Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for yes, less. Our seventh entry is a “head-fake”; an indirect learning opportunity for your children to be reminded of how fortunate they are, even when they are already “thinking of others”.

Kids are often eager to get in on the gift-giving action. When they ask for your help to get gifts for their teachers, coaches, or grandparents…. suggest they consider a choice that not only “gets a gift” for the intended recipient, but at the same time “gives a gift” to someone less fortunate. There are tons of very reasonably priced options here, from Hand in Hand Sustainable Soap that gives one bar of soap and one month of clean water to a child in need for every bar sold, to Toms Shoes who has famously given not only shoes, but water and eyeglasses to those in need every time one of their products is purchased. The immediate gift for your kids, is respecting their generous nature, but also gently reminding them that many people in the world today don’t even have the fundamentals, like water, or a single pair of shoes.

Our DIMS (Does It Make Sense) Score calculators and Gift Surveys also encourage charitable thinking when they ask kids questions like “If this is an item you have outgrown, can you donate your existing (coat, skates…) to charity?” To learn about more ways to get kids to think before they buy, click on the pink or green buttons below.