As a parent of young triplets, I'm very attuned to the challenges faced by parents to succumb to the pressure that advertisers place on them via their children, particularly around the holidays.  As a parent and a financial planner, I'm also very concerned with raising children who are both financially literate and resistant to consumerism as a way of life.  Along those lines, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has released five tips to re-think gift giving from Consumer Advocate Eleanor Blayney.

The tips:

Tip #1:  Use a Gift Giving Structure

Categorize gifts to help make the process more deliberate and to help guard against overspending.

Tip #2: Make a Privilege Coupon Book

These coupons would allow kids to do something special at a time of their choosing.  The privileges may or many not cost anything, but chances are they'll be very valuable.

Tip #3: Give Gifts of Time and Experience

Although we spend a lot of time together as a family, it's an ongoing challenge for us to carve out 1:1 time with our kids. When we do, they love it and it's great for us as well.  This is a great idea, and we definitely intend to adapt a combination of time/privilege coupons as part of what we give our kids this year.

Tip #4: Gifting Games

The suggestion here is to make a game of having kids take turns in opening gifts, instead of just allowing them to blow through the process to get to the toys.  Makes sense.

Tip #5: Use this Holiday for Teachable Moments

We've tried to emphasize for our kids the importance of helping others through charitable actions.  The tip also highlights the ability to teach budgeting through the gift-giving process.