We’re quite an effeminate family, so we got our son The Best of Cher Collection of CDs and a bra. He’s 2.
This year our kids (boy, 5.5 and daughter, 2) got two under-the-tree gifts and two stocking stuffers. As a kid my mom tried really hard to compensate for the fact that dad wasn’t there by buying way too much, but my daughter still hasn’t totally settled on any particular thing or things that she likes and my son has a zillion and one toys anyway. Plus my family got them toys, too. Going all out just didn’t make sense.
Edited to add: I’m so glad I opened this thread. This place makes me feel better when I’m stressed. The flatulent family comment was the first time I’ve laughed today.
[quote=“DISMom, post:17, topic:518324”]
As it goes we are quite an effluent family.
I do not have alot of money, but I go crazy for Christmas. I cant do it all year, and my daughter does not get things throughout the year. This year I got her 27 presents and that is not including stocking stuffers. As it goes, this year she has gotten less then ever because she gets more expensive as she goes. I applaud you for speaking up. All I think when I see that people get 3 or 4 gifts is “these poor kids” You know they have to lie when they tell kids in school what they get. I remember comparing gifts with friends. As a parent, you want to give your kids the world
My kids have two sets of grandparents that spoil them rotten, so we just stick to a Santa gift and a gift from us.
However, I do really enjoy shopping for stocking suffers, so if that gets counted in then… lots
2-3 from me. I’ve pulled back over the years since she used to get a glazed look in her eye halfway through the pile of prezzies.
She knows what her big presents are this year (Art & nice jacket, she’s almost 14)- she was given the choice of picking what she wanted and having it bought or getting the same in cash.
I’ll add something fun and small that she isn’t expecting.
Other relatives have already said they’ve bought a huge pile of prezzies for her.
She’s getting less this year than before. New baby will get less because I buy her new toys as her development increases. What she really wants every time I ask her is a giant trampoline fr the back yard but I’m not sure how safe those are. I have siblings who don’t have kids so she gets a lot of presents from my side of the family.
I lose count, but most of them are pretty small. A set of matchbox cars, coloring books, harmonica, and other little things really up the count. This year there is no big ticket (>$100) item, but a few 20-30 dollar toys along with a bunch of sub $10 items.
I did get rooked into buying a $20 toy I really didn’t want him to have. It’s for a much younger child, a toddler really, but he’s been talking about it over and over for months. What good is Christmas for a kid if the toy he really wants isn’t under the tree?
Dozens and dozens of gifts for each child (2), each one wrapped with bows and ribbons, plus huge stockings that any normal child would love for his whole Christmas morning. When the carnage is over the floor of our living room is completely covered with torn wrapping paper. We rarely visit on Christmas day because the unwrapping process takes so long.
I am that dad. I gave up trying to restrain my wife’s Christmas excess years ago. That’s how her family did it, that’s how everybody has to do it. It doesn’t really matter what I buy or give because she is going to make me look like a Scrouge by time the presents are all open. Now the month of December is just an unpleasant and expensive effort I make for her each year. The unpleasantness of Christmas goes well with the cold and darkness of the month so I can just hate the one month and then it’s over.
The kids loved it when they were little, of course, because they get tons of really awesome stuff. Now that they are old enough to be earning their own livings they are starting to see the excess.
We already had the giftgiving done at St Nicks (Dec 5th). I got my four year old son 5 gifts. I asked his grandma and uncle to chip in with my gifts (or just write a poem for them, as is the Dutch tradition) instead of giving more stuff themselves.
Kid got:
[ul]
[li]His big gift: a lego dinosaur set. Initially he had wanted a 60 euro set, but when we looked at used ones on Ebay, he was equally enthusiastic about a used 15 dollar set. When he had unpacked that one, he pretty much lost interest in the other presents. [/li][li]-A lego book with pieces, building instructions, and a story. 25 bucks. He loved it. [/li][li]A game of press the teeth-til-the-jaw-snaps-shut. Four bucks and it came broken out of the box. Instant throw-out. [/li][li]Two of his fabourite book series, that I got second hand. [/li][li]Grandma also gave a dino excavation set for five bucks.[/li][/ul]
Kid was very happy. He gets most of his toys during the year on our weekly trips to Goodwill, where he can always pick out one toy to take home.
Christmas was a big deal when I was growing up. Perhaps I’ve romanticized it in my head over the years, but a white Christmas with a big family was common.
I’ve always held it in the back of my mind that the kids will grow up and move away, and the childhood we give them will be set in stone. I’ve always wanted it to be a good memory for them, as mine is, so I tend to spoil them.
Looking at the Excel spreadsheets for the last 10 years, it looks like they average about 37 gifts apiece, costing about $4,300 for both. One or two big ticket items, and a lot of books, socks, Think Geek toys and things like that.
October marks the beginning of Money Going Out around here. We do a big Halloween, have a big party, the boy’s -and granddad’s - birthday is in November, Christmas, plus a trip in
December, and January is our daughter’s birthday, and you must outdo Christmas for that!
It’s a 10 grand quarter easy, year after year.
Once my new patent gets issued, it’ll be new cars every Christmas!
