During the last number of weeks I shared 40 ideas to help parents curb overindulgence during the holidays. HERE ARE IDEAS 41-50 DESIGNED TO HELP STOP OVERINDULGING YOUR CHILDREN DURING THE HOLIDAYS. Please open your FaceBook Page and then click our share button in the upper right hand column of this page to share this with your friends. (click here to download a free pdf copy of this blog)
Click here for related story: Start Connecting and Stop Overindulging Your Children This Holiday Season - 10 Great Ideas by David Bredehoft
41. WATCH YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIES AND MORE
Spend time with the people you love. Do things together as a family that you love to do. Decorate the house, play games, listen to holiday music, or watch a favorite holiday movie together like “White Christmas”, “Love Actually”, “The Holiday” or “A Christmas Story”. If you don’t own them check them out free from your local library or tape them on your DVR for playback at your convenience.
42. SLOW DOWN
Savor your conversations with friends and family. Look for opportunities to sit and talk with neighbors and family, especially people you don’t see much of throughout the year. REMEMBER - SLOW DOWN.
43. PAY IT FORWARD
Share your time or money. Acts of kindness not only help others, they change your soul. Volunteer and help feed the homeless at a place like the Dorothy Day Center. “Adopt” an older person who’s alone during the holidays or invite family to contribute to a charity like the “Heifer International”. Together you could buy a flock of chickens, or even a goat for a family in Africa.
“Giving an animal is like giving someone a small business” Heifer International
Click here for related story: Ideas No. 11-20 to Help You Stop Overindulging Your Children This Holiday Season by David Bredehoft
44. REMEMBER “ADVERTISING WORKS” LIMIT TV
Put limits on how much TV your children watch during the holidays! Advertising works. You are in control of how much TV your kids watch, and how many advertisements they see. Use the parental controls on your smart TVs. Make rules about TV watching and enforce and follow them. I encourage you to read and follow the Mayo Clinic’s suggestions in “Screen Time and Children - How to Guide Your Child.”
45. READ CLASSIC CHRISTMAS BOOKS TO YOUR CHILDREN
If you do not already own them, go to the library and check out a dozen or more children’s classic Christmas books such as The Polar Express by Chris Van Alsburg, How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Rick Bunsen, and The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving by Jan Berenstain. For a list of additional titles check out Top So Kind Holiday Books for Children. Read a new one to your children each night before they go to bead. You and your children will enjoy the stories anew!
46. TAKE THE PLEDGE TO SIMPLIFY THE HOLIDAYS
Go to the simplifyholidays.org and take their pledge: “This holiday season, I pledge to focus on more of what matters and less of what doesn’t: More love and less waste…More fun and less stuff… More joy and less stress.” Check off 3 or more options specifically designed to help you follow this pledge.
Click here for related story: Ideas No. 21-30 to Help You Stop Overindulging Your Children This Holiday Season by David Bredehoft
47. GO ON A FAMILY POST CHRISTMAS SHOPPING TRIP
Christmas was a very busy time in the Bredehoft household when I was growing up largely because my dad was a Lutheran pastor and he had to conduct services Wednesday before Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. Add to this holiday parties and my birthday on December 29……there was little time to shop for gifts for all of us. So mom and dad came up with a wonderful idea - a Family Post Christmas Shopping Trip! They gave each of us children a set amount of cash. Then on the fist shopping day after Christmas we hit the mall as a family. Deep discounts abounded! We got great bargains! Most of all we learned to stay within a budget! Afterward we headed home and had a wonderful time doing show and tell as a family! Submitted by David Bredehoft
48. DOWNLOAD THE “SIMPLIFY THE HOLIDAYS CALENDAR"
A wonderful resource for families is the Simplify the Holidays Calendar from The Center for a New American Dream. Each week has a theme like “Living Within Your Means” and More Love, Less Waste”. Within each week’s theme you will find specific suggestions like “curbing the gimmies” and “staying on a budget”. It is free, just download it.
Click on image to download this interactive calendar from New American Dream
49. STOP UNWANTED JUNK MAIL
Everyone is inundated with catalogs and junk mail especially during the holiday season. They are trying to sell you things! One helpful idea is to stop the junk mail before it even arrives. Simplify Your Life and Stop the Junk Mail for Good.
Click here for related story: Ideas No. 31-40 to Help You Stop Overindulging Your Children This Holiday Season by David Bredehoft
50. REFOCUS ON THE REAL REASON FOR THE SEASON
Refocus on your true family’s values. No matter what your family’s traditions and values are, I think we all can agree on the following sentiment expressed by Hamilton Wright Mabie:
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.”
There is more help about avoiding overindulgence in How Much is Too Much? Raising Likeable, Responsible, Respectful Children – From Toddlers To Teens – In An Age of Overindulgence (2014, DaCapo Press Lifelong Books).
Photos from Amazon, Heifer International, and The Center for a new American Dream