Kid Holiday Gift Giving

[SoonerTexan]

Amazon, of course: http://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Bulk-.../dp/B000UY86MU

Ingredients
Botanical Name: Commiphora myrrha (Nees) Engl.

Directions
Not to be used during pregnancy or in cases of excessive uterine bleeding.

Guess that's out for me!

[Phoebe]

We give too much. Every year I try to scale back, but DH is all about the gifts. Grandparents give us a dollar amount to spend on the kids. This year we are doing more gift cards and experiences like horseback riding lessons because we don't need anymore toys and/or clothes. I am regifting some clothes to the girls because they won't know the difference. DH counted about 8 gifts per child (i.e., pjs, a Wii game, pillow pet, gift card to their favorite clothing store, etc.). It is a lot when opening presents. We usually try to open one at a time and the gift opener gets one for another person. We did it that way when I was a kid and my mom likes it. It doesn't always work that way. We go through stockings when we first get up which is from "Santa", eat breakfast and then open presents under the tree which are from family members. DH's family always brought the gifts down for under the tree on Christmas Eve night which is still something he likes to do.

[L.Jane]

Did I mention that the cats also have monogrammed stockings?? oh wait. that's a whole other thread.

oh wait.. if I celebrated xmas, and I had dogs, they'd totally have stockings....

[diggitydot]

We try not to make it a huge ordeal. The kids are all older and I've finally trained out-of-state family to send gift cards and to give me an idea of what they want to give the kids and I'll just get it for them. Except for DD1. She's 16 and like buying her own stuff. Cash and iTunes cards are her favorites.

My mon ALWAYS wants to make sure each kid has the same amount spent on them. My kids couldn't give a shit less. They're just as stoked to get a $5 gloves and hat combo as they are a $40 toy. They truly aren't materialistic kiddos.

Our tradition every year is new jammies/bathrobes/slippers for each kid. They love it. We also fill their ridiculously sized stockings with a little bit of cheap candy, bubble bath, and small/silly toys. We will either do a few small gifts or one large one per kid. A few years ago it was bikes and helmets for everyone. Our first year in the Midwest, we gave them awesome snow gear and toys that they still use.

[Vishenka69]

DD is almost 2 and really doesn't care yet. She doesn't even grasp the concept of a toy store. So we figured we'll save our money until she starts asking for stuff. Our parents on the other hand would recreate TRU at our house if we'd let them. They both refuse to visit empty-handed and considering they come at least once a month, it adds up to a lot of crap. She's the only grandchild on both sides and they've been waiting for her arrival for many years. We really buy very few items ourselves but I hate not having any control over what they bring and I can't return any of it because they just rip it open immediately.

I guess we are lucky then....with both of our families being so far away they send money and we get what we want for the kids and put the rest in their bank accounts. As long as we tell them what we did with the money they are happy. MIL orders stuff online to be sent to us but always asks for ideas first. She knows I have low tolerance for battery operated plastic crap!
This year we got a gift for DS from us for the first time, or actually one from me (wooden musical instruments from the natural toy store) and one from DH (nerf swords) - a good balance, lol.
My poor DD was born so close to Christmas I imagine we will save some birthday gifts or birthday money until later in the year when she gets older. Maybe even celebrate her half birthday in the summer.

[MrsK]

BabyK is gettint totally spoiled. His birthday is next Friday and Hannukah starts 5 days later. I'm over-run with gifts we've bought (including a much-desired potty) and gifts sent by family and friends. I cannot weed out any of his old toys because he plays with everything and soon K2 will play with them too. (They already fight over cars and a favorite stuffed dog.)

On the other hand, we have hardly any gifts for K2. My mom sent a weird stuffed turtle painted with water-soluable ink that we cannot give him because he will put it in his mouth and I haven't found any infant toys that I'm willing to add to those we've got. He also has more clothes than he could ever possibly wear.

I think I'm going to have to save some of K1's haul for June when K2 has his birthday and K1 has his "half-birthday".

I wish our family would stick with non_clutter gifts like contributions to the kids' college savings, zoo passes, my gym memberships...

I wish our family would stick with non_clutter gifts like contributions to the kids' college savings, zoo passes, my gym memberships...

Oh yes those are the best! Memberships and classes (gymnastics, music) are a favorite here too.

[houseelf]

The age spread of our kids renders the game of 'even-steven' ridiculous in our house. The 12 y.o. is receiving an IPod touch and a $25 iTunes gift card rounded out by some candy in stocking. His haul cost the most by far. The 7 y.o. is happy with lots of small, crappy stuff like squinkies and Barbies. Her haul visibly appears to be the largest. The 2 y.o. has every toy from his big brother and sister from the previous 12 Christmases and birthdays and has everything from a play kitchen to the wooden train table to action figures. He wants for nothing in the toy department. He will receive a few gifts like a nightlight and flashlight and that's about it. Nonetheless, he has the most toys of any previous 2 year old in our family.

[peggyfromwastate]

ITA Kelly. This is where it's convenient to have the birthday close to Christmas. The 15yo gets a big gift that is usually a combo Christmas-birthday gift bc her bday is jan 8. She likes it bc she gets something cool. Last year she got an iPod.... Which she ruined this summer by leaving it in her swim bag where it got doused with shampoo. Sigh.

The three middle kids (10, 10, 7) get an even amount of $ spent and then I'll try to round out the number of gifts using cheap stuff (or clothes which no one really counts as a gift). That way they all open the same number of packages. Dd15 also gets a lot of little things (hair gel, stuff she would buy anyway) because it's not so fun to open one gift and be done with it.

The challenge last year was keeping dd3 from opening everyone else's gifts lol. She was 2 then and totally "got it".