Kids, holidays, minimalism, and abundance

Yes, you can have all four.

The holiday season is upon us. Gift guides are everywhere you turn online (so many gift guides!), Christmas tchotchkes fill the stores, catalogs crowd our mailboxes. It’s a tough time to be minimalist-ish, especially if you are a parent.

I’ll confess I’m also having trouble summoning the holiday spirit amidst so many rotten things happening in the world. (You too?) However, I know it’s worthwhile to put in the effort. With a little forethought, the holidays can be a magical time for families–the stuff that lifelong memories are made of. But if you wait until the last minute to plan, this season can be a huge source of stress, which is why I’m sending you this newsletter now.

All of us want to give our kids a joyful holiday, but that desire can be a slippery slope to overconsumption. The omnipresent holiday messages to buy, buy, buy are hard to ignore. But all that shopping is a burden of both time and money. (According to a survey by Lending Tree, 48% of parents of young children took on holiday debt last year!) The resulting pile-up is more stuff to manage and maintain, especially in a small space. And the messages all this consumption sends our kids—that we need to buy things to celebrate, that physical gifts are how to express love–aren’t exactly the ideals I hope to pass on. So, what’s a parent to do?

I’m sharing my best advice for how to navigate the holiday season to make it both sustainable and celebratory. Kids can’t be expected to go full-on minimalist. There is no denying that part of the joy of holiday gifts is the anticipation and opening gifts on Christmas morning or during Hanukkah. So, you need to get creative about how to create that feeling of holiday abundance without going overboard.

Below I’m offering paid subscribers 12 tips, plus a list of the best things I’ve read about having a minimalist (but joyful!) holiday with kids. Hopefully, it can steer you to a holiday season that feels abundant, without the excess. I’d also love to hear your tips for how you thread the needle between minimalism and abundance in the comments.

Ask them what they want

Start by asking children what they hope to receive–and try not to prompt them in any way. This exercise can both reveal things that you didn’t know they wanted and confirm the things you were already considering. Many of the kids I know struggle to make a list, which can bolster your courage to be more minimal with gifts this year.

Edit your toy bin now

The approaching holidays are a great time to encourage your child to let go of some of their less-loved playthings. Frame this as “making room” for new toys. This doesn’t need to be a deep decluttering or even make any meaningful space, rather it’s an exercise to teach our kids that you can just keep endlessly adding more to our homes, we need to take some things away before we add something new.

Afterwards, you might consider hosting a toy swap with other parents in your community. Everyone gets a chance to declutter and walks away with no-cost, no-waste gifts. What’s not to love? My pal Ashlee Piper wrote about how she hosts “stuff swaps,” if you need inspiration for how to do it.