How to Teach Your Child to be Charitable During the Holiday Season

The holidays are exciting with delicious food, time together as a family, and of course presents. Movies, conversations and of course advertisements from local stores create anticipation of a visit from Santa. Children are apt to give us a long list of holiday wishes: a pony, Legos, Barbies, video games, money etc. With the focus on gifts, it is easy to get wrapped up in the material nature of the holidays. How does one teach their children to be charitable during this time, or anytime really, and to value helping others? Here comes my favorite word, MODELING. As parents, your choices and actions during this time sends a message to your children about what you value. Here are some tips to remind your children that there is more to the holidays than presents. Child

Volunteer: Show your children that you value giving back and helping others. Check with local organizations, churches or schools to see if they have volunteer opportunities during the holidays. If you are looking for more long term opportunities, check out volunteermatch.org to find options in your community.
Donate: Show your children the value of giving and supporting others. Donate to the toy drives, food shelfs or coat drives happening daily in your area. Sponsor a family that needs help in buying gifts for the holidays. Donate to the salvation army ringers outside of your local grocery store. You can even have your children make ornaments to donate to local craft fairs.
Spend time with others: Show your children the value of spending quality time with others and fostering healthy relationships. Go visit extended family, organize play dates with students from school, or spend time together playing a fun board game. Go outside and enjoy the winter wonderland that awaits.

Teach your children to cherish this time of year for the love and joy that it can bring.

Happy Holidays!

Written by Elizabeth Hamburger, MS, LMFT

Photo Source: https://www.pexels.com/u/annaelk/