How to Teach Kids to Serve Others This Holiday Season

By Lisa Kroulik © November 2, 2011

Yes, it really is November now, and the holidays will soon be descending on us whether we are ready or not. If you’re the parent of young children, seeing the wonder of the holidays through their eyes can be especially rewarding. Unfortunately, the time leading up to Christmas, Hanukkah and other winter holidays can also turn your kids into greed machines, seemingly overnight. Without the benefit of life experience to guide them, preschoolers and young elementary aged children can easily get caught up in the “give-me’s.” The steps you take while they are young can help to influence how your kids view the holidays for many years to come.

The Thanksgiving holiday presents an opportune time for you to teach your kids about serving others and reaching out to the less fortunate. It isn’t the most exciting of holidays to kids, as it only seems to mean eating turkey an entertaining a lot of relatives. Starting when they are as young as three years old, you can instill the value of gratitude in your kids. Let them know the things you are thankful for in life, including being their mom or dad. From there, you can move on to a discussion about how not everyone has the same things your family has, like enough food or a place to live.

This may be a hard concept for young kids to grasp, so just keep it age-appropriate and explain how it makes you feel good to help others who don’t have as much as you do. To make serving others more than just a concept, plan to do some volunteer work together as a family over the Thanksgiving holiday. You could plan to serve meals to the homeless or donate money to organizations that do. When you are trying to teach a spirit of volunteerism to kids, they will learn best by following your example.

Even the youngest of children can hand out paper plates and napkins to people receiving a Thanksgiving meal if your family chooses to help an organization serve a meal. However, before you bring your children along on a volunteer opportunity, check with the organization to make sure they don’t have a policy against children helping. If they do, it is most likely for the children’s own safety. If the organization does welcome your whole family, make sure you closely supervise your little ones so other volunteers aren’t distracted from doing their own jobs

When you include children in your volunteer efforts, it helps them to view the people they are serving as real people with real families and helps them to develop a sense of empathy. This will mean so much more than just reading about it in a book when they get older. Volunteering together also helps your family to form closer bonds by working together in the community. It is a very effective way of teaching kids there is a whole other world beyond what they see at home.

Thanksgiving is an ideal time to volunteer before the frantic pace of Christmas or Hanukkah is here. It also sets the tone and helps kids to re-frame their thinking from what they will get to what they can contribute. Another good way to teach kids this lesson is by getting involved in Toys for Tots or Operation Christmas Child. Both of these organizations collect and distribute toys for needy children. Operation Christmas Child may be especially fun for your child to participate in because he or she can choose the gender and age range of the child who receives the gifts.

If you’re exasperated by the demands of greedy children at holiday time, take heart. You are the biggest influence on them and it’s not too late to turn their greediness into altruism. They take their cues from you, so now is the time for all of you to reach out and serve other people.