When my niece was six years old, she wanted to buy her family gifts for Christmas. So I decided to tell her to start saving her money and we would go Christmas shopping the day she got out of school for Christmas break (they went a half day and had a gift exchange and party before dismissing for the break). She saved every penny she found, and everything that she could, (of course her mom and dad gave her extra jobs and paid her before the date of our shopping trip.)
The day finally came and her 4 year old brother wanted to go, so did some of her cousins on her father's side of the family. So off I go with about 5 kids and their little bit of money. We went to dollar stores, outlet stores, just where ever they wanted to go. Then we all went back to my house and wrapped the presents and put candy canes and other ornaments tied to the bows, which I supplied. We ate cookies and hot chocolate. They took their little, sometime $1.00 or 50 cent, gifts back home, put them under the tree and were so proud of themselves.
The number of kids grew with the years. Thankfully, we had gotten a van by that time which helped! Sometime I would take the girls one day and the boys the next day. This continued until they were around 16 and could drive, but they all still talk about our shopping trips and how much fun we had and how we had a time limit in a store and we stuck to it. When my grandchildren came along, the tradition has continued and they have a ball. Of course, now we have Everything's a Dollar stores and other places to shop that we didn't have in the early 70's!
Sometimes they want to make gifts for mom and dad, so we start early and write down ideas. Usually it is an ornament for the tree, we go and shop for the materials and then come back and craft away. My two older grandsons don't care much for crafting, but love to go out into the woods and find things to make something neat, (They don't know they are crafting, lol). I enjoy this so much, as I learn so much about what their ideas are for the future, what their styles are in many things.
It is the part of the Christmas I wouldn't trade for all the gifts in the world. Oh by the way, this year, they are making a nativity scene out of thing found on our little 5 acres. Little do they know how much they are learning, but they think it is FUN!
Martha in TN
