For children, a large part of the excitement of Christmas lies in the gifts they will receive from Santa Claus and the Three Wise Men. These are two magical events that you look forward to almost all year round. So much so that it is common for parents to resort to reminding them that they must behave well because “the Three Wise Men are watching them.”
There is nothing wrong with giving the little ones in the house gifts on these important dates. However, excessive gifts bring with it certain consequences in their education that we must not overlook and we must avoid spoiling them excessively, in order to avoid what is known as the over-gifted child syndrome.
This question will depend a lot on the circumstances of each family. But there is a popular trend that consists of the rule of four gifts. It consists of giving them a gift that they really want, another that they really need, another to read and another to wear.
However, it is difficult to comply with this maxim. Given the barrage of toy advertisements and catalogues, it is common for children's wish lists to be much longer. To this we must add that, in addition to the gifts they will receive in their own home, gifts will be added to the homes of family and friends. Finally, children receive an excess of gifts on these dates that do not benefit them at all.
From the blog Educar en Calma they highlight that receiving too many gifts harms children, causing them to not value things or the effort it takes to get them. This makes them less tolerant of frustration, believing that they can get everything they want. Consequently, they become dissatisfied, uncreative, capricious and selfish children, giving rise to materialistic and consumerist adults.
To address the situation, Elisa Molina, specialist in positive education and author of the aforementioned blog, recommends dosing and rotating gifts. That is, once they are all open, observe which ones caught their attention the most and leave them two or three, while we will save the rest to give them when they lose interest in the previous ones. The idea is to alternate them throughout the year according to your needs and preferences.
In this way, we ensure that they get more out of the toys and receive them with enthusiasm. It is also important that each toy has its place, is kept organized and within reach.
Another recommendation from Molina is to take advantage of these dates to clean out your toys, giving away, recycling, donating or throwing away those that are no longer useful, do not adapt to their age or are not used. Finally, he emphasizes that spending quality time with children is the best gift we can offer them.
