I saw a Christmas advert recently which made me laugh, albeit sarcastically. It’s the John Lewis one set to the song, ‘Please, please, please let me get what I want.’ In the ad, we are led to believe that the little boy is thinking about all the presents he’s going to get on Christmas morning, but when he wakes up he just steps over the pile of presents at the bottom of his bed and goes straight into his parents’ room with a gift he has for them. Nice in theory, but would it really happen? Not in my house I wouldn’t think!

Anyway, it got me thinking about whether we have forgotten to teach our children how nice it is to give gifts at Christmas, as well as to receive them. We have done this in other ways by encouraging the children to choose some of the older toys they don’t play with anymore to take to the charity shop so other children can enjoy them, but I’m not sure they really have much concept of thinking about someone and choosing a gift for them which they think the person will like – be it a bought gift or a homemade one.

So, I’m planning to rectify this situation and am going to take them shopping with a very small amount of their pocket money and let them choose their own present for their Daddy and for each other (I’m hoping Daddy will reciprocate and take them shopping for something for Mummy!)

It will be to a strict budget of a couple of euros but will hopefully get them thinking about what that person would like and will help them understand how much fun it is to give a gift – as well as to receive one.

Who knows what they’ll come up with, but it will hopefully be fun for them and teach them that sometimes it’s just as much fun to give a gift as it is to receive one.

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