These are the gifts we are giving our 3 girls for Christmas this year. This year, they are 2, 4 and 6 years old!
Every year, we give our children three gifts each–a want, a need and a gift to nurture their spiritual growth.
We started this tradition when our firstborn was a baby, so they have never known any different. This helps us to keep the gifts intentional, and it also helps us not to overspend (although we are spending a bit more this year than in years past–only because we have a larger budget).
Our girls do get more gifts from other relatives, but we have begun putting most grandparent money toward their education funds.
You can check out what we gave our girls for Christmas in 2013–when they were 1, 3 and 5–here.
Without further ado, check out what we are giving our girls for Christmas this year!
Something they want:
Once again, the want is all about the dolls this year! (We are a house full of girls, after all!)
Hubs and I are especially excited about the dolls we are giving our 6 and 4-year-old daughters: Hearts for Hearts dolls!
These dolls are based off of real girls from different countries! This goes along perfectly with our family’s desire to instill an international worldview in our daughters.
We can use the dolls to teach the girls about different countries and cultures, and we can also pray for girls in those countries!
We are giving our 6-year-old the doll from India and our 4-year-old the doll from Mexico.
We love that a portion of the cost of these dolls goes to World Vision!
We are giving our 2-year-old daughter a Bitty Baby American Girl doll.
I never, ever thought we would be able to afford one of these, but we got it for a rock bottom price when American Girl ran a clearance sale several months back.
Sites like my friend Crystal’s–Money Saving Mom–notify of these sales, so be on the lookout.
I recommend shopping year-round to be able to afford things like this that are normally expensive if you don’t shop sales.
Something they need:
I love that our need gifts are educational this year. (Our girls got sheets last year, but they really didn’t mind because they had princesses on them!)
Truly, our girls don’t really need anything. Our firstborn wears uniforms to her university model school, and we are always overrun with hand-me-downs for the other two, and we are well equipped with everything else.
So needless to say, to figure out their need gifts this year was a challenge! But I love that we landed on the educational theme!
Our 6-year-old daughter LOVES crafts, so we are giving her this sewing kit that we hope will instill this homemaking skill in her very early. She wants a little sewing machine eventually, but that will have to come later.
I am still inept at sewing but would like to learn more. My little girl recently asked me why I own a sewing machine but never sew!
I am hoping this sewing kit will allow us to learn homemaking skills together.
We are so excited about giving our 4-year-old the Little Passports Early Explorers intro. kit!
I wrote about why I love the concept behind Little Passports in this post.
We decided to just try the intro. kit before purchasing a longer subscription.
If we love Little Passports as much as we think we will, we are considering using a portion of grandpa’s money to purchase a 6-month subscription. We are going to weigh Little Passports against Green Kid Crafts and may either get 6 months of each and use the boxes every other month all year long, or we may just go with one or the other. Again, that would be with grandpa’s money (and just a portion of it). Grandpa is generous. 😉
We had the hardest time coming up with something for our youngest–now 2–but we finally decided on this Boz DVD* to teach her numbers and this Boz DVD* to teach shapes and colors! We’ve been working on these with puzzles and shape sorters, so this will supplement her learning. (*The Boz the Bear website does have their DVDs on sale right now for 50% off.)
Something to nurture spiritual growth:
It took us quite a while to figure out our spiritual gifts this year, but I was SO excited once we did!
Our 6-year-old girl will be getting this Melissa & Doug Old Testament Cube Puzzle. We have one other cube puzzle which she loves. It is just challenging enough for her, and this particular puzzles has 6 different sides–so 6 different puzzles–all depicting scenes from popular Old Testament stories!
Our 4-year-old will be getting the New Testament Melissa and Doug Cube Puzzle! This one is just like the Old Testament one, except that it depicts 6 stories from the New Testament.
Finally, our 2-year-old little girl will be getting this
Days of Creation Nesting Block set. I was so excited when we discovered this one since she is starting to love building towers and learning her numbers!
