That only means buying holiday gifts for your family, especially the kids, is going to be an expensive affair and requires better strategies. As a parent, you will want the best for your kids. However, the price rise and unexpected expenses may damper the holiday spirit.
Your children may not understand any of this. As a parent, what can you do? Should you do whatever it takes to make them happy? Or teach the kids the value of money and the importance of sticking to the budget?
Most financial experts believe that children, even as young as three years, should be taught the value of money. Any good habit may appear to be painful at the moment but will give you great returns in the future.
Value of a budget
A budget is a plan that records income and expenses in a set time period. Every home should have a home budget for monthly payments, transactions, and savings. You can have special budgets for special occasions like Christmas.
Since the holiday season comes with a lot of spending, a holiday budget is necessary right from the start of the year. The holiday budgets are a fun way to introduce budgeting to children. When it comes to getting holiday gifts for your kids, here are some strategies to help them.
Let them shop for each other
Set an amount for getting gifts to your kids and divide it equally for each kid. So if you have two kids and you set aside $150 for them, each kid will get a gift worth $75. This way, you don’t end up spending hundreds of dollars.
Once you give the kids the money, take them out shopping. Allow the kids to shop for presents for their siblings. You will be surprised to see how thoughtful kids are. By allowing kids to buy presents on their own, you are practically teaching them budgeting and spirit giving. They also learn the value of money and its transactional nature.
Gifts according to age
Older children may not want toys. They might wish to get tablets or video games. You should be prepared to get something different for the older siblings who will not want a toy truck. So set an overall limit and then set a specific amount for younger and older siblings
The 3 or 4 gift rule
The 3 or 4 gift rule is simple: get 3 or 4 gifts from the following categories for each child — wants, needs, clothes and books. This rule is popular because you will cover most of what they need throughout the year. So one kid may get stationaries, another may get toys, another might get a hoodie, and another may get a storybook.
Pack and open them together
Get the excitement rolling for Christmas Day by getting the kids to open their holiday gifts together with the family. All of you can watch a movie, have a meal and play fun games. Make it a memorable day. Meanwhile, here are our picks on holiday gifts you can buy after Christmas.
Reason for the season
Make holidays all about the activities you do together as a family. Plan activities like baking, cooking, decorating, Christmas cooking competitions, etc. Even if you are just going to exchange gifts, you can host a special dinner followed by exchanging gifts and playing games.
Your children will carry these memories into adulthood and will reminisce these days more than material gifts. It’s truly the season to be jolly. We wish you a very Merry Christmas!
