Who wants to explain "Want, Need, Wear, Read" to me?

[TwinFoxes]

I have never heard of this before, and suddenly everyone is posting about it. Does this mean you only get DCs one gift from each category? Is this an organized movement? Fill me in!

[JoyNChrist]

I heard about it here, so I don't know if it's popular everywhere or what.

For us, we're getting each child one gift from each category. "Santa" will fill their stockings and bring them one additional gift.

I'm mainly doing it to limit myself...I go way overboard for Christmas. Way, WAY overboard. And then they get so much from family that it's obscene. So this is making me tone it down and think about what I really want them to have.

[kijip]

We do a version of it. Usually we buy 1 thing in each catagory and then Santa does a couple more things. Sometimes though one catagory has more than one item and sometimes Santa brings some of the items on the want/wear/read/need thing.

When a catagory has more than one item it is because they are small gifts clustered together or used/repuposed things being clustered with new items. Like a hat/scarf/gloves all together. Or we are giving him a used iPod for the want catagory includes a case and a Lego app and a birding guide app.

I first heard about it in church and it stuck with me. I like the idea of keeping it simple, hitting several aspects of life, appreciating things that are easy for middle class kids to take for granted (needs and clothes). If we were stricter about it, we would not add the Santa stuff on top but I feel like it helps keep me from going overboard. As a adult who grew up poor now with middle class means, it was way too easy for me to just go overboard because I was trying to make it better than my holidays. OTH, there is something special about the holidays of my childhood... The weird handmade stuff, how awesome it was to get a bigger gift because mom and dad saved or spent their Christmas money on it, appreciating whatever we did get etc. I want to capture that by making sure we don't buy a lot just because we can and by making some gifts.

[lmwbasye]

We mostly stick to this. We do want, need, wear, read...but then add on gift from Mama and Daddy and gift from brother. I *may* do an additional big santa gift. Either way, it helps keep things a bit simpler for us. We've done years that are just overwhelming for everyone and simple works better for us. Also, they get a lot from their extended families (two sets of grandparents, 4 sets of aunts/uncles). We mostly do one per category but sometimes will add more. Also, there may be more than one item in a *set*...i.e. A Nintendo DS and several games to go with it may be the "want".

[citymama]

Ah, one thing in each category - now I get it. I was thinking gifts had to fall into one or another category, and pretty much everything DD wants is a "want"! I like the idea. I would also find some way to add "enrichment" into it because there doesn't seem to be any space for things that the kid doesn't want, but aren't purely utilitarian either. Art or music or things of beauty that are not wanted, needed, worn or read by the kid, but that life would be quite empty without!