It's the season to be jolly, so put on your holiday cheer and encourage your children to join the rest of the world in celebrating this festival of love.

The season of love and cheer, Christmas, is almost here. While many here in India don't celebrate this festival as it is outside the boundaries of their religion, consider celebrating it in your own way. After all, the message of Christmas is love and generosity. It tries to teach you that there is a joy in giving to others, which is why the tradition of exchanging gifts.

Needless to say, this season has become incredibly commercial and its no longer about the message of Christmas, but its about holidays and presents.

Celebrate Christmas in your own unique way. Here's how you can avoid falling into the commercial trap.

Cards

Instead of ordering a bunch of cards from your nearest store, have your child draw out the cards by hand, and post them to close friends and relatives. You will need:
Handmade chart paper
Copies of a family photograph
Colouring felt pens or pencils
A gold or silver pen


All your child needs to do is cut out the chart paper into card-sized sheets. She can then stick a family photograph in the center of the card, and decorate around the photograph with her felt pens or colour pencils. She could also use various other decorating material like ribbons, buttons, leaves and so on. The text inside the card that wishes them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year can be in the gold or silver pen.

This makes a great creative project for your child. She will also feel a sense of responsibility, as she knows she has to get the cards ready by a certain date. This could be her delegated task for the holidays.

Naturally if you have to get a huge number of cards posted your child will not be able to sit and make them all and you may have to order them. But do try and involve your child with making at least a few cards this season.

Gifts

We have a number of festivals here in India that call for exchanging gifts like Eid, Diwali and Christmas, just to name a few. So if you don't celebrate Christmas, the last thing you need is to adopt the tradition of gift giving. Running out and buying presents for everyone is stressful, to say the least. However, what's nice about gift giving on Christmas is that the presents given are always personal and a lot of thought generally goes into selecting a present. However, on Diwali, presents are normally standard, and often involve exchange of sweets. If you want your children to experience Christmas but don't want to go overboard, then you could fix a nominal price limit like Rs. 100 or Rs. 50 with other parents, and decide that no one should spend over that limit.

Carols

One of the ways your children can experience this joyous festival is by singing carols. Teach your children a few Christmas carols, and encourage them to get together with their friends and put up a small performance for all the families or the community.

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