My New Christmas Tradition: Want, Need, Wear, and Read

Honestly, my kids have too much stuff. In particular, toys. A lot that don’t get touched even, and a lot that we don’t have a place for. After their grandparents bought them everything from their wish lists this year before December even started, I had to figure out what exactly that we were going to even get them for Christmas. I also was trying to keep Christmas on a budget.

That’s when I remembered seeing a post about the four Christmas gifts a kid should receive: Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read.

It seemed like a great well-rounded way to celebrate Christmas, and where the kids still have enough presents under the tree to make it exciting. I mentioned the idea to my eight-year-old, and he was completely on board with the idea, and excited about it.

The only change that I really made was eliminating the “something they need”, because I figured the clothes landed into that same category, and the only thing that my toddler and baby really need is diapers, and I am sure I would break into those well before Christmas.

I started with their books.

I love Usborne books and have a friend that I buy them from, and she also had a sale for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. I bought my eight-year-old a nice big book of Bible stories. He already owns a ton of chapter books and my parents got him the Diary of a Wimpy Kid collection of books that he asked for already, so I thought this would be a good choice.

My two-year-old got a book that looks like a firetruck (it has working wheels and everything!), and I got my six-month-old a little book about the ocean, because at that age what else is there to do besides project your interests onto them, right?

Next, I moved on to clothes.

I purchased them from Kohl’s because they had a great Cyber Deal sale going on. I bought both babies matching footie pajamas, because I figured those will be easy to put on them and go as well if we need to run and errand, or even to just wear around the house to stay warm.

For my eight-year-old, I bought him a housecoat, in his favorite color red, because it seemed like something that he would like and hopefully he will use it regularly.

Lastly, I bought the something they want. 

Though my eight-year-old’s list was very short this year because at this point all he really likes to do is play Roblox and any toys would be a waste of money because he doesn’t end up playing with them, it was easy to find him something he would like: A figurine from his favorite Roblox game, a mini-figure from it, and it came with two free Christmas ornaments from the game as part of their Black Friday deal.

For my toddler, I bought a little combination basketball/soccer toy thought Walmart pickup, since he is a huge ball of energy and it seemed like something that he would like, and for my baby, I got a Little People Noah’s Ark toy from Amazon because it was cute and I think he would like holding on to the animal figurines.

I think that this is a tradition that I should have started years ago when I first heard about it, and I think this is a tradition that I will now continue to celebrate in the years to come.

This is a great way I think to give children a fun and great Christmas without over spoiling them with tons of toys and without wasting a ton of money (I say this lovingly, speaking from experience).

They can truly use and appreciate each gift, with the want, need, wear, and read Christmas tradition.