Winter holidays

Henry Maier

Right now I assume that many of you are preparing for your holiday observations and the youngsters with whom you’re working are full of their own personal expectations. At this time you may be wondering how you can handle it all.

I don’t think it is necessary that each child gets the same number of gifts, however I think it is very important that each child in care experience his or her own gift as a very personal exchange. Gifts might come from home, family, or personal friends and they should be simple and private, symbols of personal interconnections.

In the first place, the care receivers should find opportunities of giving their own gifts, ones they have made for their caregivers of choice. Irresistible items are cookies, chocolates, candied orange peel, homemade popcorn, or winter treats for birds (see In a Nutshell, December 2000). In the weeks before Christmas the unit should be buzzing with the kids working on gifts they are preparing and then wrapping up in fanciful paper.

Caregivers may serve as distributors of gifts from home and family and other personal friends. Also I’m sure that caregivers want to be among those personal gift givers. Gifts should come from them rather than from impersonal and allied persons such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Sunday schools, Junior League or the institution as a whole.

I think, for example, a careworker’s gift of a little paperback collection of Dennis the Menace cartoons would carry with it the child's awareness that the worker had noticed how much pleasure they had shared with Dennis each Sunday. She hopes this booklet will help him to keep for life their mutual enjoyment of Dennis” fateful exploits. For another instance, a new basket for her bike with a verbal explanation that she appreciated this girl’s constant readiness to attend to the needed errands for their unit and her expectation that she might continue to serve so effectively for their or others” units in need.

The more personal the gift can be the more meaning it will have. It’s not the value or number of gifts coming from solicited donations that have personal relevance. The central point of holiday gift exchange is to reflect the worker’s and the child's enjoyment and appreciation of each other.

Enjoy your gift giving and receiving. Happy holidays.