Most teachers and schools have some type of Christmas party for their students. Due to a recent urge to encourage students to eat healthier, many parties throughout the year are not planned. However, Christmas is a special occasion and almost every celebrates the last day before Christmas vacation.
In younger grades, Christmas parties are thought to be equipped with a gift exchange set up by the teacher. Older students usually bring gifts for friends and create their own gift exchange among groups of students. Some students may receive several gifts. This can be bad for students who do not receive a gift at all. In some cases I have known teachers to send a note home and not allow gift exchange at school. Instead they suggest exchanging gifts outside of school.
There are many different options for teachers to create gift exchanges between students. In my daughter’s preschool class they drew names and set a ten-dollar spending limit. This is at a private school and students pay tuition. Most public schools cannot have this high of a spending limit among students. Students will exchange the gifts at the Christmas party.
At the school were I used to teach, we had a five-dollar spending limit and girls brought a girl’s gift and boys brought a boy’s gift. The students then played a game to decide which gift they were to receive.
The problem with gift giving in this manner is spoiled and ungrateful children. This is not due to bad parenting but mainly due to the society that we live in. Some children open their gift and then get upset or complain because they wanted something else. This can really put a damper on the party and hurt the feelings of the child that brought the gift. It is also hard to find a nice gift that is five-dollars.
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