1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judæa: for thus it is written by the prophet,
6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
11 ¶And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:1-11)
Just as the Christ child received three gifts from the Wise Men each of our children receives three gifts. (Of course they also receive gifts from grandparents and friends but from our immediate family the number is three.) Two come from mom and dad and the third comes from the sibling gift exchange. Those sibling gifts are always homemade. It is so delightful to help them as they secretly scheme and plan, sew and build the perfect gift for one another.
The gifts we give as parents usually fall into two categories: one that is meaningful and one that goes along with their interests or talents.
For example the meaningful gifts this year are:
The Faith of Our Pioneer Fathers
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| Living Water by Elspeth Young |
The four younger girls will get the print of “their” woman from Elspeth Young’s Women of the Bible series. Two of our daughters don’t have a print to match their name so we chose unnamed women whose stories are faith filled, Living Water (The Samaritan Woman at the Well) and What Is to Be Done For Thee? (The Shunammite). The three older girls already have theirs (they received them for Easter) framed and hanging in their bedrooms. These prints are gorgeous!
The sibling gifts are always homemade. Sometimes it can be tricky to think of something good to make but in the end an idea always presents itself. Here are some of the things being made for siblings this year.
Mr. Ferrero Rocher is helping to make
an earring holder similar to this but with a mesh screen in the wings.
And a swing like this.
I am helping to sew an apron, an art kit,
and a pettiskirt.
There is also a personalized beauty book with hair style ideas and how-to’s, make up application techniques, and nail polish design ideas all contained in a small binder. (Thank you, Pinterest!)
And quiet books downloaded and printed from Simply Fresh Designs.
How do you do gifts at Christmas?
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Those are SUCH good ideas and I love that swing! My kids are really missing having any kind of swing set where we live. I love giving good books to my kids. This year I’m going to make a spreadsheet for my brother who recently got back from his mission. The spreadsheet will be a budget sort of thing to help him keep track of where all his money goes. He’ll also get some kind of file system to keep things organized. Sounds boring, but hopefully it will be truly useful and benefit him at this time in his life.
Gotta love pintrest!
I have been collecting ideas on mine for next year. This year we have been thinking and changing our traditons. We actually sat down last week for FHE and laid out a plan of values for our family. We discussed all the places we wanted to change, what our values WERE as a family (sunday dress, movies we will/won’t watch, etc) and had some pretty awesome discussion from our kids. Next year Christmas is going to be pretty different than this year, and I look forward to it!
We end up having a mix of purchased and made gifts; this season, we’re doing some really fun made gifts, and the whole family is buzzing. With only four kids, we don’t do a drawing; each child tends to work on a project, or select a small gift, for each child. It’s a long-established tradition to accept even the odd gifts graciously, so my kids have learned to delight in the convoluted gift-giving thought process of the toddlers, for instance.
I do wish I could convince my husband’s family that it’s okay to NOT shop so heavily for our kids! They express love primarily through gifts, though, so cutting them off would be felt as a rejection of love, which is not the goal.
At least my kids are aware that we don’t *need* so much. The little girls recently cleaned out their toy stash, and brought me bagged sets of things like play food and blocks, so I could “take them to kids who need toys”. I was tickled that they grouped things into useful, playable sets… but rather suspicious that they were doing it to avoid having to tidy their room. 🙂
Last year, we did all homemade gifts, one for each child, and one from their sibling who drew their name in the gift exchange.
THIS year, we’re going back to our former tradition of “Something they want, Something they need, Something to wear, and Something to read” from Mom and Dad, and then something from the sibling gift exchange.
I like being able to change things based on the needs and desires of each year. 🙂 (Yeah, my middle name is spontaneous! LOL!)
I like how you keep it simple, we are heading in that direction but not quite as organized yet.
Your homemade gifts are amazing! When speaking with my children they said those are always their most favorite gifts to both give and receive.
I love the three gifts, we’ve been doing that from the start.
One from Santa, one from mom and dad and one from the sibling.
Or course Santa usually manages to sneak something past mom and into the stocking. He’s a sneaky guy, that Santa.
We do a family gift exchange. Each family member gives to another family member. Then, if we can afford it, each of the kids gets a gift from Mom and Dad too.
I love your gift ideas!
Can Mr. Ferrero Rocher make me an earring holder too?!! I had a cool one shaped like a tree that I bought in Chile, but it got left behind 🙁 *Bambi eyes *
Can you steer me in the direction of a pattern/instructions for making the swing?? merryagray@yahoo.com