Festive
What’s a Good Christmas Gift for Children?
T’is the season of love, joy, and responsible spending.
With Christmas coming up, many might be doing last-minute shopping, or waiting for shipment. With eight baby cousins here and abroad (yes, the oldest is already in elementary school, but to me, he’s still a baby), I have been ordering my fine share of Christmas gifts for kids. While people don’t usually give direct feedback about the gifts I give, the many cousins I have often reiterate their parent’s comments on their siblings’ gifts, giving me a periscope to peek into their sentiments. Here is some constructive feedback for those doing last-minute shopping like me.
1. Give useful consumables
My parents have always been a fan of practical presents. Topping their list is food items — as soon as it’s eaten, it’s no longer occupying space. Next up, stationery items. Once, I received a robot dog from my uncle, and boy was I happy. However, as soon as my sister and I started school, it has been hibernating through the term and beyond. My parents weren’t particularly fond of that. Two years later, it was completely dead, and no changing of batteries helped it. Sadly, we decided it was time to the dump. What a waste was that!
Don’t gift trash. By giving practical things, not only are we reducing waste — it teaches children to live green by taking only what they need, and that our every act affects the environment as well.
2. Tailor your gifts
Has the gift recipient ever complained about what they don’t have, or about something they would like? Of course, this is probably less applicable to children — what they say they want and need changes as the sun rises and sets. But last year, I had a joyously successful gift-giving experience.
I shipped a chest of food items to my uncle’s family in Adelaide, Australia. Opening the box over a Zoom call with them, I saw first-hand how happy they were. What did I include? A few sauces my aunt couldn’t find in Adelaide, special flavoured chips for my uncle, and a collection of my favourite snacks for their children.
The children were due to visit in February 2020, but we in Hong Kong called that off because of COVID. They have never been to Asia nor seen any of our snacks. So I mailed my favourite Japanese and Korean snacks. The selection included every flavour of reasonably-priced Kit Kat chocolate bars I could lay my hands on. Here I’m not talking about the usual milk chocolate or dark chocolate or matcha — but the sea salt, salt & lemon, salt & peach, strawberry, tea, apple pie, cream cheese and condensed milk chocolate bars, to name a few.
It’s hard for children to stay happy, but they are far easier to become happy. If you think particularly about their circumstances, you could find something reasonably priced that would bring children joy.
3. Give something nutritious
Oops, I might come across as self-contradictory. But here, I talk about gifting something people could learn from. Instead of sending something they would just receive and keep at the back of their minds until the next Christmas rolls by, give them a gift that would stick. When I was seven, my aunt gave me was the first book to the Harry Potter series for Christmas. It was the first time I got into a book series. It made me read. To this day, I fondly remember that she paved my path to reading. Without that, I probably wouldn’t be so fond of reading and writing, which is a large part of me now.
Give them something that would change for the better.
4. Give something reasonably priced
The present my parents detested the most was the iPad mini from my grandparents. Yes, it wasn’t for the landfill. Yes, they didn’t expect something expensive back. But that practically set my brother and me up for this life of electronic gadgets. When the iPads started running down and needed repair, the people at the Apple store told us to get a new one, and this cycle only goes on. Gift an electronic device, and the household has one extra. But that number can never go down as long as the breadwinners can afford it.
If you give them something expensive and raise their living standards, they will never settle for less. In a few years, you’d see teenagers overspending on miscellaneous items and living by the paycheck.
Don’t set them up for over-spending.
Conclusion
While spoiling kids with some fun and junk food at times are understandable, these tips should underlie principles we should avoid. Hopefully, these guidelines would help anyone lost amongst the catalogue of online flagship stores or be a lighthouse for those at the sea gifts on Amazon.
