What We’re Shopping for this Holiday Season

November 21, 2023Macy M2592 views

We’re old hat at this minimalist family thing. After twelve years in 232 s.f. We have a flow down about ‘stuff’. With the big consumer holiday right around the corner, I thought it was a pertinent time to share how we approach gift giving with the kids again, now that we’re swiftly approaching those tween years where interests explode!

I will tell you that how we view the holidays is a complete 180 from how I was raised in the standard Christmas consumer mindset. Even as a kid I found ‘stuff’ to be very overwhelming. Holidays and birthdays quickly became a very stressful event when I had kids because I felt the need to avoid that system while also trying to not feel bad that my kids were ‘missing out’. I have written before about how we have changed from celebrating Christmas to celebrating Solstice. That alone has meant a lot. Mostly, the difference (for us) comes about celebrating the people in life and their very soul. It’s not about rewards for being ‘naughty or nice’. It’s about their strengths, interests, cycles and what their human animal, specifically, brings to the world, community and to our family. We also celebrate the cycles of the seasons, the turning of a new year, this property we call home and all that has impacted us in any way we have feelings about. We do some fun candle lighting traditions where we spend time recognizing and saying out loud all the things we’re proud of and grateful for. We recognize all this year has given us, and build up excitement for the coming year, stating goals and hopes!

While that is a big shift in our perspective, I think homeschooling has had a pretty big effect on changing my mindset, too. Certainly more than the limited space of the tiny home has influenced things. Homeschooling has given me a closeness to my kids to know exactly where their interests are. Every gift they are given from us this time of year is an acknowledgement of them. We don’t do ‘toys’. They earn their own money and buy their own toys. We give tools to develop skills, experiences to reinforce interests, and gear to make it all more comfortable.

As a side note, because we homeschool through Tech Trep (a publicly funded way to homeschool our kids), and they give us a stipend that we can use for educational materials, Miles and Hazel tend to get a lot more gifts ‘from us’ than we would usually justify. Most everything we get for them falls under that umbrella of ‘educational materials’. We keep things in check by asking a few questions before we push the ‘check out’ button:

Is this enriching?
Is this useful? And will this get used?
Will this help them on their life’s course?
What happens when they are done with it?

We prefer gifts that get used up or have a useful life when passed on. We also prefer gifts that have been used in the past if they aren’t consumables. Books and other items we regularly buy second hand as a way to save money and reuse what’s already out there.

I am going to write a list of some of the gifts we have given that our kids have really enjoyed over the years. Some we still have and some have been all used up! It’s important (and required) to note that these links I am providing are affiliate links. That means that, if anything is purchased using them, I will get a small portion of sale at no additional cost to the purchaser.

Books

Cookbooks – THIS is one of my kids’ favorites
Favorite series – Hazel’s favorite right now is Percy Jackson, Miles is a big fan of the DogMan series. My motherly favorite is The Wild Robot series, which just released their third book!
Reverse color books – we haven’t got this one before but one of the kid’s friends was showing me her reverse color book and telling me how awesome it is. I know Hazel will love it this year. It never hurts to approach creativity from another perspective!

Art Supplies/tools

Toolbox – no link here but this year I will be making each kid and their friends their own, personalized, tool box that we can slowly stock with appropriate tools.
Alcohol Markers – This has been Miles and Hazels latest favorite, they like that they can layer them for more depth in their drawings.
Clay – the one that has gotten the most play for us, and I’m talking over YEARS at this point is the cheap, crayola kind that doesn’t air dry. They make things and remake things over and over. Hazel is getting to the point where she likes using the bake to harden clay for specific things, but just plain modeling clay is always fun for them.
Paintbrushes – We can never seem to have enough paint brushes. Kids get a little scatterbrained and sometimes forget to wash out a brush and have to learn the hard way why they can no longer use their favorite brush. For this reason, we stick with cheap ones until they learn to consistently take care of their tools.
Woobles Kits – This is Hazel’s newest obsession. She taught herself how to crochet this fall and now wants to collect ALL the sets. Her very frugal mom doesn’t play that way, which is why these make very special gifts. Wobbles is great because they have videos that go along with each kit which make it very easy to understand for novice crocheters. Miles thought he would be into this as well, it turns out he is not. 😀

Board Games

Clue – We like the classics. Not saying that we haven’t bought new ones thinking they looked fun. It turns out James and I don’t like complicated rules so we mostly find the games that get played are the ones we played as kids, too. Clue is the kids’ favorite. I don’t think it’s as fun but I think it’s because I have better powers of deduction (and hold my cards better) so I tend to win at this one. It does help the kids start to see logic though, I can’t deny that.
Pictionary – My all time favorite. We originally got the new game with the electronic pen and I HATE it. It’s a terrible way to complicate such a fun game! I waited for months to find a good deal on a much older used version of the game just so I could play it like it should be played, with some paper and pencils!
Boggle – We have mostly graduated to aps to play word type games like scrabble but Boggle is still a good one to play around a table. And it stretches their reading and vocab muscles!

