As those of you who read my blog this fall know, my son had a serious issue come up at his old school, and I was not at all comfortable with the way the principal handled it. (Basically, he wanted to hide the issue as much as possible and not let all the parents of the children who were affected know about what happened.) As a parent, this made me uncomfortable enough to pull my son from the school.
Because of what happened to him and changing school in the middle of the semester, my son has had some behaviorial issues since then. We are working with him, and his meltdowns, as we call them, are getting better, but on Christmas Eve, he had three major meltdowns.
My husband and I were so exasperated that we purposely didn’t give him all of his Christmas presents from us on Christmas day. (We gave him about 75% of his presents.) Instead, he had to earn the rest by exhibiting good behavior such as listening and not having meltdowns.
He got to open the first present we didn’t give him for Christmas on the 26th. On the 27th, he and his sisters opened their presents from their godparents. He didn’t get a present today, but he and his sisters still have presents from their grandparents that they will open later in the week.
While we did this initially to drive a point home to our son, we have all rather enjoyed stretching out the gift opening. Even my son has enjoyed it. He can look forward to another surprise each day and he has time to play with what he gets before he gets another present.
My husband and I have decided for next year for all of our kids to give them half of their presents on Christmas Day. For the rest we will have them open one a day for the week after Christmas. Works for me.
I think one of my all time favorite sayings is “Less is more.” This story is certainly a good example of why I love these words 🙂
A few years ago my hubby decided the kids should open one present an hour. We’ve been doing it that wau ever since. We start when they wake up and go until about 6 or so, then whatever is left they can open all at once. With 6 kids it’s nice to be able to see their faces when they open something and not lose persents in the mess of wrapping paper!
we only do 3 gifts from us:
Something you want (santa + stockings)
Something need (us and its a share gift)
Something your wear (us)
Something you read (us)
this is great, cost effective and they are fine with only get this much (or little if you think it seems kinda cheap 🙂 but it works for us !)
Each family just needs to do what ever works for them and makes them happy so you can enjoy the holidays. I’m glad you figured out a great way for your family. 🙂
Happy Holidays
What a great idea! They only got two presents from Santa this year. But I love your plan. It would definitely help keep spending in check!
I have to say I’m a bit shocked that you used Christmas presents as a punishment. I think children get so excited about Christmas it’s hard for them to behave as they normally would at other times of the year. Remember, they are children, not adults. Even adults get a little out of sorts at Christmas time. I guess you have to do what you feel works for your family.
We divided Christmas up into 3 days with our 14 month old. It worked out great for us. I think I’ll do it again in the future and possibly spread out the presents even more. Christmas is overwhelming for small kids (big kids too even) – giving him a few toys to open up over several days was kind of fun!
I agree. My kids actually really liked it.