Share, Save, Spend

Today was a "family Sunday school" day at church. Once a month individual Sunday school classes are replaced by one large-group session in the fellowship hall on the church's lower level to which parents accompany their children for songs, lessons, and projects that a family can do together. (Sadly some families make this their monthly "day off" from Sunday school, neither attending with their children nor sending their children with someone else.) Everything that we did during today's class elaborated on the "Share, Save, Spend" theme that has been our church's focus for several months. (Refresh your memory here.) The craft project was decorating three small banks for at-home use and labeling them "Share," "Save," and "Spend." We were given some discussion questions to facilitate a family meeting once we got home, so we held a family meeting while we ate at the dinner table after church.

The point of the meeting was to plan what to do with the three banks: to think ahead about our planned sharing, saving, and spending. Because Christmas is a major spending occasion, that was a major topic of conversation. We tried to name some things that we need (that we could request of one another for Christmas), but, not surprisingly, we couldn't think of anything. Not one thing! So why should we keep buying one another things that we don't need, that use up our money, and that take up space in our home? Is it only because "that's what we always do at Christmas"? Is it just for the temporary joy of gift buying or gift receiving? Is it to avoid feeling guilty for not buying gifts? How does our spending money on gifts at Christmas relate to the reason for Christmas? What does commercialism have to do with Jesus' birth? It was a good discussion.

We came to some conclusions. We realize that we won't be able to convince our relatives not to buy us gifts at Christmas. It is a fun thing to do, and it's nice to watch someone open a gift that you have spent time selecting based on what you know about that person's preferences and needs. So we'll still participate in the gift exchange that we usually do on both sides of our family. Also, there's no way to interfere with Santa, so our girls can still expect him to visit our home. However, instead of buying one another a bunch of gifts this Christmas, we're going to think of something that we can do as a family that will serve as a gift to others (and that will bring us satisfaction to serve as a gift to ourselves).

We thought of serving a meal at the Welcome Table Soup Kitchen in town (that is, if they serve a Christmas or Christmas Eve meal--we'll have to do some research). We thought of bringing a meal or baked goods to people who have to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas (an idea that Susan got from our friends Jay and Erin). We thought of putting together a recital of Christmas carols and performing for area nursing homes (and bringing them baked goods). We do plan to do a bunch of Christmas baking together as a family. Afterward we will bring plates of the holiday goodies to our neighbors, and we just may combine Chrismas caroling with delivering the treats.

These ideas all stemmed from our talking about what to do with the three banks that we made at Sunday school. We decided to make daily deposits in each bank throughout the month of October. The girls each made a one-time deposit of $1 of their own money, putting it into the bank that she had decorated in the morning. Then Susan and I committed to giving the girls some money to use for the banks: a quarter per bank per girl per day throughout the month. Susan and I will also drop $1 a day in each bank. (Susan will be making a trip to get a bag full of quarters and a stack of dollar bills from our bank tomorrow!)

At the end of the month, we will empty the banks and use the money for these purposes: The "Share" money we will use to buy gift items to fill shoe boxes to send to needy children through Operation Christmas Child at church. The extra money we will donate to the church to help pay for the shipping of all the boxes collected in our congregation. The "Save" money we will put into the girls' savings accounts at our bank. The "Spend" money we will use to buy ingredients for the Christmas baking that we plan to do so that we can then share the goodies with our neighbors, our friends and family, and perhaps local nursing home residents.

I don't know if this is something that we'll do every Christmas, but we got into it during our family meeting today and were inspired by the banks that we made and by the "Share, Save, Spend" conversation that our church has been promoting. We'll see how it goes with the depositing this month and with the sharing, saving, and spending thereafter!

P.S. If you, Dear Reader, have any other ideas for something that we could do as a family at Christmas that would serve as a gift to others, please do share by adding a comment below.