An entirely subjective guide to holiday gifts
The holidays are here, hooray!
If you celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas like we do, gift-giving during the holidays can be particularly tricky. I do generally love offering gifts though, so in our family - so far, at least - we’ve been giving S 8 smallish gifts for Hanukkah and one bigger “Christmukkah” one. Since he’s not yet at an age to be picky about what he wants, it’s really up to us to observe and come up with ideas regarding what would be somehow useful for him - which is in any case so much more fun.
We try to stick to the following in order to make it a bit easier to figure out what to give him; and also so that, should we stick to the 8 gifts in the future, the kids know there are rules:
Something he wants
Something he needs
Something to wear
Something to read
Each of these times 2.
Here’s what we’ve gifted him for Hanukkah this year:
A spinning top. Whenever we go to kids’ cafés he goes straight for it. Since it’s a small, inexpensive toy I didn’t see the harm in giving him one, and 6 days later he still loves it, which is a win in my book. Category: Wants.
A donation to Doctors Without Borders. This is something Yann-Yves and I came up with last year and which we’re definitely sticking to in the years to come. I.e., one of the kids’ Hanukkah gifts must be a donation to an NGO or charity of their choice. Until they can choose, we’ll choose for them and make the donation in their names. Category of its own.
A musical book. Our family in Shanghai has introduced us to the wonderful world of musical books last Hanukkah, and S has been obsessed with them ever since. He’s broken/ripped a few of them already, so we can never have too many. Bonus: A “Curious George” book about Hanukkah sent by his auntie in China. Category: Read.
A ball. How exciting! I know. But he didn’t have a ball up to now and this is another kids’ café favorite. Again, small and inexpensive, and a total success. Category: Wants.
Winter boots. He didn’t have any yet and definitely needed them now that he’s walking everywhere. Category: Wear/Needs.
House shoes, ditto as above. Category: Wear/Needs.
A book about Jewish fairytales and legends. This one he’ll only be able to actually appreciate in a few years, but we find it important to start building a cultural library for him (and can’t wait to read him all these stories without him trying to rip the pages off the books!). Bonus - a book about interfaith holidays called “December’s Gift”, also sent by our family in Shanghai. This one made me tear up, as our strength as a family lies above all in love, with a firm foundation of tolerance and multiculturalism. Category: Read.
And finally, a LEGO Duplo set, once again sent by our super thoughtful and generous family. While S is still in a phase where he’s most interested in tearing stuff apart rather than building them up, this gift is definitely going to tickle his motor skills - and I can’t wait to build stuff with him. Category: Needs…?
To be honest, he’s too young for these categories to be clearly defined. He can’t express what he wants yet, and most of what he needs blends in with something to wear since he outgrows his clothes so quickly. But these categories do give us, and relatives, a general guideline when choosing gifts. And, most importantly, they help us prevent raising super spoiled kids and accumulating stuff we/they don’t need.
Now, his Christmas gift is a whole other can of worms. He’s only getting one and we probably won’t be gifting him anything else before his birthday in July, so we’d like to make it count. We’re hesitating between a kid’s table + chairs, a mini kitchen, a little teepee…
Ideas would be greatly appreciated!
