Dear LPG

Even if you don’t believe in getting into the Christmas mood too early, Advent is now well underway and you can’t put off thinking about what you are going to buy for each member of your family if you are lucky enough to have some. 

Those friends and family that you see most often are always easiest to choose a present for, budget allowing, and a card often suffices for those we don’t see quite so often.  I have to admit to buying little things during the year so that I can keep up. 

The thing that always troubles me though is what to get for the little ones; I suppose I am talking about the 5 to 10 year olds.  I am happy to give their parents money so that it can be spent on what their children need, but I feel it wrong to give those younger than eight years old amounts of money.

I am not talking here about how one celebrates; I personally believe in remembering the birth of Jesus Christ but I know that many don’t.  I am talking about maintaining the innocence of younger children for a little while, after all, the cares of the world catch up with them soon enough.

I feel that while they do need to learn to budget from a young age, children need to be children for as long as possible and so something small that they can play with, if only for the day before it gets broken, is worth considering. 

It was a long time ago now but I am sure that most of the people who read this website will remember when a toy car or a doll was the present that we asked for in our Christmas letter to Santa and an advent calendar helped to build the excitement for us. In spite of the simplicity of the presents, if you are honest, was Christmas a more special time and can you not remember the excited facial expressions that getting a present, no matter how simple, provoked.  These days I see my grandchildren reacting with their mental calculators as they accept each amount and check how much money they have managed to attract, which is somewhat disappointing. 

I feel that it is really not the best thing for little ones to be totting up how much money they have collected by way of presents and what computer game they can convert it into when the online shop sales start in the New Year.

So my appeal goes out to grandparents and great-grandparents to make a difference this year.   Give the money to the parents (your children) to look after and find something inexpensive that the little one will appreciate so that the simplicity of Christmas does not get absolutely lost.

SC, Catford