baby jesus only got 3 gifts....

**sabrelvssammy** · 11-23-2009, 04:45 PM

I was at a friends the other day and her two kids had made out their x-mas wish lists....(they are 10 & 12)....they presented them to their mother who quickly looked over them and said "pick your top 3 favorites...coz that's how many you each are going to get"....

immediately someone turned on the 'whine switch' that our children have so perfected...and it sounded thruout the room bouncing off all the walls.....

"stop it...!" she commanded....and proceeded to tell them (which i just stood there cracking up over).....

"baby jesus only got 3 gifts...when you two can prove to me that you are better than baby jesus....then perhaps we can re-negotiate this conversation".......

now that's telling them how it is.......

**lottaLove** · 11-23-2009, 04:49 PM

I love it!

**imagine** · 11-23-2009, 04:58 PM

Wouldn't we all love it if we got the treasures of kings for our birthday. Gold, Frankincense and Myrr were no small trinkets.

I liked you story. I'm guessing it is a real life story and not an an internet story. That would have been fun to watch.

P.S. my kids would love it if we gave them three presents for Christmas.

QM · 11-23-2009, 05:05 PM

Cute story! Thanks for sharing.

**ml2620** · 11-23-2009, 05:18 PM

If I had kids, I'd totally do this!

3 gifts actually makes a lot of sense.

**Thevail** · 11-23-2009, 05:35 PM

Ok.. so replace the gold with.. a gift card.
Replace the frankinscence and myrr with an air freshener device.

And that still leaves a gift slot open for something they want!

It's not a bad plan!

**Inkstain82** · 11-23-2009, 06:37 PM

If you take the value of Jesus' three gifts and adjust for inflation, I'm pretty sure we're talking a number with quite a few zeroes after it.

**piney** · 11-23-2009, 06:57 PM

I just love that story

**AmyBoz** · 11-23-2009, 07:23 PM

Very cute...thanks for sharing!

**Daisygirl** · 11-23-2009, 07:31 PM

That's great - I may use it on my hooligans!

**imagine** · 11-24-2009, 11:59 AM

Originally Posted by Inkstain82

If you take the value of Jesus' three gifts and adjust for inflation, I'm pretty sure we're talking a number with quite a few zeroes after it.

I tried to find out what the $ value would be. I couldn't find it on the net and mentioned it to Hubby. He just sent me this e-mail. I guess he could find it on the net. He didn't give a reference though.

“What was the dollar value of the gold frankincense myrrh that the wise men brought to Jesus?

It's difficult to say the monetary value at the time of the gift, so...

The market closed today with gold trading at $841.00/10oz Troy (310 grams or a small bullion).

4oz Frankincense tears $3.50

4oz Myrrh tears $3.50

This is assuming the wise men brought the resins in their most natural form as collected from their respective trees rather than having powdered it. Powdered they would both be about a dollar or so more.

Grand total in today's money.... $848.00 but I don't think it was the money they were concerned with but rather the symbolism of the gifts.

In ancient times any one of the gifts would have been worth a small fortune due to the rarity of the item and the expense to bring it such great distances.

That's absurd to think three wealthy sages would travel across the desert for weeks to bring a treasure worth a trinket. A small chest of gold (pure gold) appx. 1/2 cu. ft' or less than 8" square would weigh over 50 pounds. There's no way to be sure how large the gift was but a small chest would have been an appropriate gift for a messiah. At that estimation and today’s market the one gift of gold alone would be worth at least a half million dollars. If it was gold coin it could've been more. The other two gifts were more valuable than gold THEN. While there's no way to know how much, it's a good guess they were of comparable value. So, I would guess that the three gifts combined would easily have been worth well over a million bucks. A couple million even. A nice fortune then and now. They had to go into hiding for several years in Egypt. That would've been enough to do so and pay off anyone who stood in their way. “

**joyofsix** · 11-24-2009, 12:03 PM

This is the 'rule' that I grew up with and it's the one I've used with my kids.

**imagine** · 11-24-2009, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by joyofsix

This is the 'rule' that I grew up with and it's the one I've used with my kids.

So do you give your kids three gifts or does the three include all presents like also from extended family and Santa?

**joyofsix** · 11-24-2009, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by imagine

So do you give your kids three gifts or does the three include all presents like also from extended family and Santa?

Santa only brings one gift, usually a toy. Mommy and daddy give you the other two. Our extended family doesn't give the children gifts because there are 'too many'. It doesn't include stockings which usually have candy, new crayons,playdoh, toothbrush, toothpast, chap stick, that sort of thing. The teens of course are happy with just one thing of more value so I guess this really holds for the ten and under crowd.

**Anythingispossible** · 11-24-2009, 05:51 PM

We are doing the three gift rule... two from mom and dad and one from "santa"...if were even doing the santa thing.

What they get from relatives are on them and there budget so i dont say much about that.