The amount of “stuff” that most middle- and upper-class American homes would be a bit astounding to someone foreign to our culture. But it’s true: we have the odd problem of having too much. This is especially pertinent to households with children. When my kids were toddlers and babies, I lived in the land of large plastic items and lots of toy variety so that I could manage to do tasks like make dinner. Now we (mostly) live in the land of electronics. My youngest, who turns 8 soon, still has a number of toy “collections” that I need to purge a couple times a year. One of those times is before Christmas. The purpose is to make room for new things.
In addition to purging toys before the holidays, I have compiled a few examples of consumable gift in my most recent GLO Guide. You can find it under the GLO Guides tab or use the link below.
The GLO Guide to Managing Toys Over the Holidays
A consumable gift is an event or a shared activity that creates memories instead of clutter. To make it successful for children, you need something they can enjoy now plus a hint of the big thing they can enjoy later. An example is placing a baseball and team schedule in a gift basket with the promise of tickets to a summer game. Fun now + fun later = togetherness + less stuff! That’s an equation I can endorse.
Hope you are inspired by these ideas. Please share your own ideas for consumable gifts. -Kate
