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We’ve heard for years that Kristen Bell tries to get her children to think about others, to consider themselves part of the world and like everyone is family, and to give back to others. Dax told a story on a talk show about how Kristen gave away all their stuff, even the baby supplies, on their first trip to Cuba. Dax and Kristen have daughters Lincoln, three, and Delta, who turns two next month. Would it surprise you to learn that each girl gets to pick out three gifts for Christmas and that’s all they get? Kristen told this to Entertainment Tonight outside of the LA Christmas tree lighting on Sunday. She doesn’t get the presents though, she lets the grandparents get them because they love to spoil her kids. She also said that she’s just about to decorate for Christmas!

“Just before Halloween, [I] start thinking about Christmas,” the actress told ET’s Denny Directo at The Grove’s annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday. “It just makes you feel so good. My family was always really into Christmas and my husband and I decorate like crazy.”

“We start early,” the mom of two continued. “I just took the Christmas [light] boxes down. I haven’t put them up yet, but a lot of my neighbors have. I have really radical neighbors — the electric bill on my street, I cannot even fathom.”

Bell, 36, admitted that she and husband Dax Shephard may actually be more excited than their two daughters, who “do not really know what is going on.”

And when it comes to gifts, 3-year-old Lincoln and 1-year-old Delta won’t be writing extensive wish lists.

“We focus more on, ‘What do you want to get other people?’” said Bell. “And wrapping other gifts and saying, ‘This is a time to spoil everyone else.’ We try to take them volunteering and we tell them they can ask Santa for three presents.”

Bell leaves buying those presents to “the grandmas” and does most of her Christmas shopping online.

[From ET Online]

I will admit that I want to decorate for Christmas now. I see the displays in the stores and I get the itch and just want to put up the tree (mine’s fake!) and all the lights. Screw the waiting period before Thanksgiving, I need the holiday cheer. I’m not even Christian but I love Christmas. As for buying your kids three things each for Christmas, that goes against how I was raised, we’re into giant Christmases with lots of unwrapping and excitement. It does open the possibilities up a bit more though. You always end up with things you don’t need and want and it just accumulates. My son is a tween now and he wants computer upgrades and video games. Maybe this year we can do more charitable giving and less physical gifts. It would probably feel better than getting more stuff. Plus it’s better for the environment.

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