1. Spend the day of Christmas Eve making treats with your children. Make simple things such as rice crispy treats, fudge, and cookies. Wrap the treats up on some festive paper plates, wrapped with the new holiday saran wrap. Take a dozen or so plates, pile the kids in the car, and have them each pick a few friends and neighbors they’d like to surprise this Christmas. Spend that evening having your kids drop the plates off at the homes of their choosing, knock on the door or ring the doorbell and run like mad. They jump in your hidden car and off you go…you definitely don’t want to get caught. That is part of the fun for the kids. Plus, it teaches them that they don’t always have to be recognized for doing good things for others. They will have fun and feel good about what they’ve done.

2. Spend Christmas Eve, or the lunch during Christmas Day, with your family at a shelter that serves food to the homeless. This is such a gratifying and humbling experience. This will help the kids realize just how fortunate they are and soften their hearts to those less fortunate. They can see the smiles on the faces of those they are helping during the giving season and really feel the warmth of the holidays.

3. Talk with your children about what the Holidays really mean. Tell them that some of the money you were going to use for their presents will be used for a child less fortunate. Take them to an Angel Tree or Toys for Tots and let them pick a gift for another child. Sometimes these events actually have names and ages of children in need so you can better personalize the gift, and personalize the child in need to your own children. Churches often have anonymous programs like this as well.

4. Every Christmas morning before we opened presents, my family would read the story of the birth of Christ. We would each take turns. This would help us remember what we are really celebrating and the meaning behind it all.

I hope this helps add a little more spirit of giving and peace in the Christmas Holidays, while bringing your family closer together.

Santa also has to deal with budget constraints. When my daughter excitedly showed me the $300 Bratz jeep in the Christmas toy catalog I had to say, “Santa has to buy toys for all the children in the world. Go find something cheaper.”

Here are some ways I’ve found to make sure Santa gets the job done right, with less hassle. My three kids have to put their requests in writing. Santa gets a list from each in the mail every year. My kids understand they will not get everything on their list. It’s just a list for Santa to choose from. The thing they want the most should be underlined, circled with stars drawn around it, or anything else to get Santa’s attention. After the letter is sent, kids are not allowed to change their mind. That would make too much work for Santa.

Little kids don’t understand when one thing is more expensive than another, so it’s imperative that Santa leave the same number of presents for each child under the tree, not the same value of presents. You can fudge by wrapping some presents together in the same box if one child is getting more, but cheaper, items and another less, but more expensive, items.

Pump your kids for detailed descriptions of the presents they want. “Do you want the blue one or the red one?” Look closely at product descriptions when buying on the internet. (Kids do notice when the blond Barbie princess is suddenly kickin’ it with her homies.)

If possible, assemble the booty before Christmas Eve. (Otherwise you may be up very late placing 30 tiny stickers in the their correct spots on the pony castle.) Some things are not that “easily assembled.” Assembling early also saves Santa from late night trips to the drug store for batteries. It also gives him time to return any items that are missing parts or don’t work.

Don’t forget the stocking stuffers! This is Santa’s chance to have some fun and get whatever he wants. One year I think my two year-old son liked the palm-size super bouncy ball he got in his stocking most of all. Lip gloss is always a hit with my daughters. ( Just don’t get a bright purple shade since you will be taking pictures the rest of the day.)

Santa’s final touch at our house is a note to the kids, thanking them for his favorite cookies and thanking them for being very good this year, making his job that much easier.