compassion, generosity, and the birth of Jesus. We have also had to practice some restraint on our own parts for a couple of reasons. Our house is small and storage space at a premium… and our budget can, sometimes, be a little tights (have you seen the rate at which their feet grow!? And the price of shoes!) So, we’ve decided to abide by the “Five Gift Rule” for Christmas. On Christmas morning, our boys receive five gifts and filled stockings. The gifts, they know, come from us – the stockings are from Santa! The gifts fall under five categories: something they want, need, wear, read, and something we all play together.

Something they want…

Recognizing that this winter is going to be a lot of time spent indoors with a lot of rambunctious little boys (this year they are ages 7, 5, 3, and 1) who have spent a LOT of time outside in the past few months, we wanted to do something that might take their focus off of jumping from random pieces of furniture and on to developing some of their balance, coordination, and also provide somewhat of an indoor playground scenario.  For those days that are warm enough for them to spend a little time in the sunshine, our oldest is receiving a skateboard swing!

Boy number two asked for a longboard.. so… a longboard shall be his!

Boy number three loves moving from one piece of furniture to the next like the floor is lava… we are excited to see where his imagination takes him on some indoor stepping stones. 

And the baby?  Well… he needed something he could grow into and use in the meantime – so a wobble board seemed like the perfect solution!  It can be a slide, a stool, a rocker, a surfer, a sit and spin, or anything else his imagination make it!  I’m sure our creative crew will come up with many more uses – here’s hoping there are no broken faces as a result of their never-ending ingenuity.

Something they need…

Remember earlier when I mentioned shoes?  Well, if there’s anything as certain as the sunrise and the sunset, it’s the fact that their feet grow as fast as the speed of light so they ALWAYS need shoes!  Luckily for us, they LOVE new shoes!  So they’re all getting new shoes this year.  For the littlest brother, this will be his FIRST pair of shoes.  I can’t wait to see them on his chubby little feet.  

Something they wear…

In a future post, you’ll learn that one of my tricks to keeping the volume of laundry down in this house we use capsule wardrobes for our boys.  Their bodies grow as quickly as their feet and their personalities are so different that it’s just easier to have a set of basics and add in some “personality pieces” with each game of hand-me-down.  So, for Christmas, they’re getting six pieces of clothing: three pairs of pants, two shirts, and one hoodie.  Or, for the baby, three one-piece outfits (because they’re my favorite and the easiest to keep track of), and one hoodie that coordinates with them all.  All of the items have come from a total of four places (thank you, early Black Friday sales!): The Children’s Place, Old Navy, Target, and Walmart.  Find the capsules you want, buy the basics you need, and do it with the sales that give you the best value!

Something they read…

Our oldest is all about “becoming a man”.  He LIVES to have a job, responsibility, and to learn new skills.  What better book for a guy like that than this one? The Dangerous Book for Boys has all kinds of tips and tricks that adventurous little boys would love to know and there is a sequel for when he’s older! I can’t wait to see what skills he gains this year with this in his library.

Our second wants nothing more in this life than to become a paleontologist… we have countless dinosaur encyclopedias, Danny and the Dinosaur, the How do Dinosaurs series.  We have them all.  But this year, on one of our weekly library trips, he found Everything Awesome About Dinosaurs and immediately asked that it be “added to his list”.  I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he opens it. If you have a little interested in Sharks or just cool facts, in general – they’ve got you covered for those as well!

As far as our third-born little dude, he loves watching the Gruffalo shows on Netflix – but he loves reading books more.  His current favorite is the Pout Pout Fish series and he has them all.  But when we go to the library, the first titles he pulls and looks at are The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child.  So, we think it’s time they were added to his personal library.

The baby’s room is decorated with the artwork from the Nancy Tillman book, “On the Night You Were Born.”  It only seemed fitting that he receive a box set of her board books – coincidentally, the books in this box are the exact books he’s missing from her series.  We’re looking forward to adding them to the list of bedtime stories we have to chose from for him.

Something we play…

This year, our boys have gotten BIG into board and card games.  I don’t know if it’s just this stage of their development or the increased time at home and desire to fight boredom, but it’s FUN!  In previous years we only did four gifts, but their desire to continue to play as a family inspired us to add a category – Games!

Our biggest brother is working on reading and word-building. He wants to have a game only he can play with his parents and he’s HUGE into fishing! Fishing for Words seemed like the perfect solution to all of his requests so we’re giving it a try.

The next one in line, as we said earlier, LOVES dinosaurs and went crazy when he saw T Rex Rocks. I can’t wait to see him open it on Christmas morning and, if I’m honest, I’m pretty excited about playing it!

The third is just getting his toes wet in the game realm of things and he is loving games like Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, Feed the Woozle, and Yeti in the Spaghetti, but what he loves even more is to build things with his magnatiles.  So, when I saw the new Magnatiles Treasure Hunt game I knew he would enjoy it – we’re looking forward to playing it with him.

Unfortunately for the littlest angel, he’s not quite to the gaming stage, so no game for him.  I guess he’ll just have to get a little something extra this year – though, we haven’t yet decided what that will be.

The Stockings

In our house, our boys know that the gifts come from Mom and Dad, but the stockings are all Santa.  He knows what they need and he helps them out!  This year, the stockings are filled to overflowing!  I have made it a habit, throughout the year, to keep my eyes on the clearance aisles whenever I’m at the store – if there’s something that catches my eye, I store it in the closet until it’s time to stuff those stockings.  It saves money and gives me some ideas I may not have thought of if it wasn’t staring me in the face.  The older three got similar items to each other – here’s the general rundown!

The Two Oldest Princes

Kinetic Sand, Hexbug Ants, Hexbug Nanos, Fidget Spinners, Wallets, Water Bottles, Small Tool Sets, Kinder Eggs, New Underwear, and New Hat.

Prince No. 3

Kinetic Sand, Hexbug Cuddlebot, Water Bottle, PJ Masks Micro Figures, Peg Dolls, Peg Doll Car, Peg Doll House & Furniture, Kinder Eggs, New Underwear, and New Hat.

The Baby Prince

PipSquigz Loops, Fat Brain Dimpl, Sippy Cups, Hide and Squeak Eggs, Peg Dolls, Peg Doll Boat, Peg Doll House & Furniture, Baby-Friendly Snacks.

I hope this has been helpful for those of you struggling with magic-making this year. I also hope that, once the magic has been made, you can sit back, relax in front of a fire, and look forward to a happy Christmas, filled with wonder, joy, and MAGIC!