Intentional Gift Buying

The holiday season is around the corner, which means, queue the overwhelming pressure of excess shopping, gifting, and an influx of holiday gift list guides! Giving gifts during the holiday season is always fulfilling, but the magic sometimes gets lost in the overabundance. This year, we encourage you to consider having an intentional holiday season, complete with intentional gift-giving. 

What Exactly Is an Intentional Holiday Season?

An intentional holiday season invites you and your family to remove the pressure of over-the-top gift-giving and avoid over-committing to too many holiday events and parties. 

By being intentional with your resources and time, the result is thoughtful, practical gifts and intentionally devoting your time and energy to quality time with friends and family where you can truly live in the moment, creating new memories. We really believe that less is more and being intentional can make for a very special holiday season. 

Ways to Be Intentional When Gift-Giving With Kids

We totally get it, everyone wants to spoil and show their family members, nieces, grandkids, cousins etc how loved they are by showering them with gifts. While the intentions are always great, and gift-giving is an intrinsic part of the human experience, the reality is there ends up being a lot of waste and little ones can feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new things they receive. For context, Zero Waste Canada tells us that “within 6 months of Christmas, only 1% of everything the average person buys is still in use, the other 99% has been discarded.” 

To be intentional with gift-giving, consider the following options: 

Only purchase toys that support a child's developmental stage.  For example, 0-12 months olds benefit from rattles and soft toys. For older kids, aged 4-5, focus on blocks, moveable toys, and playdoughs.

Share lists with family. When family members inevitably ask what they can get the kids, rather than saying “whatever!” make an intentional list including one item to play with, something to wear, something to read, and something to eat. Then let them pick one off the list.

Share about your plans to be intentional. Don’t be afraid of sharing with your extended family and friends that you are planning to be more intentional this festive season and ask them to be understanding.

Make a list of suitable companies. Create a list of companies, like The Playful Peacock that are in line with your values, are sustainable, and ethical and make high-quality long-lasting toys. Share the list with anyone asking about gift giving and explain how it would mean alot if the gifts were purchased from there.

Get the kids involved. Explain in advance to your kiddos how the holidays will operate, and that instead of receiving many gifts, they will receive a small selection of thoughtful, lasting gifts. It is important to explain the true meaning of the holidays while highlighting the importance of building new, happy memories together and giving back to those in need where possible.

Do you plan on having an intentional holiday season this year?