Pretty self-explanatory question. Myself, I always got way too much as a kid, and only a few gifts really stick out that I still remember now. Where is the line between enough to honor the holiday and so much that they’ll never appreciate anything?
We don’t have a quota per se. It usually winds up being one “big gift” per kid, and then a small handful of other gifts. I try to keep it under the threshold of gift overload. I would say it usually winds up being maybe 4-5 total gifts per child. I also make them new Christmas PJs every year, but that doesn’t count.
A friend of mine gets 5 gifts per child every year, using the philosophy of: Something they want, something they need, something to read, something to wear. And then one gift from Santa.
I don’t have a number of gifts set but I do stick to a $100 budget per child. Plus maybe some stocking stuffers like new crayons, drawing paper, etc. They usually get 1 ‘main’ gift and then 2-3 more depending on how much stuff costs. Considering they also get things from grandparents and aunts/uncles they still get a haul every year.
(disclaimer…around Christmas I tend to save anything I would have bought them anyway for them to unwrap. Thus clothes they needed or winter hats, etc. get given as ‘gifts’ just because they like to unwrap things and it makes getting new socks more exciting (my kids are 5 and 2). But I don’t count these in the budget.)
I think I use a general guide of: One really good (read: expensive) gift from Santa, one smaller gift from parents (usually clothes or books), plus the traditional Christmas morning stocking and the traditional Christmas Eve pajamas.
All children who are not my own get books.
I buy my little girl probably a dozen presents but they’re mostly Family Dollar deals. Today I got her a play tea set and dishes for five dollars. She gets coloring books and crayons in her stocking with candy. I’m planning one gift over ten dollars; a Tinkerbell DVD.
Her big sister won’t get as much because all she wants is a gift card.
Ha! I do the same thing. My “boring” gifts are usually school uniforms or underwear. I love the looks on their faces when they realize they’ve been had. 
This is all the fault of my wife’s family - I didn’t do Christmas before we got married. We only give presents to immediate family, but we like lots of presents. The lots include trivial ones. For instance, if we buy mystery books for my daughter from the used book store we’ll wrap them individually. One year my mother-on-law got perfume samples and wrapped them up. I’m giving my daughter a coffee cup from a conference I’m involved in - though that is good since she gave a tutorial with me at it. Lots of thrift shop presents are expected. BTW, all presents are officially from everybody, and we share in the cost according to ability to pay.
When my son-in-law started doing Christmas with us he became a big fan. The big advantages, besides opening presents well into the late afternoon, is that if you miss on one, no big deal. Very low stress, and it is obligatory to have lots of discussions during shopping season.
Though my kids are in their 20s now, it is still traditional that we put out the presents after they go to bed, so they can be surprised in the morning.
Four or five “real” gifts (one “big” one and other moderate ones), plus clothes and books usually. Also, the stockings have candy and little toys.
ETA: The dog only gets one gift, but she has a stocking too.
I don’t have children myself, but man, I was spoiled rotten as a child.
Christmas usually meant between 12-16 gifts, with 1 or 2 “big” gifts (NES, bike, something like that).
It was a mixed blessing. I remember feeling guilty about getting so much stuff. It’s a rare 8-year-old that thinks, “Man, mom shouldn’t be spending so much money on me” but I was that 8-year-old. Age 6 was the last time I ever asked for a bunch of stuff (like any kid - "I want a Nintendo, and a bike, these 10 games, a puppy…etc.) I still shudder when I remember the pained look on my Dad’s face Christmas morning when he saw all the stuff my mom had bought. It still makes me feel like shit.
Of course, like any kid I liked the loot. But it was always tempered by feelings of guilt. I remember lying about what I got for Christmas to my friends (always leaving out a bunch of stuff) because even that young I knew it was overindulgent.
Plus it was a source of friction between my mom and dad - mom spends way too much, dad gets angry. Money was kind of tight back then and I always felt horrible about getting stuff when it would mean more fights between them about money.
Even now that I’m an adult (late 20s) my mom still wants to overspend on me. No, I do not want her to do this. I don’t want or expect a ton of gifts. Two Christmases ago mom literally broke into tears on Christmas Eve - “sob I only was able to get you 5 things this year because you didn’t give me more gift ideas!”
:rolleyes:
I hugged her, told her I loved her and that I didn’t want or need a bunch of stuff. Didn’t matter, though she did like the hug. If she doesn’t bury me in gifts then in her mind she’s a bad mother.
At least it’s not as much of a friction point anymore (my parents are pretty well off).
I’ve sort of come to understand that’s one of her crazy ways of showing love, but man.
The last years we’ve fallen into the pattern of four presents under the tree for each child, plus a few small things in their stockings. The stocking presents are mostly candy and other consumables, however.
:(Im young and I have to raised up money in a cereal box and buy my own christmas gift
I’m a gifter in general. If I care about someone, I show it by buying them things. So when Christmas comes around, I go crazy for my daughter. Usually $200-$300 a year on her for presents. Stocking stuffers, a big gift from Santa and a bunch of little gifts. This year is going to be different though, since I have no job and I have MAYBE $50 to spend for her entire Christmas and it’s killing me not to be able to get her everything I want to. But I guess they say it’s not about the gifts but about the joy of the holiday. We’ll see XD
We don’t follow it strictly, but I like the rule:
Something they want.
Something they need.
Something to wear.
Something to read.
Ledzepkid is our only child and the only grandchild on either side of the family. He got so many gifts from the rest of the family that we kept it to one “Santa” gift and a couple of things from us. For the last couple of years (he’s 13 now), we’ve done one big family gift (PS3, larger TV, etc). Sometime all of us will use and enjoy. Then we add smaller things like books, Magic the Gathering cards, etc. This year our big family gift is good seats at the Bob Seger concert on 12/21.
Well, it’s “2-3<n[sub]gifts[/sub]<12” for our child, but that doesn’t include gifts from the grandparents.
Or the many birthday gifts she gets 5 days earlier…
Last year my daughter needed socks so I got her 10 pairs and wrapped each sock individually. That was almost two dozen gifts right there!
As it goes we are quite an effluent family. My husband being a heart surgeon we have never had much trouble for money as you might could tell. My kids are age 9 and 14. The 14 year old is a boy and the 9 year old is a girl. My 9 year old LOVES getting clothes for a gift. So before Christmas we go out and she shows me 20 of her favorite pieces of clothes. I then pick 10 of them to buy for here. I also get her a major gift like this year she got a Ipod-Touch and her first pair of Uggs. The my husband buys her the toys, him being a man I give him a list of 7 or 8 toys to go get for her. She still likes some barbies and LPS…My son on the other hand is much harder to please. Being a boy he absolutely despises getting clothes for Christmas. We usually stick with electronics for him. This year I got him an Iphone the new kinect thingy 5 or 6 xbox games, and i even got him 2 new jackets. He shockingly liked them! He also got a four wheeler this year. And after Christmas his dad took him on a shopping spree. He was allowed to spend 350 dollars on clothes. Now I know most of your jaws are now floored to the ground. My view on all this is that if you can afford to cherish your children and indulge in shopping for them, then do it! My children dont ASK for all this stuff but I as a mother enjoy pampering my kids if they deserve it. And they do.
How charming.
Have I ever told you I want to not have your children?
As it goes, we are quite a flatulent family. That being said, I voted “more than 2 or 3, but less than a dozen.” And then I farted.