How Your Family Can Have a Minimalist Christmas
Having a minimalist Christmas has become a goal for many parents, and for those parents who are not quite ready to go with a minimalist approach, there still seems to be interest in downsizing the overall gift-giving experience. There are many substantial reasons to attempt a more minimalist approach this Christmas. The benefits impact your children, the earth, and your wallet for the better.
Reasons to Try a Minimalist Christmas
For many families, they want to take away the overly materialistic aspect of the holiday. There are other beautiful themes to focus on this season like generosity of spirit, kindness, peace, and joy. Multitudes of store-bought gifts are not necessary to celebrate these things.
A minimalist approach to Christmas also helps to remove much of the sheer waste that can be associated with the holiday. Gift and toy packaging typically involves disposable plastic galore. Many of the toys and gifts given as holiday presents don’t last much longer than the Christmas break itself. Landfills fill, and the earth bears the brunt of these choices—not to mention the toys that will never decompose no matter how much you pass them along to others to be reused first.
Also, Christmas should not be about the size of our wallets as the size of our hearts is not directly proportional to this. There is so much pressure on families to spend money during the holidays, but the magic of Christmas has nothing to do with the number of presents.
Lastly, overloading children with presents is not necessarily the best thing for them. Having too much makes it hard to appreciate the value of things. It also can make children (and adults!) anxious to open many presents and to try to take in the overstimulation and unnecessary nature of excess.
Tips for a Successful Minimalist Christmas
Fortunately, it’s much easier to minimize the trappings of Christmas than to try to go big with gift giving. Here are a few ways that you can easily have a minimalist Christmas with kids:
The Four Gift Rule
A minimalist gift giving technique that has gained a lot of traction on social media in recent years involves giving each child four gifts for Christmas. The guideline is something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. There is so much room for creativity with this rule, but it points you in the direction of exactly what to buy without going overboard.
