Often times the true meaning of Christmas gets lost in all the thoughts of gift receiving – especially with children.  When your children are old enough to understand the meaning of Christmas you can start to teach them the importance of charity and helping out those less fortunate than them.  Here are a few simple ways you can teach your children that Christmas is about giving and helping others. 

A simple way to teach your children about giving is to donate items to a local homeless shelter or battered women’s shelter.  Have your children go through their toys and clothes and ask them to pick out one or two items they don’t really need or play with anymore.  Be sure that they pick out something nice (not a piece of junk).  You can use this exercise to explain to your children that there are many people who don’t have a place to live and that their generosity will help to make their lives a bit happier. 

Another way your children can learn about the gift of giving is to donate canned goods to a local food pantry or charity that distributes food to families in need.  You can explain to your children that many families don’t have enough money to buy the food for a holiday meal.  You can bring your children with you to the grocery store to select some canned goods and non-perishable items to donate to these families.  

You can also “adopt” a family or person in need.  Many churches and community organizations do what we call an “angel tree”.  Ornaments on the tree have the clothing sizes or toy requests for children.  You can have your children select a few ornaments from the tree and get them involved in picking out the gifts for these people.  They can even help you wrap the presents before your return them to the appropriate location.