Creative Giving

This month’s family activity is a little “covert”. Gather all but one family member together. The task for this group is to come up with a single holiday gift for that person that is homemade by everyone. It can be a coupon book for doing chores, a favorite dessert or candy made with a special flare, detailing Dad’s car, making an organizer for hobby stuff, homemade candles, family scrapbooks, hand knit scarves or hats, a book of poems or stories written about the family member, etc. Half the fun of giving gifts like these can be planning the activities to create them. You will need to hold one meeting to plan a gift for each member of the family. At each meeting, discuss how you can be generous to each other at other times of the year, too.

Once all the gifts have been given during a holiday event or it can be at a special time that is set aside for just that, process the activity, ask these or similar questions:

• Was it easy or hard to come up with ideas for family members?
• Was it nice to receive something handmade?
• Do you think this might become a family tradition?
• Are there other people that you think would like a homemade gift?