Christmas is less than two months away and it’s not too early to start helping your children learn the value of giving over getting.

Sports parents have a unique opportunity to teach kids about giving. As you approach the holiday season, be intentional about creating opportunities for your child to give.

Here’s a few ideas:

Serve as a team. Organize a serving opportunity for your child’s team. I’ll never forget the Christmas, we took our family downtown to feed breakfast to the homeless before we opened our own presents. What an amazing perspective that brought to our day!

Adopt a family. Have the team adopt a needy family and shower them with gifts.

Secret Santa service. Have team members draw names for Secret Santa gifts and then make it a requirement that the gifts are acts of service.

Needy Neighbors. Have your kids pick out one or two needy neighbors that could use some help in the yard or around the house. Those couple of afternoons will bring a smile to the neighbor’s face and fill your child with the joy of helping.

Bless the coach. Coaches are often under-appreciated and over-worked. How about blessing them this holiday? Organize a cleanup day at their yard, help with a special home project or treat their family to dinner where you express your appreciation. I promise you that it will make their day!

Choose a Secret Santa team. Pick another team in your league and have each child on your team bring a small gift for a child on the other team. Deliver the gifts anonymously or just as a surprise from your team.

Carrol as a team. Revive this old-fashioned tradition. It will absolutely brighten folks’ night! Have the team wear their jerseys so they can proudly represent.

As you look for ways to teach your kids to give, remember that giving shouldn’t be a drudgery; it should be fun! Learning to give with joy will be a lifelong blessing to them, as well as to those around them.

Janis Meredith is a family life coach who wants to help all parents raise champions. You can find out more at rcfamilies.com.