What should a Christmas gift be?

What is a true Christmas gift to me...



I am as usual feeling very misunderstood and different this Christmas, like one of the misfit toys;)
So I write this out to help myself digest and get my thoughts together... Its very therapeutic to type things out sometimes, it helps me feel better...
We have chosen as a family not to exchange gifts but to use that money to reach out and help others in other countries that are starving, cold, hurting, and that do not yet know our Lord and Savior. We have chosen as a family to make the Christmas season a time of tradition of togetherness, for example our Disney Trip, making cookies and goodies, watching Christmas movies and to spend time helping others in various seasonal activities. We fill the Treasures stockings with trinkets of our love for them. In the past, if there has been something special on our hearts to give them, we do. We do not just go out and buy tons of toys for the sake of thats what everyone does....

Does that mean I am against gifts? No, I enjoy giving gifts, when it is on my heart to give something that will be MEANINGFUL. Not something that will end up in a Salvation Army bin or re gifted, tossed aside and forgotten. Here is a great example of a perfect gift to me...
We have a very special person in our lives that feels very strongly about giving us a gift at Christmas but yet does not want it to be something that will be tossed; so they have asked our feelings and we have begun a wonderful tradition of this person giving my children a special book each year. This year we received this book, a much wanted book
God's Dream, it is beautiful.

This is a treasured gift that will be looked at on the shelf during the year and a smile will come to our hearts. I give to certain people through out the year and at Christmas if something special is on my heart.
I just do not feel Christmas should be all about making a list of people and searching up and down the toy isle's for something they might like, that is for sure under $10 bucks because I have so many to buy for and need to stick to a budget. I feel it should be something special that was on my heart to give the specific individual and not exchanging for the sake of exchanging. I would MUCH rather you use that $10-$20 bucks to give to a charity, than give my children a toy that can break or forget about in a couple of days.... You can buy a lot of cups of milk for a child in another country for 10 bucks, seeds for a garden, chickens for eggs.... tons of things in the Samaritan Purse catalog.... That money is much better used that way.

This year hubby and I decided to use gift money to continue to sponsor our LWB child that is in foster care and we gave to the Lottie Moon offering that The Byrd's Nest shared with me about. I had never heard about this fund because it is a Southern Baptist Missionary fund. We go to a non denominational church that is bible based. When I heard about this Missionary fund plus the fact that our friends Kim and Greg and their sweet children are about to give up ALL of their worldly goods and move to Mexico to live out the rest of their lives making disciples as missionaries,we immediately felt on our hearts this was where we need to also give for Christmas. I feel good in my heart and know we were obedient to God in our giving this year. So I have to let go the stress of attempting to make others understand...