1. Nowhere in the Bible does it instruct believers to give one another gifts in memory of the birth of our Saviour. What the Bible does command is that we should drink of the cup and take of the bread in memory of Jesus and his work on the Cross. (1 Corinthians 11: 24-25) We believe that we should celebrate Christ’s birth, crucifixion and resurrection daily, not just on one particular day of the year when the giving of gifts often overshadows the true meaning of the gift of redemption.
2. With large families like ours, buying or making even small gifts would amount to a considerable amount of money. Usually the gifts are luxuries that we don’t need and they may foster expectations, possible disappointments and materialism. We choose not to have this expense, which sets many other families up to start their new year in debt.
3. It relieves our elderly parents of having to spend their dwindling finances on their children, spouses and large number of grandchildren.
4. We don’t have to spend large amounts of time browsing the shops amidst the crowds of stressed-out shoppers, all searching with us for the perfect gift for someone who probably doesn’t need it anyway.
5. We can use the money we would have spent on gifts on other relationship-building activities, such as towards a family camping trip or a holiday.
..or we can bless others.
Here are five ways to give to others: - Buy gifts from R10 store for kids in hospital
- Visit the elderly with cookies
- Buy meals on wheels Christmas lunch vouchers
- Make up food hampers with cans and give them to beggars at robots (with can opener)
- Buy gifts from Samaritans purse
Yes, it is fun to give and receive gifts and the Bible encourages generosity and blessing others, so for sure, other families may choose to continue this family gift-giving tradition at Christmas. We are not here to judge anybody that does so.
But homeschoolers tend to do things differently and many of them question cultural norms. Maybe this is a man-made tradition that you might want to reconsider and tweak according to your own views and values.
| 
