For many years, I worked as a Kindergarten teacher in the Boulder area. One of the schools I worked in was a farm school. We had goats, chickens, sheep, honey bees and grew bio dynamic food. The children were actively engaged in the feeding of the chickens, collecting eggs and milking of the goats. We even made homemade goat cheese each week and ate it on our home baked rye bread!
In the four weeks before Christmas, teachers in the school had a yearly tradition called Secret Santa, where names were exchanged and gifts were secretly left for that person during the few weeks leading up to Christmas. At the end of December, a larger gift would be purchased and the name of the Secret Santa would be revealed at a group holiday party.
[Read more…] about Group Gift Giving…Creating New Traditions
Over the years in my work with helping parents simplify spaces in the home, one common question often comes up during the time just after Thanksgiving. “What about gifts?” they ask. “What do I do with all the gifts that are given to us by family and friends? How do I graciously tell my family that, while I appreciate their thoughtfulness in wanting to buy us something, we are trying to simplify our lives?” And the deeper question arises of “how do we teach these values of wanting to consume less to our children?”