No Toys?: Giving Our Children Gifts that Make Memories

Every year for Christmas our children get LOTS AND LOTS OF TOYS! 

Each year we have four Christmas events. 

1. Christmas Eve at my dad's

2. Christmas morning at home with just our family.

3. Later Christmas day with my mom, grandma and cousins

4. Another day with my husbands family. 

All of that adds up to way too much stuff! 

Many things are well loved and played with for a while. Most toys lose pieces or break or are simply forgotten and left in a toy box. 

This Christmas my husband and I decided to do something a little different. We will still have some gifts for our children to open on Christmas morning, books, a game or a combination of things yet to be determined. 

                                                My son Hunter a few years ago at our 3rd gift opening event.

The main gifts won't be toys though. We are going to get things we can do as a family! There are things our children have been asking to do for quite some time now and we just haven't had the funds with the job situation. So, for Christmas we are going to give them gift certificates for things like bowling, Chuck E Cheese, roller skating or a zoo membership. 

My mom's reaction when I mentioned getting the kids zoo passes.....

"That's not much fun for them to open."

It may not be fun to open BUT as soon as they realize that we can go to the zoo as much as we want next year or we can go bowling or skating they will be very excited! 

Just to make sure I ran our idea by them a few days ago.

"CHUCK E CHEESE? BOWLING? THE ZOO? YAY!!!!!!!!!!" 

There may not be a pile of toys under the tree but we are sure to make many memories with our children in the coming months that they will remember when the toys have long since been forgotten. 

What is your family doing for gift giving to make things simpler this Christmas?

This post is part of the December Smply Living Blog Carnival

Welcome to the December edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Gift Giving cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children and Laura at Authentic Parenting. This month, we write about what taking sthe stress out of gift giving.

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Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children and Laura at Authentic Parenting. Read about how others are simplifying gift giving. Check back to see what we have in store for 2014!

• Keeping Gifts Simple - JW at True Confessions of a Real Mommy shares a few simple ways to limit gift giving and keep your holiday about the thought over the thing..
• The Mindful Holiday Giving Guide - How many times have you carefully chosen a present for someone and find you missed the mark? Zoie at TouchstoneZ identifies key ways to give mindful holiday gifts that will be truly appreciated.
• Giving Gifts that Keep Giving - At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy shares ideas to help gift givers think outside the (gift) box with gifts that keep on giving.
• Greening the Giving Spirit - Momma Giraffe at Little Green Giraffe writes more eco-friendly Christmas wish-list for her family this year - passing on plastic and gift wrap and saying yes to memories, moments and experience.
• No Toys? : Giving Our Children Gifts that Make Memories - This year, Jacquie at My Blessings Homeschool and her husband decided to do things a little differently with gifts that will make lasting memories instead of the toys that will be lost, broken or forgotten.
• Quick and Easy DIY Gift: Flower Petal Sugar - At Authentic Parenting, Laura whips up a quick and easy last minute gift.

Do you have traditions or methods revolving around simplifying gifts? Do you have a great tutorial on how to make something? We want to hear about it! Just link up your new and old posts before January 16, 2014.