Stocking Stuffers:
Even though we just give three main gifts (which still seems like a lot to me!), we still fill the girls’ stockings with smaller items.
This year, their stockings are filled with the likes of socks, undies, organic candies, reusable snack bags, and lip balm.
I also snagged an amazing deal on a little girl apron for my 2-year-old, who is now old enough to wear one! I got the same aprons for my other girls last year, and now all 4 of us can match!
Maria
Such neat ideas! This year we are giving each of our children 1 toy (want) item. A tractor for our 3 year old little man & dolls for our 1 year old twin girls. New sippy cups for each and jeans for our boy and a storybook for each girl. And of course undies, pajamas, candy and such in the stockings! I love your blog 🙂 Merry Christmas to you & your family!
Erin
Thanks for reading Maria! Merry Christmas to you as well!! 🙂
Lisa @ This Pilgrim Life
Great list! We have two boys and now a baby girl celebrating her first Christmas. She is mostly content with all her brothers’ past and current toys, but I’ve also been on the lookout for quality items that make great girl gifts. So I was especially interested in what your girls were getting this year.
I think it wonderful that you are encouraging your daughter’s desire to learn to sew. My oldest son (4yo) loves to sit with me while I sew and work on his own ‘projects’. Mostly it’s lots of cutting scrap fabric, pinning fabric together, and playing with buttons. But just a month or so ago I helped him make his first project on the sewing machine (a wallet). This year I found a small hand-held ‘sewing machine’ at Goodwill that I am going to give to him. I know he’s going to be so excited.
As far as other presents, I try to keep it small too, and then end up making them more gifts than originally planned. This year, my boys are getting a new Rescue Bot each, and a new book each. My 4yo is getting his first knife (a wooden learning knife) and my 2yo is getting a dump truck. I’m also planning on making them dinosaur pillows (time permitting). My baby girl (11mo) is getting her first doll. And I found a small doll cradle at Goodwill that I’m going to repaint and make a doll quilt to match her own quilt. Oh, and I made her some cloth blocks. I get pretty excited about gift giving and have to try and reign it all in 😉
Merry Christmas to you and your family Erin!
Erin
Such wonderful, thoughtful gifts. I love the cradle and quilt. My husband repainted my old one for our girls one year.
Michelle @ City Living Country Girl
Wow. This is really thoughtful. I’ve already sent it off to my husband as we are trying to have a family and plan for it.
A great twist for a non-religious household is Want, Need, Educational.
Erin
Thank you Michelle! I have also heard people use…something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read.
Monica
I love your blog and I love these gift ideas. I have two girls, ages 2.5 and 7 months. I wan to say that I don’t think you need to be so apologetic about prices and all that. Things like, ‘I never thought we’d be able to afford this doll,’ ‘we did not pay the prices listed on Amazon,’ ‘I still think three gifts is a lot,’ etc. There’s nothing wrong with giving our children good gifts, especially when they’re so thoughtful as your ideas. As Christians, I think we tend to have a subconscious belief that money is evil, but God blesses us and it’s ok to have money and bless others in return. Don’t worry about defending your Christmas budget to me. 🙂 Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Erin
Thank you for your thoughts Monica. I really appreciate it. I just know that some of my readers struggle financial (as we did and could again), and I don’t want them to think we are being frivolous. Your words are very encouraging. Merry Christmas! 🙂
Angel B
We have 3 children. Each year we give 3 or 4 gifts. We have 2 girls, 14 and 11 and a son, 7.
We’re giving both girls winter boots, and a hoodie. The 11 yr old is getting a robe with her name on it and the 14 yr old is getting a picture of her siblings. Something special to her. 🙂
Our son is getting a lasso, skate board with helmet, and juggle bubbles.
I really like your idea though. Want, Need, Spiritual. We will definitely implement it next year.
Terra
We limit our gidt giving as well. Our categories are something to read, to wear, want and finally something special. The final catagory is mainly for their daddy. My girls are getting pjs, book on science, boots and a trip camping in the woods.