Children love to open Christmas gifts as they believe the presents they received are from Santa.
But that is not the case for mother-of-two Kim Palmer’s children.
The 39-year-old mom from Sevenoaks decided not to give her son any presents at Christmas to teach him the real meaning of the festive season. She also doesn’t want her kids to become spoiled.
Kim also never bought her child a birthday present and she wants to continue the tradition for their 8-month-old baby.
Speaking about why she has made the decision, she told Fabulous Digital:
“AS a child, I adored Christmas – the trees, the trimmings and, of course, the presents. Although it was quite difficult for my parents financially, there was never a shortage of gifts around our tree.
My Christmas list was always filled with lots of toys and dolls, and on Christmas morning I’d wake to find all my wishes had been granted. But while opening one gift after another, I never truly appreciated what was inside. Instead, I’d look forward to discovering my next magical treat.
My worst fear was my children growing up to be spoilt. So when my four-year-old son was born, I told my husband Simon, 38, that I wanted our children to grow up feeling grateful for everything that they’re given.
I decided that I wouldn’t buy my children gifts at Christmas.
Our finances have no part to play in our decision. My husband is a teacher, and I am a strategy director and CEO of a wellness brand for women called Clementine, so we would have no issue with buying our sons lots of extravagant Christmas presents if we chose to do so.
Call me crazy, but Christmas shouldn’t be all about the presents. I want to teach my children the value of money, and raise them to appreciate all they are given. I feel that less is more, especially at this time of the year.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas – and our son loves it too!
My four-year-old has just started to understand Christmas and how it all works; of course, he believes in Santa. Christmas will be very special for us this year, as it will be our eight-month-old’s first Christmas.
We will decorate our house with twinkling lights and make sure our children have the best day. The only difference is, they won’t receive any presents from us.
I don’t have any problems with relatives buying our sons gifts. My husband has a very large family and my parents send them special presents over from New Zealand, so they’ll never be short of presents to open on Christmas Day. After all, we want them to have the real Christmas experience.
However, we do try to advise our relatives to gift our boys things that they need, and fewer things that they want. In the lead up to Christmas, if we feel they’ve been given too many presents, we may hold some back to give to them at a later date.”
She added:
“My husband understands my reasoning behind this as we fortunately share the same values. But if he sees something that he feels our son would really benefit from, then he will buy it for him.
I leave him to do this but if I feel that my husband is buying him something that is too much, or not beneficial to him, then we will discuss it.
My son has never once asked us why he hasn’t got any presents from us. I think that demonstrates the point – kids don’t care who or where the presents come from at this age. He isn’t going to miss one or two presents from us.
UK parents spend way too much on their children at Christmas, in my opinion. Some of the things that I see parents buying for their children are absolutely crazy.
I can understand from a parent’s point of view why you might want to do that. There’s a lot of peer pressure at Christmas, too. But the braver (and better) thing to do in the long run is to buy less and try not to follow what other parents are doing.
It’s a choice we’ve made purely on the way we want to raise our children. It’s the same with birthdays.
I have never bought my four-year-old a birthday gift. These “special” occasions all become a bit too much. Instead we try to focus on having experiences together and making memories as a family, rather than making it all about the material things.
However, this is proving to be harder as they grow up. Kids are growing up in a world that over-stimulates them.
Handing them gifts on a plate doesn’t help to grow their curious minds, teach them the value of money or show them the true meaning of Christmas.”
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