blog.jameshom.com

The July Box

My coworker told me a wonderful story about how friends of hers reduce the "toy glut" resulting from too-many gifts to your kid at Christmas:

The kids would get to open all their presents Christmas morning, and for the rest of the day could play as much as they wanted with all of them.

But the day after, the kids would have to divide up their loot in two piles, one that would stay out and get actively used, and one that would go into the "July Box". Each kid had a July Box, and would get to decide which toys wouldn't be seen for 6 months.

Yup. Half the toys went into the July Box, and the box went up into the attic. Then on July 4, at the family celebration, the July Box would come down and the kids would get all these "new" toys. Of course by then they had forgotten about what was in there, so the experience was still as new and exciting as on Christmas morning.

I think this is a wonderful idea. Gives a whole new meaning to "Boxing Day".