How many Christmas gifts per kid?

I heard a DJ and his wife arguing on the radio this morning regarding number of Christmas gifts per kid. He thought in the range of three to six and she said ten to fifteen AT LEAST (not counting stocking stuffers!)! Her reasoning was that you need that many gifts to keep the kids oocupied throughout the holidays and not get bored. She also felt that they should all get the same number regardless of the dollar values of each gift.

Thinking about my childhood, I got probably one to three gifts from the grandparents, and then maybe six or so from my parents, including small toys (stocking stuffer type) and books.

What say you?

I think it depends on the age of the kids, and what they want for Christmas, and how much it all costs. Last year, my 2-year-old had maybe 10 (between Santa and her aunts & uncles who sents stuff, and she didn’t even care about half of it because she was overwhelmed by it all. This year, I decided to get her one big gift from Santa (a toy kitchen), and told everyone else to get her the accessories…pots, pans, food. I think that will work out much better for her.

For older kids, I think setting a dollar amount is the way to go. It’s a good way to explain to them the difference in the cost of things, and that if they want something expensive, they may have to sacrifice somewhere else.

For me, stocking stuffers are a separate issue…I tend to fill them up, but with really inexpensive dollar-store type things, and necessities like a new toothbrush or barrettes for her…I don’t worry about factoring that into the equation.

I’d say about 7-10 gifts for kids in the 5-12 year old age range. Not counting stocking stuffers. It could go up to 15 if you’re going to be giving clothes as gifts.

Do you mean from everyone? My daughters are 5 and 1. My wife’s family is large and my family lives far away so they like to indulge them on the holidays. The number of presents they get year round has always been a problem but I don’t think it is right to tell people they can’t buy them gifts because it is about the giver as well.

They will each get somewhere between 20 and 30 Christmas presents each plus other ones during most other months of the year and an extra large number during their birthdays. My mother for example wants her only granddaughters to keep her in mind so they get boxes in the mail every month or so with interesting things my mother found during her constant travels and many of those are substantial gifts.

My wife and I let them have the gifts but we try to keep them as unspoiled as possible. We usually just get them one or two meaningful things knowing that everybody else will fill in the gaps many times over.

I guess we’d get six or so from the parents, that sounds about right. Some years were leaner than others, but I can say we never got up to 15. :eek: .

My Mom was big on separating them into piles first, by kid, but we hated that. We didnt want to know how many we had to open, it seemed more fun to hunt for the next one under the tree. And when it was done, it was just done. We never counted.

Three to six NEW (or new to them) things to play with - for ANY age of kid - should be enough to occupy them throughout the holidays. It’s only a week, folks, and isnt some of the week spent visiting with family anyway? Don’t tell me I’m the only kid who was forced to “interact” with company instead of going off to my room with my Speak N Spell or the Play-Doh Fun Factory?

I remember when my mom announced we were only going to be getting three gifts per kid - “because that’s what baby Jesus got.” I was appalled!

I also don’t think she stood by that claim longer than one Christmas. I’d bet we got 6 or so from our parents, not including stockings.

Kind of a weird thought that gifts should be “so they’re not bored during the holidays.” What does that mean? IS that the sole reason to give gifts?

I do think it’s important that all the kids have the same number of gifts. My mom still does this and we’re both pushing 30. Kids count these things.

One gift on Christmas Eve (always pajamas). Then Santa gives one big gift, I give one smaller gift, and there are the stockings.

We usually go about 6-7 things per kid, but that’s flexible depending on the dollar amount, the size and our current budget (which is low this year, so probably 3-4 things this year). I try to have one large (size, not dollar) item for each, something to make you go “wow!” when you walk into the living room Christmas morning. Last year for my son (13 at the time) it was a full length black cashmere coat he’d been wanting (bought on clearance for less than $100) and this year a hand-me-down leather duster (coat) from some family friends. For the toddler girl this year, it’s a tricycle. In family tradition, the “wow” present is not wrapped and is from “Santa”. (I had wise parents - you ever try to wrap a tricycle?) Then there are some books, DVDs, other generally rectangular wrapables.

Stockings are stuffed as full as possible, mostly with dollar store stuff: at least one movie-size box of candy, an apple or orange, and then stuff. Blinky lights, pens, barrettes, batteries for any gifts requiring them, bookmarks, etc. It probably averages $10 per stocking.

They each get other stuff from extended family, of course. The Kid one year made out with over $250 in gift cards - mostly to gaming stores! Da Baby’s of that cute age where she gets clothes, dolls, other toys, etc. They both get books out the wahzoo from my mother, the teacher.

They also each have a birthday coming up - January for him, February for her, so there’s another chance soon to get the swag you didn’t get at Christmas.

Our rule is that for every “thing” you get, you donate something to the shelter or throw out something broken. Keeps clutter under control. And if you’d rather donate that hideous sweater Aunt Judith got you this year instead of a favorite old thing, that’s totally fine, too. And yes, Mom and Dad follow the same rule.

