Mommy Monday-Gift Giving

With Christmas right around the corner (59 days, OMG!!!) I thought I would talk about gift giving especially for children.  I LOVE giving meaningful and thoughtful gifts.  I am a firm believer in, "it's the thought that counts not the monetary value."  I'm always looking for new ideas in terms of gift giving.  Perhaps you are too, so I thought I would share some of my past ideas.  (This post I'm only sharing kid gift ideas.)

For my nieces and nephews I always do experiences and not items.  They get so many THINGS and it's rare that they need another material item.  Also I love spending time with them and this is quality time we get to spend together.  They've gotten to realize that this is a tradition and I think it's something they look forward to.  I really hope they will look back and remember these times fondly.

I've done a girls night slumber party where we painted toes, played endless "Just Dance" on the WII, played board games, and had a fun breakfast together.  Another year I took all the kids to Disney on Ice.  Once I took the girls to get professional manicures and then we went out for ice cream.  One of my favorites was a camping slumber party in my backyard.  We pitched a huge tent, told stories after dark, roasted s'mores in our fire pit, played a ton of outside games, camped outside, and had a yummy homemade breakfast the next morning.  One year the day before Christmas they came over to decorate Christmas cookies and make reindeer cupcakes and Nutter Butter snow men.  This last Christmas I had a North Pole Breakfast the day after Thanksgiving to kick off the season.  We had a Christmas themed breakfast, decorated gingerbread houses, and played games.

Here are some pics of some of the fun times:

I also love the ideas of 25 days of Christmas.  These are small gifts for each day.  It's so fun to see the excitement of the daily gift.  You can do a Christmas book a day or intermix small gifts and activities.  Some activity ideas are pop popcorn and go look at Christmas lights, decorate your Christmas tree, movie night, make Christmas cookies, and walk down Christmas Tree Lane.

Some tips I have for gift giving and receiving is creating lists.  I create a wish list on my phone that I can add to thru out the year.  This way when family asks for a Christmas list I don't have to rack my brain for things we want or need. I think asking for gift certificates for kids is great.  That way we can do fun activities together and not get a million toys.  I also think asking for contributions to a college fund is great. For gift giving I create an Excel sheet of everyone we buy for.  I write down ideas in the column next to their name and when I purchase them I put it in bold.  I keep each year on this same list so I can refer back.

For more ideas check out gifts.com for gift ideas.  You can search by occasion, recipient, personality, etc.