Teaching Children Charity at Christmas
Dustin Wax of Stepdadding has a great post on LifeHack.org about how to teach your children charity at Christmas.
He suggests that children (with mom or dad's help) sort their toys into three piles: keep, trash or donate. He advises, "Explain to them that while they are dreaming of new toys for Christmas, there are lots of kids whose families can’t afford to give their children new toys, and that those children would be happy to have some of your kids’ toys to play with."
I love this idea because it involves children in giving. As a young child, I remember going to the toy store with my mother to purchase some presents for Toys for Tots. As I grew older, volunteering as a family became a meaningful part of our holiday traditions. But the memory of that first trip to the toy store still sticks with me. It was such a great way to introduce the concept of charity and made a big impression on pre-school me.
We'll be posting more charitable suggestions over the next few days. In the meantime, we'd love to hear your tips about how to teach children about holiday giving.
Filed under Charity
Daily Email Digest | Semi-Monthly Newsletter | RSS
12.21.07 at 3:03 pm
Mama Luxe comments:
That is a fabulous idea. Baby is a little young to sort her toys even with my help, but she can watch me sort my closet out and “help” me by putting things in the right pile and coming with me to drop things off.
We also donate a percentage of her holiday + birthday money each year and as she gets older, she’ll choose the type of charities. As she gets even older, we’ll research them together.
School aged kids can also help you make dinner for the Ronald McDonald House, visit a retirement home or a veterans home, bake cookies for a Children’s Advocacy Center, and teens can help serve at a soup kitchen.
I think it is also important to remember this year ’round. It is wonderful to donate (especially gift items) at Christmas, and to also give of your time and energy at times when people are less likely to think of helping.