Our Approach On Christmas Presents

This has been another topic I've been having "internal battles" with myself now that Maddox is starting to understand "getting presents". In the past (as in before having a child), I just knew I wanted to buy my kid a mountain of toys every year. I didn't want to set any kind of limit. I just wanted to buy for my child until there was nothing left to buy. Last year, we bought Maddox a reasonable amount of "stuff" for his age. He was only 3 months old, so there wasn't a whole lot we could buy. This year on the other hand, I could probably buy for him until the cows came home if I didn't set a limit. I thought maybe a $100-200 limit or just to tell myself not to go overboard with buying, but then I thought I know myself better than to set a limit like that because I will con myself into spending way too much.

Then one day, I came across this blog post at Stacy Makes Cents and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. In her post she talked about how they do presents for their children. Like me they chose not to do Santa and really wanted the focus of Christmas to be on Jesus. So, what they do is give their children 3 gifts representing the 3 gifts that the wise men brought for baby Jesus (Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh ). Click Here to read what each gift means. How brilliant is that idea?!? Not only does it set a limit to my buying problem, but it also gives a special meaning as to why we give 3 presents. 

So, this year for Maddox's "gold" gift we bought him a train table used for less than 40% of the original price! My child is 1 & he's not going to know it didn't come from Toys R Us.

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For his Frankincense gift, we bought him a Fisher-Price Noah's Ark Playset also used on eBay, so I was able to get a lot more figurines with it than if I had bought it new.

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And finally for his Myrrh gift, I bought him a Sesame Street potty seat for when we start attempting to potty train in a few months. It makes fun noises and is super padded, so hopefully that will spark his interest!

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We are still doing a stocking with stocking stuffers too. Some things I bought to go in that are sippy cups, little underwears, baby leg warmers, 2 nativity books, a Melissa & Doug toy, & there will be a little bit of candy too :)

This is our family's approach on giving gifts & what we feel comfortable with. I can't wait until we are able to really explain the meaning behind the gifts & he is able to understand.

 What are your approaches to buying gifts?