When I got the mail today there were 2 HUGE toy catalogs in with the mail. I immediately went to hand each of the girls one to look at to see what they wanted for Christmas, but then I thought “hey wait a minute”. By doing that am I encouraging the commercialism of Christmas? You see I don’t want little girls that constantly say “I want, I want, I want” so maybe giving them a huge toy catalog and asking them to circle what they want is a really bad idea. I ended up sticking them in the closet (the catalogs not the twins he he!).
Am I right in not giving the catalogs to the girls or am I overthinking it ? I need some advice from you. Also, how do you decide how many gifts to get for your kids for the holidays? Do you have a method or do you wing it ?
I have heard that a great way to make sure you do not overbuy for your kids is to set a limit on how many presents they get. I’ve heard some families limit it to 3 presents a piece (like the Wise Men gave to Jesus). Some limit it to the age of the child. Some limit it by category, such as a thing you need, a thing you want, a thing you play with, a thing you wear, etc
How do you do it ? I’d love to hear.
I always first had my kids clean out good and gently used toys to give to others. Then depending on age I would say ” We are on a budget” you may take this marker and circle this many items that you would like and make sure that you can live with what Daddy and I would choose for you. Santa will bring you his couple of gifts and Dad and I will bring you a couple. Keep it small and simple. Also encourage the girls to each make a gift for dad and then have dad have the girls make a gift for you. I always allowed my kids to shop the Dollar Store for Grandparents and would give them a chore to earn the money to do so. I also let them wrap the gifts they made or bought. Then we would bake cookies and such to give as gifts as well.
I have a Christmas Birthday kid and we do keep it seperate. My child just told me that they need alot of presents for Christmas this year. I politely told them that it is not neccessary and that is not what Christmas is about.
When we are in the store and she goes on and on about what she wants and just has to have, I tell her we can put it on the list and thankfully that ends any drama that could begin. I usually get her a toy or two for each christmas and birthday then buy things that she needs like clothes ( I do fun iron on for her T’s, restocking the crayons and various art supplies. By doing this I have saved a ton and don’t have a child who begs me for the latest DS or high tech toys. Also we all get our own bottle of sparkling cider and 1lb bag of M&M’s. Those top any gift:)
By doing things this way we have not encouraged hundreds and hundreds of dollars spent at Christmas and don’t have to worry about making things grander then last Christmas. I have a few friends that are now trying to figure out how to cover their Christmas as their children get older and want more and more expensive gifts. I also do alot of memorable and crafted gifts for family.
As of yet I have not had my child say where is such and such gift, or my friend got this gift why don’t I have one.
All in all we have some pretty great, enjoyable and memorable Christmases.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience with my own kids yet (they are 3 and 1), but growing up my parents would give us the catalog to help us make our list for Santa with the understanding that Santa had a lot of children to care for so he could only bring a couple of gifts for each child. My parents emphasized that his sleigh was only so big, so he could only hold so many toys. They also indicated that elves work very hard all year so that each good boy or girl could get a toy or two, but they need time with their families too so it wouldn’t be nice to ask them for tons of toys…. Somehow, I remember feeling sorry for the elves working so hard and remember trying to ask for the toys that would be easy to make…lol.
I love the ideas of having the kids go through their toys to donate some to less fortunate. Even though I know they don’t understand yet – each year we have the boys pick a tag off the Salvation Army giving tree and then that is their donation each year.
We taught our girls to say “It would be nice to have…….” They always enjoyed the catalogs but with the knowledge that they were for ideas that they might get! I had them make lists prioritizing which items they wanted the most then did my shopping for the top 3 items and then stocked them up on pjs and clothes that they needed. They are all grown up now and still talk about certain things that they got…
I don’t limit gifts to a specific number, but I do kind of limit them by type. When I was a kid, my grandmother worked at Thalheimers and would give us things like a brand new pillow for our room, bath towels that were our very own, a new set of sheets. Because these things were given at Christmas it gave them new meaning and I loved them. I get my kids a few things they just “want” like an electronic or fancy pair of boots, but they also get some things they need, like new pajamas and slippers, socks, underwear, basic tee shirts, grooming things in their stockings like new toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, body wash, chap stick, etc. Sometimes they get a coat, and they usually get new gloves, hat, etc. So when they go to open gifts there are plenty, but since I don’t buy anything pretty much all winter before Christmas, these are special too to them.
We have always stuck to 3 gifts for each child. Usually there is one gift that is something useful like pajamas (and all the children will get that particular item), one gift that encourages activity, and the last is something special and specific to the individual child. We prefer to explain to the kids that the real Santa Clause was someone who secretly provided gifts to those in need a very long time ago so “Santa Clause” doesn’t come to our house but we inconspicuously do Santa clause for someone less fortunate. The kids help plan and execute operation Santa Clause and they really enjoy it. I only offer them a toy catalog as an absolute last resort.
We use the toy/clothes catalogs that come in the mail to cut pictures of things the kids would like and then they paste them in the order they want them. They get to choose 4 things they would like to have. The only stipulation is that they cannot put electronics on their list as they have been told that we will buy electronics for them instead of Santa because we want to make sure the right ones are bought for them . So far the kids have accepted that lol. Then we have each child pick a name from the angel tree or we adopt a family that has at least 4 kids close to the ages of our children. My kids will pick an item from their list and that is what they buy for the child that is closest to their age. “Santa” will then usually buy 2-3 gifts for each child. We have been lucky that this has worked for us and the kids have accepted (at least for the most part) that they do not always get the expensive gifts like others. For us, it has been great that the kids are buying for others… it has helped them to understand that although they do not get much, there are others who get even less.
My boy will be not 16 months old this Christmas. He doesn’t really understand the idea of Christmas yet, but i like the ideas shared above.
I hope I will be able to put into live some kind of project as he will become older.
Also his little sister will be born shortly before Christmas, so will have to make sure he will not feel pushed away, as probably that will be forst time for the part of the family to see the baby.
It’s never been about the “grand” gifts with my 2 y/o daughter…I buy her 1 gift I think she might REALLY enjoy (last year it was baby dolls, this year her thing was horses lol) which could be anywhere from $20-50, and the rest of her gifts are items she could use/needs, and a few “it’s not going to break the bank” gifts like super deals I may pick up on a clearanced small toy/ craft item. My parents carry on a “new pajamas for Christmas eve” tradition, which I plan to carry on…but it was never really about the amount of gifts we got on Christmas morning as much as the time we spent together. My daughter’s other grandparents and father are the “I’ll spend whatever it takes (year round) to make sure she has the latest, greatest, newest toys” so I know she won’t miss out on that (even if I disagree with the philosophy).
A majority of my budget is simply put into making sure I get to spend some time with her( gas money to dirve to MI, taking time off work)….So if it means that I don’t see her at Christmas time, I set aside some of my “gift” money for a special trip to go see her at another time or to splurge a little more when she comes to visit me. I feel like making Christmas about gifts, is taking away from the special closeness and spirit you should feel by being with the people you care the most about. my 2 cents