The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Special Guest Post

I love Thanksgiving, but I really love Christmas. My Husband & I decided a few years ago to avoid overspending & going crazy during the holidays by limiting our children’s gifts. Being Christians and believing in Jesus birth story we landed on three gifts for the three wise men. Simple, right? Wrong! My children would give me there input on what they really wanted for those three gifts. Then, I would be out in the stores, meandering the aisles, and bam, I would see something that they would JUST LOVE but wasn’t on their list. Well what is a good mamma to do? She creates a new way to give them gifts, that’s what.

As I starting finding all these cute, little, inexpensive gifts I would stash them away. When we decorated the house for Christmas and hung our stockings on the fireplace, I was inspired. That is how the Twelve Days of Christmas was born. Twelve days before Christmas I place a small gift in each of their stockings. So each morning before school they run downstairs to see what we have left them. And, yes, they do know it is us that left it. No Santa needed for this project.

I wanted to share with you the types of items I buy. Most things can easily be found at the Dollar Store or in the $1 section of Target.

* Gum
* Christmas Candy
* Chapstick
* Lip gloss
* Pencils
* Funny erasers
* Bookmarks
* Stickers
* Books
* Headband Antlers
* Christmas themed door knockers

My children look forward to The Twelve Days of Christmas every year, even more so than Christmas. The excitement in their eyes with what will it be this time is priceless. I love shopping for these small tokens of love. This is one holiday tradition that I will love for a lifetime.

Merry Christmas Y'all!

~Christina

Christina is the creator and author behind A Closet Writer - A look into everyday life through dirty, child-smeared, finger-print laden windows. She is a wife, mom, sister, daughter, Christian & humorist living it up in Central Texas. Regardless of what is actually going on, she is a GLASS HALF FULL kind of gal. When you read her blog she prays you will laugh, smile, feel hope & come back again and again. Wash, rinse & repeat that’s all she’s saying! You can also find Christina chatting it up on her regular column with Examiner.com as the Austin Parenting Tween Examiner. She would love to connect with you either on Twitter or Facebook.