tis the season of giving

Now that the girls are 3 and can understand more of what the Christmas season is about, I'm trying hard to make sure that they understand the importance of giving.

They know that Christmas means, decorating trees, Jesus' birthday, seeing Santa everywhere, telling Santa what they want for Christmas, watching Frosty the Snowman, looking for Tinker (our Elf on the Shelf), looking for beautiful Christmas light displays, and getting presents.

What I want them to also understand is that it is also the time to give.

So this season we have gone to Target to pick out specific toys to bring for Toys for Tots. The girls decided to give Hi-Ho-Cherry-O and Candyland because they enjoy those games a lot.

We also went to Target (on a separate occasion of course) to pick out sets of hats, mittens and scarves to give to kids who need them. Little Pie picked out a purple set and Little Bird picked out a pink. We brought them to one of our MOMS club outings where we also colored Christmas cards to send to servicemen/women overseas.

Yesterday we went through the girls toys and picked out some that they don't play with anymore. We talked about how nice it would be to give them to some other kids to play with. They both agreed that other kids would sure like their toys. They filled five grocery bags with their stuff.

While I know they definitely understand the getting part more than the giving, I think we are off to the right start of understanding the Christmas season. As the years go by, I hope that we have been successful at instilling the right values of this season so that the girls don't need reminding of what it's all about.