We typically give stocking stuffers and a couple of gifts on Christmas Day, and then one gift a day for the rest of the 12 days of Christmas. Some of the gifts are “big” ones, but others might just be candy or a DVD or something.
The tradition got started when one of us was sick and “missed” Christmas.
I voted more than 2-3 but less than a dozen .
When they were little the number of presents varied every year but some things remained the same. There was always one gift to open Christmas eve and it was always pajama’s. Amazing 
When they were little they were shocked each year that the gift they chose always managed to be the same thing, as they got older I had to designate which present because they weren’t so easy to guide. There was always at least one book each, more often several, and a joint present of a board game of some kind.
Their stockings always had an orange in the toe, some small wrapped dollar store stuff, a magazine, some nuts and a single piece of chocolate. They were allowed to stay in their beds and open and play with the contents of their stockings. That usually bought me another 30 mins of sleep.
The number of other presents varied according to how financially secure we were that year, what they wanted and how I could balance those things out between them. They were never deprived but I avoided the all day unwrapping thing because it would drive me crazy.
This year they got cash. My daughter is in her 3rd year of university and is on an exchange program so she’s spending her Christmas break travelling around Europe. I sent her the cash early because her trip ends Dec 31st and I want her to have the money for some fun experiences on the trip rather than spending it on school supplies for next semester. Since I sent hers early I did the same for my son. He’s in a work cycle of his work/travel/work rotation right now so I suspect it will simply hit his savings account so he can leave a week or so earlier next year.
They’re both at the stage in life where they’re moving around a lot so stuff is the last thing they need. We did send my daughter a poster of the neighborhood around the Toronto campus of her school (and made her cry) and I picked up the traditional Christmas PJ’s for my son and his girlfriend.
I aim for three toys plus the stocking and whatever books and clothes I want her to have (this is only her second Christmas). Last year I hit the mark. This year I went over, as one “gift” acquired lots of peripherals (baby doll plus baby doll stuff), and I got a good deal on a big collection of Looney Tunes DVDs that I might as well wrap up and put under the tree.
As a kid I usually got at least a dozen presents from my parents, and started to feel it was too much early on.
My parents wake me up early and come over for coffee while we wait for the kid to wake up. I’ve never ever ever been woken up by my kid on Christmas morning.
In our family, it’s spending limits rather than number of gifts that sets the policy. So Kid #2 who prefers the finer things in life is getting two gifts this year; Kid #4 who prefers smaller things is getting numerous littler gifts. Everyone knows and understands - you hit your limit (which we do not specify ahead of time), you’re done. And you better be nice & patient while everyone else is opening their stuff too. We do take turns with the gift-giving, so Ms. Big Presents will just run out early. And everyone gets a stocking, too - I have fun filling my parents’ stockings now!
I usually don’t have a particular number of gifts. But it’s usually around 4-5 per kid. I don’t want my children to overlook what xmas really is. Getting them dozens of gifts each and seeing who can spend the most money or who got the most expensive present, is not xmas and I don’t want my children to think that’s why we celebrate this holiday. What really gets me, is when there are hundreds to thousands of children whom will not have a meal this xmas but you have some families that will literally spend an easy $300 plus per child, just because. It makes me sad. Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing bad about “spoiling” your children, but why does it have to be so excessive? I mean, what is that teaching our children?
I usually don’t have a particular number of gifts. But it’s usually around 4-5 per kid. I don’t want my children to overlook what xmas really is. Getting them dozens of gifts each and seeing who can spend the most money or who got the most expensive present, is not xmas and I don’t want my children to think that’s why we celebrate this holiday. What really gets me, is when there are hundreds to thousands of children whom will not have a meal this xmas but you have some families that will literally spend an easy $300 plus per child, just because. It makes me sad. Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing bad about “spoiling” your children, but why does it have to be so excessive? I mean, what is that teaching our children?
Really, every Christmas I would’ve been happy with maybe 2-3 gifts of stuff I really wanted and explicitly asked for. But mom would end up getting me a dozen presents or more. Even the year she got me a gamecube and game, an expensive gift, she still got me a bunch of other gifts on top of it. I honestly felt embarrassed at the amount of gifts there were, especially when anyone who was there in the morning had to sit and watch me open my presents like it was a show. And if I didn’t particularly like some of the gifts, I felt extra guilty because I was getting so many.
Anyway the gist of this thread seems to be, if you go overboard, your kids will know it.
Mine are all grown and married. I send them each three jars of smoked sockeye salmon from Prime Select Seafoods in Cordova, AK. If you’re interested in some of the best smoked salmon you’ll ever eat, scroll down the page about 3/4 of the way. From time to time during the year, I may see something I think one of them would like and have it shipped while I’m still thinking of it.
As are we. But this year I had to buy two new cars. One for me and one for a friend so I’m going light on the gifts for my brothers kids. Usually I feel bad if I don’t spend at least $15000 on each kid. $10000 into each college fund and then $5000 in gifts but this year I can only do about $10000 each. So $5000 into the college funds and $5000 in gifts like normal so they won’t really see a difference. The car was my present to myself but I think I’m going to throw some new rims on it. These look pretty good.