According to a study carried out by TNS for eBay, “Christmas Consumer Trends”, Spaniards will spend an average of €235 on Christmas gifts. Specifically, €151 will be allocated to each child. Do we buy too many gifts for children? What to do to use that money well or reduce spending? The rule of four Christmas gifts may help you.
What is the four Christmas gift rule?
The rule of four gifts is a way to be sensible if we do not want to saturate our children with toys and things that they will not use or those who will soon get bored. This rule limits the number of gifts and puts an end to meaningless gifts.
The rule of four Christmas gifts proposes giving:
The gifted child syndrome
80% of Spanish children receive 5 or more gifts during Christmas, many receive 10 times more gifts than they need. What consequences can this have for children?
He gifted child syndrome defines the tendency to compensate with gifts for the time that fathers and mothers do not spend with their children. This causes children to not appreciate the toys they receive, lose enthusiasm, and they become capricious, selfish and consumerist.
An excess of toys causes in children:
1. Low level of frustration tolerance
Parents who give their children everything they ask for without explaining the sacrifice and effort they have made to give them the gift turns children into self-centered people and who believe they deserve everything. Children they do not develop their ability to deal with setbacks and frustrationsomething essential in life.
2. Overstimulation
Children receive so many toys that they are unable to pay attention to them and spend time playing with each of them. At most, they end up focusing on one and the rest end up forgotten and wasted.
3. Limit fantasy
Many toys are aimed at developing their motor and cognitive skills, however, too many toys They cause boredom and kill fantasy. It is also possible to play without toys, when there is no script is when they can develop their creativity the most.
4. Loss of hope
As we have already said, so many toys make children not value what they receive, that is, they lose their enthusiasm for the gift and for discovering its contents. They go on to ask for a toy for the satisfaction of having it.
5. Develop anti-values
If they receive too many gifts, they lose value for children, since They do not understand their importance or the effort made by the people who gave them to them.. This can cause them selfish and consumerist behaviors.
When it’s inevitable
In large families, Santa Claus and/or the Three Wise Men usually leave gifts for the child in every house: grandparents give a gift, some uncles give another gift, other uncles also give their gift, those they receive from dad and mom… What can we do if it is impossible to stick to the rule of 4 Christmas gifts?
Raise awareness for the whole family: Inform the family that only mom and dad will give gifts to their children. If there are many of you and you want to maintain that tradition, you can have Santa Claus or the Three Kings leave one or two of the gifts at home and take the rest to the place where the whole family will meet to open them all together.
Donate the toys: If, even after communicating it, it is impossible for them to give gifts, many associations will appreciate it if you donate excess toys so that they can reach children who also need them. We will teach them to share and set an example: we must be supportive, there are children who do not receive any toys at Christmas and they also deserve it. These situations not only occur at Christmas, but also on birthdays, when children no longer only receive gifts from family members, but also those from their friends. In any case, we have to choose gifts well, focusing on quality and not quantity.