Clothes

Winter base layers – Merino wool base layers are a great go to. They cost more than most thermal base layers but it’s because they are better! We spend a lot of time outdoors and kids get wet. Wool stays warm even if wet. Warm kids ALWAYS complain less than cold kids and tend to enjoy what they do (play) more, too!
Socks – for all the same reasons, wool socks are always given this time of year in our house.
Fun shirts – This mom does not love being a billboard for any company. Literally everything I wear and that I buy the kids contains no logos. I do like buying quality but I hate having logos cluttering up my body, we get enough of that from every other direction in life. Yet, I have these kids, who have interests that are different than mine. As a way to validate their interests, this is the only time of year that I spend my money on weird clothing. Mostly it is Miles who really loves his interests displayed on his stomach so there is usually some video game shirt or cool hats that are purchased so he can scratch those particular wants and express himself in a way I have never fully understood :D.

Food

Weird fruits – No link here either but this was my favorite gift ever received. When I built my tiny house and had a house warming/open house, my brother brought over a basket of fruit with literally every type of fruit he could find. I had never tried a dragon fruit, or a papaya or several of the other things in that basket but I had the BEST time going through them one by one and tasting them. Such a weird thing. But now, I try to find a fruit my kids have never had this time of year and crack it open on solstice. I think it pulls the focus back to what the earth does for us but it’s also terrifically fun!
Funky Chips – This one is mostly about James and his obsession with spicy things. The kids have taken to searching down some new snack or hot sauce item for him to try each year.
Cocoa – gourmet cocoas are ALWAYS a win in our house. Gifts really don’t have to be expensive to be the favorite. Last year my fifty cent bag of mint cocoa was a huge hit. And I am noticing kids really love food items that are ‘just theirs’ to eat when and how they see fit. Maybe my two just have control issues, but still, it’s true in our house.

Experiences

Escape Rooms – This one is quickly becoming a Thanksgiving tradition in our family. Our kids and adults all love games of logic. Escape rooms that we can do with extended family are never dull. Not every escape room is appropriate for kids but most places where you can escape a room have kid friendly games…
Video Games – This one is Miles again, he’s our only gamer. Listening for what he’s excited about is a way we validate his human being. Often video games become a great distractor in life. We still find a lot of validity in the skills they also provide like teamwork, logic, strategy. Miles learned to read from Zelda Breath of the Wild. He never had interest in other things but he really wanted to know what was going on in that game so he figured it out!
Classes – Both our kids have interests that we don’t necessarily share, though we appreciate. By hopping on Outschool, or Udemy or any other teaching platform, we can find classes that help take them to their own next level. Because we have never treated education like a chore, they tend to get pretty excited about those classes. I have seen eye rolls when we tell people we got our kids a class for their birthday or a holiday but I assure you, they love it. And they feel important because they gain their own skills separate from anyone else in their family.

Quirky

Hot Snaps Hand warmers – these reusable hand warmers have been a loved addition to our wild school days. The kids share them with their friends and appreciate warm pockets to stuff a hand into between snow fights.
Science/engineering kits – Mark Rober (Crunch Labs) and Generation Genius Science kits are something out of my personal budget BUT the kids have received them from relatives and LOVE them. We have spent hours and hours one both of these subscription kits together.
Magazine subscription – similar idea to a subscription kit but just picking a magazine on a subject that they are interested in is well loved in our house. Again it’s kind of fun for my kids to gain skills that no one else in the family holds, magazines offer a lot of avenues toward that AND affirm the individual!

I’m sure I can keep writing but hopefully that sparks some good ideas for those in your life. The real point (for me) is to just fully see and appreciate a person for who they are and how they live their life. Also, it’s nice to let them know how they enrich yours, too. Because of this, you can catch me regularly writing letters to people in this period of hibernation leading up to a great new year! We’re all connected afterall.

Happy holidays to you and yours!