I thought to myself, “You are destroying Christmas. This is not what Christmas is about. This is not what you want your children to become – entitled brats who want more and more stuff.”
After that Christmas, we moved to this gift-giving structure: something you want, something you need, something you wear, and something you read.
Instead of buying every gift they could ever want, we got super thoughtful about gift-giving. We found that they were much more discerning about what they desired and were more grateful for what they received. I did not come up with this concept myself – I heard it years ago. But I have to admit, it’s changed our family. We all felt both lighter and enriched, as well as truly heard and seen.