Christmas experiment…. books for kids?
So I tried something new this year for Christmas. I have 20 some nieces and nephews and am the sole remaining single uncle, so there’s a bit of pressure on me to be the cool uncle each year. Traditionally, I’ve given nothing to these wee little kids during the holidays because a gift to one would require a gift to all, and I’m not made of money you know. But as I’ve been around the family a bit more the last year and a half, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend…. Nintendo DS.
As kids turn 7 it’s some kind of a rite of passage now in school, kids get a DS. Now we had gameboys back in my day, but it wasn’t anywhere near this bad. I swear these kids can sit with the head crooked at a certain angle staring at a 3×3 screen for days, and when they finish their game they are no better or more interesting than 3 days ago when they started. So as their uncle I decided I had to at least try something.
I invited the older kids on a date with the uncle, borrowed the sisters suburban and piled in 7 kids over the age of 8 with the oldest being 13. We stopped into Burger King for a dollar menu dinner and then went down to the KC plaza and we walked around to see the lights. That was pretty fun, but then we got into the Barnes & Noble on the plaza. This was actually a really fun experience, being 3 floors high, we worked through floor by floor with the kids seeing the most books in one place they’ve ever seen (excluding a library, well maybe not, this is Missouri) The rule, they had a cap of $20 to spend on their Christmas present and it had to be a book. I could have given them a gift card, but I wanted to ensure it got spent on a book, and not a game or a poster or whatever else they could find, I wanted them to read a real live book.
So? It mostly worked. The younger kids (8-10) ended up missing the point a bit. They saw it as a value game, ie what’s the most expensive book so I can get to get the most out of my $20 rather than what book do I want to read. Also, puppies on the cover were like kryptonite to the girls, and removed them from being able to follow my perfect logic of why they should get a nancy drew book. But the older kids (11-13) hit the nail on the head, they got excited about the books, the genres, Sam was wowed at the coffee table books about WWII, Annie found a collection of Jane Austen books in a collectors edition and ooogled at it, and on it went. As an uncle, I was in heaven watching the older kids pick out their books, I felt like santa.
By the end of the night, I was out maybe $150 bucks, but I got all the kids a present, and a present that would actually excite them about something worthwhile. The side benefit is with some of them I now have more to talk about as they read through some of my favorite books from my childhood. So the verdict is I’ve found a new tradition. They loved it, it was cheap, and anything to break that Nintendo DS stare is money well spent in my book. Thanks B&N, I’ll see you next year
The payout - kids reading after presents