We are coming to the end of a historic year that has seen the first pandemic in more than 100 years. COVID-19 has left a lot of damage in its trails and there are a lot of families out there who are suffering financially. Parents have lost jobs and are starting to wonder how their Christmas is going to look. They may be worried that they won’t be able to buy their children the normal amount of gifts they usually do, and they are not sure how to explain this to children.
Money can be a hard topic to discuss with children, because they are often too young to fully grasp the concept of money and how you obtain money and how everything has a cost. According to Child Mind, it is important to involve the topic of money in every day conversations with children. Starting this at an early age can help them grasp the concept of buying goods.
However, this can be a little difficult when it comes to Christmas, because for a lot of families Santa brings the gifts. If Santa is magic, then he should be able to bring them anything they ask for, right? Unfortunately, that is not always how it works and how it is not going to work for a lot of families this year. There are ways mom and dad can explain this concept to children in a way that won’t ruin the magic of the Christmas season.
According to More, mom should use all the tools she has to her advantage. That pesky elf-on-the-shelf? Mom can use that to help “Santa” communicate with her child about how busy they are and how they won’t be able to bring everything that is on their list this year. The family elf can bring letters directly from the North Pole to help your child understand.
Now may also be a good time to talk to your children about just how big this world is and how many children there are on it. Explain that there are a lot of children out there who also need to get presents, and Santa needs to be fair. This is a great opportunity to teach empathy to children. Get them to think about the children who have less than they do, and say that they may need the love a little more this year.
When your child brings you their list of wishes for Christmas, and you look and it is about 10 pages, it may be a good idea to get them to highlight a small amount of gifts that they really want. Explain to them that Santa may not be able to get everything on the list, but if they circle their 1 or 2 most wanted gifts than mom can normally get at least those.
One mom came up with a great way to tell her child that their gifts were too expensive. She explained that Santa was only given a certain amount to spend on each family. This “Santa budget” can be the budget you have set yourself as a family.
According to SavvyMom, this may be a wonderful opportunity to teach gratitude to children. Give children realistic expectations about what to expect this year and it may be a great time to show children that Christmas is more about making memories than it is about receiving gifts.