How to Create a Holiday Wish List with Your Child

I think many of us can remember sitting with the old Wish Book catalog that would arrive before the holidays. Pre-internet era, it was pretty much the way in my family we picked out what we wanted for the holidays.

Here are some easy ways to help your child create their own wish list for the holidays based on age:

Recently in the past few weeks I’ve received flyers in the mail at home from both Walmart and Toys R Us. The Sunday flyers in the newspaper may also serve to be great ways for your kids to have visuals of what they would like. So why not pick one up and incorporate a bit of arts and crafts when helping them create their wish list letters?

Remember parents you are the one in CONTROL. So if a few pages in the flyer were missing ahead of time and you were pretty careful about it – some kids may never notice! For those kid’s who get overwhelmed, pulling out any irrelevant pages is a great idea anyways, why show them the infant toys if they are too big for them anyway?

Preschool Age Ideas:
Preschoolers (3 and up) are able to make a circle with a marker around an item. The difficulty is that they don’t always understand the concept of numbers. I would sit with them looking through each page and let them circle 2 items on each page. What’s the harm in letting them circle a few items, they aren’t in control of the purchase and honestly have no concept of money at that age, so don’t worry if it’s out of your price range. Choices also let them feel as if they are in control and the more things they find, you’ll have a better chance of them fitting into your budget.

Afterwards, give them a pair of scissors and encourage them to cut out what they would like and paste it onto another page for their Wish List. If you draw straight lines with a bold marker, a preschooler should be able to cut on a bold straight line for a square. On the Wish List I would then decide on a predetermined number of gifts and place squares on the holiday list to help them begin to fill in the blanks with what they have cut out, this will help them concretely narrow their choices. (See the picture up top for reference, first one on left)

Elementary Age:
Children within the elementary school age should be able to recognize numbers. The Toys R Us flyer has little boxes for check marks. For an older child they can cut out the items that they like and you can also help them sort them by numbers, looking at the item and for example picking a predetermined number of items that are over $25.00 but under $50.00, to help keep them within your budget for the season. Then have them paste them onto another paper for reference. (See middle picture above for reference)

If you go online, you can print customized writing paper, relevant for their grade. (aka big dotted lined paper for Kindergarten/first grade, smaller dotted lined paper for second grade and wide ruled notebook paper for children third grade and up)

If you write it out the wish list first with single words in a list format, your child can neatly copy it on the special holiday paper to minimize frustration, help with spelling and to make it neater. (see picture above on far right for reference)

Second grade and up, encourage your child to write it and spell the words and sentences themselves.

The opinions in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.