Have you heard of the 4 gift rule? It’s super easy to follow and will help you during the holidays with kids and presents!!
The holidays are here with all the hustle and bustle. I decided a few years ago to try and scale back a little on Christmas. Christmas should not just be about presents and gift-giving. Yes, it’s fun having kids and seeing their excitement but honestly, they don’t need much. My kids get a lot of gifts throughout the year. Something came across my Pinterest feed one night and I thought it was a PERFECT idea. It’s the 4 rule gift rule. It’s very simple.
The 4 Gift Rule:
*Something you Want
*Something you Need
*Something to Wear
*Something to Read
How perfect is this? 4 gifts (besides the bigger “Santa” gift!) This makes it so much easier when shopping and planning. I know I will not be spending money on tons of junk treasured items they can’t live without. When I’m making out my list I keep these 4 things in mind. I keep a file in my ‘notes’ section on my phone and list out exactly what I’m getting each kid.
Something you Want: That’s easy. Kids want everything!! This can be a toy or object they’ve always wanted.
Something you Need: Most of the time this will be new socks/undies. Every kid needs those!
Something to Wear: New pj’s usually! I will also do shoes for this one!
Something to Read: New books! But they don’t have to be brand new books, buy used! I love to hit up the discount book stores and buy gently used kids books. My daughter’s school always has a book fair that I snag a few books and save for Christmas. We love books!
And that’s it! Isn’t it the best??? I love this new policy. It makes me limit what I buy and helps show our kids that we don’t need to go nuts! We have plenty and we should be thankful 🙂
I love to share this with grandparents and family too because we don’t need more than this!
One thing I will add is that we love to gift an experience for our kids. It can be something as a day trip into Dallas and go to a museum or other attraction. It can also be a hotel stay some place. My kids love hotels!
Check out the time we did an experience gift to San Antonio/Sea World. It was so much fun!!
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Elizabeth Ferree says
I love this and I basically do this year after year without realizing it. No matter what it is always read, 2 want, need…don’t always do wear because I know other members will send wears to mine. We also do board games for the whole family.
Shannon says
Board games are a great idea!!! We love family game night 🙂
Nicole says
This is the BEST IDEA EVER! Makes good sense all the way around. Financially, stress-wise and makes for unspoiled kids. Love it.
Jebbica says
I love this idea so much! I just heard of a similar idea but it was 3 gifts instead of 4: something you want, something you need, and a surprise. My husband and I need to do this for each other and everyone…I never know when to stop buying gifts!
Tina says
This is great! We started out wrong with our kids. We went way overboard and found ourselves in debt every year. We finally figured it out and started to plan and budget for LESS presents for the kids. They never missed the extras and really enjoyed the ones they did get.
Shannon says
It is best to keep it simple! My kids get so much from grandparents throughout the year so we try not to go nuts on holidays!!!