It Started With One

It started with one.

One night in a stable one special child was born under the light of one extremely bright star because God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.  

Like I said, it started with one.

It’s amazing how one could make such a difference.  This “One” that our family chooses to follow is the main reason why we celebrate Christmas.  We celebrate with joyfulness as we remember that one special night.

As parents we wanted our kids to know, like really know, what Christmas is all about.  Sure they are going to love receiving new toys (who doesn’t like presents?), but how could we teach them about the importance of giving?  We struggled with this for a few years before we started a tradition three years ago.

Every year for the past three years (my son was 3 when we started this) before we decorate or start our “wish lists” we read the nativity story together as a family.  We talk about the three wise men that followed the star to bring Jesus three gifts.  Then we have both of our kids go through their toys and choose three of them to give away to a child that may not receive as much as they do at Christmas.  We tell them it has to be something in really good condition that you think another boy or girl would love to have.  (You’d be surprised how much a kid understands about giving even at a really young age. I think the age of 3 is a good age to start this.  Last year was the first year our daughter really understood; she’s 4 now.)

We decided to start this because there are lots of toy drives that are really great but most of them only take new toys.  Which would mean that we would be buying these toys to donate, so our kids wouldn’t really have the chance to give anything themselves.  Setting an example of giving is great but what we wanted was for them to really “experience” giving.  At their young age the only thing they have to give are their toys.

So that’s how it started for our family one night three years ago.  For the past two years we have taken the toys they chose to give and donated them to the few organizations that do take gently used toys.  (Some fire stations take them, and you can also contact schools or churches that will either take them or point you in the right direction.)  This year was different though.  This year when my son brought me his “three toys” one of them was his Gameboy?!  He also brought me 4 games to go with it!  I was pretty shocked!  I mean, he does also have a Nintendo DS, but we never let him bring it out of the house.  Whenever we go on a long car trip we only let him bring his Gameboy; so I was pretty surprised that he would be willing to let go of something that was not only in really great condition but that he also used quite a bit!

This one gameboy and 4 games started a little fire within us and kind of inspired this.