Get Grateful

December 10, 2018 By Diane Constantine

As we’re getting ready for Christmas, it is a great time to focus on instilling in our children how to express gratitude.

When I see a young person with an entitlement mentality, I can foresee an unhappy life ahead for them. If they think that everyone owes them something, they will not be satisfied with what they have and will expect others to make them happy. This is a very sad way to live.

Amy McCready, writing for Today.com, says the Greater Good Science Center reports that gratitude actually blocks toxic emotions even as it allow us to celebrate the present. Grateful people are more stress-resistant and have a higher sense of self-worth.

We may not realize when our children are small, how important training them to say, “Thank you,” will be to their future happiness. Ways to express our gratitude grow as we mature. So, why not begin today to teach your little one ways they can express their thankfulness. What starts as a habit will become a way of life that is fulfilling and pleasing to everyone they associate with.

As preschoolers, we can teach them more than just saying, “thank you,” at appropriate moments. Here are Amy’s suggestions:

Create a thank-you. When your young kids receive gifts, they should be expected to create and send a thank-you picture or short note within one day (or at the rate of one or two thank-you’s per day).
Be polite to Mr. Bear. Role-play using good manners and saying “thank you” using stuffed animals and action figures.
Pick your top 3. At dinner or bedtime, take turns sharing the three best things about your day.
Commit it to memory. Find and memorize thank-you prayers, songs or poems.
Make a different kind of gift list. Write down the things (preferably handmade) your preschoolers would like to give friends and family as holiday gifts.

To read more of Amy’s article and suggestions for older children, see: Get Grateful!

To read about gift buying and how to involve your children in giving, see: Gift Giving

My prayer for you is a holy and joyous Christmas season filled with love.

Gift Giving

December 19, 2017 By Diane Constantine

Are you going into debt to give gifts? How long will the things you buy satisfy and please your children? What are your children learning through these gifts?

Consider these ideas about gift giving:

Don’t go into debt for gifts. They are much more fun to give when you don’t have to face credit card bills in the New Year.
Involve your children in buying gifts for each other and family members.
Include your children in sharing Christmas joy with those less fortunate.
Invite those who have no family of their own to share your holiday celebrations.
Make a memory instead of buying things. (Take your kids to some event or place and spend time together doing something they won’t forget.)

My most memorable childhood Christmases were when we brought an orphan girl to share a few days with us during the holiday season. We each made gifts for her as we did for each other. Other years we helped mom shop for food baskets to take to poor families who lived near-by. We often went as a family to visit older family members and took them homemade cookies or other treats we helped to make.

Christmas 2013

December 7, 2013 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

Christmas has always been a special season for me. My mom used to buy Christmas gifts all year and squirrel them away. Each year she selected one gift to be the gift. It was for only one of us, but we were all excited about what that gift would be and whose it would be.

We woke up Christmas morning with a tree that was decorated over night and surrounded by gifts. We took turns opening the gifts one at a time so everyone could enjoy the thrill of seeing what each one got. Then the moment would come for the gift to be given and opened. It was always perfect! We all celebrated!

Christmas was about giving. We always found some way to make someone less fortunate than us happy too. A few years, we went to an orphanage and brought Jean home to share our Christmas. We each bought her a gift from our allowance and we tried to make her feel like a queen for the day. Some years we bought gifts, wrapped them, and took them to some family who lived in the poor part of our community. We always took food, as well as gifts.

Most of all, I remember the Advent Wreath and how the story of the first Christmas came alive to us little by little through the month before Christmas.

Here are some of the things we have practiced in our own family that you might like to incorproate into your own celebrations:

1. Do not go into debt for gifts. When we didn’t have enough money to buy expensive gifts, we bought ‘meaningful’ gifts. Sometimes the nicest gifts were the homemade coupons we made offering our services to those we loved that could be redeemed throughout the coming year.

2. Make the emphasis giving rather than receiving. Help your children learn to enjoy the delight their gifts give to others.

3. Find ways to reach out to those in need during the season. Get your kids involved in Angel Tree or Shoebox or some other outreach to the needy. Have them help buy, pack, and wrap the gifts; and when possible deliver the gifts. These encounters really leave a lasting impression on youngsters.

4. Remember to tell the story of Jesus’ first coming to our world so it becomes a part of their foundational beliefs. Then teach them to anticipate his second coming, too. The hope of heaven helps us through rough times we will face.

If you have stories of your Christmas, past or present, that you would like to share, please email me at: Diane

May you have a blessed Christmas season. Delight in the preparations and may your faith be contagious!

Blessings!
Diane