This is a sponsored post in partnership with Macy’s.

I love the holidays (Yes, I’m that chick listening to Christmas music ever since Thanksgiving afternoon). I really want to find ways to make this time of year extra special and meaningful for the kids. It’s important to me to make holiday traditions with them that they’ll remember for years to come. It’s only our 2nd Christmas in this house, and the first that Kaya might be able to recall later on.

We aren’t doing a big tree this year. Instead the kids and I are going to be doing Christmas crafts and decorating the inside of the house a bit. We are also going to make Christmas cookies to give out to family and they’re both helping me with the holiday cards.

I’m trying to focus on the giving aspect of the holidays when it comes to the kids. They’ve already helped me with picking out gifts for family members and friends. We are going to spend some time on the weekends choosing some of their toys to donate to kids in need. I was hoping to do some volunteering, but with the kids so young and wild, John ended up going by himself.

We wrote letters to Santa and I tried to mix it up a bit. I had Rohan tell Santa what he wanted him to bring for his friends and something fun he wanted to do, instead of writing a list of toys. Kaya dictated to me what she wanted and drew Santa a picture.

We’re going to take the letters to Macy’s this weekend to put them in Santa’s mailbox. Macy’s has partnered with Make-A-Wish^® for the holidays. Every letter that gets dropped off at Macy’s or sent online at macys.com/believe is a dollar that gets donated to Make-A-Wish (up to one million!). On National Believe Day, December 9th, Macy’s is looking to raise an additional million dollars for Make-A-Wish. Each letter collected on Friday is a double donation worth $2.00! Get writing and head over to Macy’s. To learn more about Macy’s Believe campaign, please visit macys,com/believe.

I like the tradition of writing the letter to Santa in order to bless someone else. I think we’ll just alter it a bit as the children grow up.

What are you Giving for Christmas?