You may have already heard about the four gift rule for Christmas but we wanted to share a new way to give four gifts for Christmas that might be a bit more meaningful and special, after all 2020 has flipped most of the world on its head.
Don’t get us wrong, we love spoiling people at Christmas but for the majority of households this year might mean we have to tighten our belts and scale back to appreciate it a little more.
The Four Gift Rule Explained:
This idea could work for you if you are looking for a way to cut back on the ‘mine, mine, mine’ that can sometimes accompany Christmas morning, or if you are saving money, or even if you simply want to find a way to set a boundary or limit on the gift-giving.
- Something they want
- Something they need
- Something to wear
- Something to read
However, we thought we’d change it just a bit. Take out the “wear” part. (When our children need new clothes, we usually buy them when they need them. Children grow so fast, sometimes growing a whole shoe-size in less than two months, so they can’t wait for Christmas to get bigger shoes.)
Plus, we had something else in mind. We wanted to give them an experience, something to remember. So we decided to give the four-gift rule a little “makeover,” and we changed the WEAR to GO.
Here are the ‘NEW’4 gifts for Christmas rules:
- Something they want
- Something they need
- Somewhere to go
- Something to read
Something they want:
If they have something in mind that’s great (Let’s be honest, we all use to love flicking through the Argos catalog and circling those ‘essential’ items you wanted). But for some ideas, it could be; toys, family games, headphones, speakers, etc.
Something they need:
Maybe something they need for a sport they play, a project they are studying at school, backpack, shin pads, etc
Somewhere to go:
Now, this is where we have mixed it up a little bit, we love the idea of creating experiences and memories, we’d much rather spend money on an experience and a memory that on something plastic that’ll end up in a landfill in 2 years.
As the children get older, these places might become more expensive, but they are creating memories that will last a lifetime, instead of spending money on something that will be lost or broken.
- Camping
- Tickets to an amusement park
- A note that says, “We are going to the beach!” or a picture of your favorite beach.
- Tickets to the movies
- Season passes to a sporting event
- Tickets to a play
- Roller skates with a “We’re going skating!” note
Something to read:
This could be something as simple as a book from their favorite author, a magazine subscription, or a voucher for them to pick a book from their favorite shop.
We’d love to know what you think about our alternative savvy Christmas idea or if you have any ways to make Christmas special on a budget – we’d love to hear from you!
