We don’t spend a lot of money at Christmas and started the 5 gift rule when we started traveling fulltime. Even though we now live in a Stick and brick house and only travel for fun, I still keep this rule. Holidays are not about how much you spend but the memories you make.

The 5 gift rule for us is more about education and broadening our mines. The girls get 1 gift they want, 1 gift that is educational, 1 gift they can read, 1 gift they can wear, and 1 gift of travel with the family.

The 1 gift they want always comes from Santa in our house. This is the thing my kids have been asking for all year. Of course, as they have become teens the gift has been getting harder to find. I am happy to say they just asked for cash this year. Not Visa card or iTunes card but cash that can be used as soon as they get it.

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1 educational gift can be a great time to refresh your learning experience. The best part is if you have more than one child you can get a lot of great gifts that all the kids could benefit from. I like getting games or subscription for this gift.

Here some educational ideas:

• Stem toys would be fun especially toy cars you have to build.
• A Programmable Mechanical Robot Coding Kit
• Microscope, one that you can plug into your phone or computer
• Learn to play chess with, Artsmart

Subscriptions

• We love Mel Science and the fact you get a new subscription every month
• This great for kids who love the outdoors, Animal Trackers Club
• This is another great science subscription https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/club/
• What is Groovy Lab in a Box? Learn all about how we got started!

Games

A Gift you can read

I have always told people that if your child can read and do basic math. Then kids can figure anything out, so reading is very important. My kids read every night and sometimes all day. Every Christmas the girls pick out a book series they want to read. Here this years picks:

Traveling Gift

A gift of Travel can add the most memories to your Christmas Cheer. We traveled for four years in an RV and fell in love with camping. My favorite mini-trip was a ride on the Grand Canyon Railway. We stayed at the campground while my parents stayed at the hotel. They have a show with cowboys before you leave, sing to you while on board, and tell a little history of the locomotive. It was one of the best weeks of our whole trip.

If you can’t do a big trip get camping gear and sleep in the back yard. Heck, I used to set up a tent in the living room. Go hiking with the whole family or maybe a bike ride. These are the memories the kids will remember. The ones my kids remember is when we had trouble, everything went wrong.