I have scaled back on gifts to the children to a 'book' to share my love of reading with them and I write a little note in it specific to them.

The money I used to budget to spend on gifts for children in my daycare we know go out and choose a boy and a girl off the Angel tree and get them a gift to help someone locally and than we choose to do something to help those in other countries who have no Christmas at all and just need help LIVING ... via the Project Hope website both last year and this year the children voted to send a little girl from Africa to school for the year because they love getting to go to 'school' aka daycare and they think everyone should be able to go and learn. This year we also collected canned goods and brought them to the food drive and our Elf on the Shelf has been leaving us random act of kindness challenges to spread Christmas cheer in the community and help kids remember this is a time for 'giving to those less fortunate' than it is about 'getting' things we do not really need but just want because we are so blessed to have a roof over our head, food in a bellies and the opportunity to go to school and learn and play with lots of toys and so forth!

For the parents ~ the children and I make ornaments one 'keepsake' glass handprint ornament that is more me than them and than some 'handmade' craft ornaments or decorations ... so cinnamon clay cookie cutter ones that they make that often do not look like much of anything but its the process and thought and than some paper decorations.

I also do a photo calendar for the upcoming year featuring memories from previous year that is more a 'family gift' ... the children help me pick out the photos they want for each month as their own keepsake memory.

On the last day before break we have a Christmas Tea party complete with fancy tea cups for the children and 'finger treats' on the tea tray that we bake together next week.