My parents always gave us three. To represent body, soul and spirit. Body gift would be something like a clothing item or two. (depending on what sales mom found), soul would be a fun thing, spirit would be religious in nature like a book or something.

My boys just gave me their list. It was all written on a 3x3 post it note. Granted, it’ll still cost about 1200 with what computers and PS3s cost. The only thing on the list I haven’t gotten is the dart board. They list the fun stuff, I supplement with the clothing.

When they were all younger, I always went over board and essentially ended up with too much stuff that they didn’t appreciate or even really want. Last year it was 12 gifts per kid, but that included clothing, and I don’t double up presents that really could be wrapped together. It will probably be the same this year. One is into books, one into video games, one into the lastest techno thing. The number of presents are the same, but the dollar figures would never match.

Is this just from the parents?

Ten to fifteen seems a bit much. For my son he’s getting thinks seven things(a couple small sets of things, like tinker toys) from me, and two of them are specifically birthday presents and will be given at his party this weekend. He’ll get a lot more no doubt from Grandpa and assorted sundry relatives, but other than Grandpa going a little overboard he’ll probably max out at 20 at most from everyone, and some of those things I expect will be clothing.

Oh yes, and some clothing from me but I don’t quite consider that since he kinda needs the new PJs. :wink:

It’s still a bit much overall IMO, but I try to keep the presents to a minimum. Which can be hard since his birthday is the same day (see Grandpa and overboard…)

Bingo. Sometimes there would be other clothing as well.

Oh yeah, recalled before the edit but some of the toys are ones I’m making for his stocking (which I need to find the time to finish when he’s not awake or around…).

Finger puppets. :slight_smile:

I try to get two or three things from their list and then look for two or three more things that they did not ask for but I think they will like. That way they get some things they want but the surprise of things they were not expecting is still there.

So I say six to seven gifts each but it may be less if one gift they want is expensive or it may be more if the things they ask for don’t cost very much. Those are just from me. My BF usually gets them two, one gift and a gift card. Their grandmother gives them one or two gifts each depending on the cost.

Stockings do not contain gifts. They are stuffed with candy bars and nuts that are their favorites. Maybe a keychain or something like that but not really presents per se.

We open all our gifts on Christmas Eve. We started doing that several years ago since the kids were older and it works out better that way. Christmas day is left to sleep in, prepare a large breakfast and playing with your new stuff. By 11am everyone is recovering from the feast and in their corner with their Christmas stash.

She seemed to be talking just from the parents, because then he started bemoaning the fact that they have five kids and he doesn’t make much as a DJ!

Ten to fifteen per kid seems a bit much. It also depends on the gift and the kids ages as well.

If they are getting one or two good gifts and the rest are dollar store goodies just to keep them busy then I see no harm.

If they are all expensive over the top gifts then I agree that ten to fifteen seems excessive but then again even in that case if the parents can afford it I see no reason not to buy that many.

If they can’t afford them then they should get what is within their means and if that is only one or two gifts then that is all they can get.

It sounds like Mom wants the entire morning to rest while the five kids open gift after gift but Dad just can’t afford that luxury.

Why do you think God invented hand-held gaming devices? :wink: Actually, on one side of my family most of us kids would hide in my cousin’s room and play SNES and later PS2 games for the whole night. The other side was quite large, and while I’ve never been close to them there was always that one cousin that I was glad to see. As we were rarely hosts I didn’t get to hide in my room too much, so once I got a Gameboy guess what usually held a spot on my wishlist? :slight_smile: Nor am I the only one–two of my younger cousins always bring their GBAs with them during the holidays.

On topic–I’d say probably 5-10 gifts from my parents, of various prices, plus stockings–yes, plural, when I was younger I got one from each parent. It’s shrunk down to just one from both now though. Sometimes gifts would go together though. For example, one year I found rechargeable batteries and a flash card in my stocking, so I knew I was getting a camera before I opened it. I don’t get much from relatives–four-five gifts from my father’s side of the family, one from my maternal grandfather (alright, he gives my parents money for me and they pick a gift, but it counts), one from my godmother, and one or two from friends of my mother. So the bulk of my gifts came from my parents.

Well I did mention elsewhere that I was kinda strict. Our kids got two gifts from us (wrapped, under the tree gifts). Stockings are a separate category altogether. We asked grandparents to limit the number of gifts as well–we really truly did not want Christmas to be about phat l00t, but about what we as Christians were celebrating.

And no they didn’t believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy either.

I’m following the tradition in my house growing up - one larger gift and several smaller things, typically with some clothes or other necessities. I went overboard a bit last year (the girls were only 3 and 1 that year and easily overwhelmed). I’ve made an effort to scale back this year, but they’re so satisfied with such cheap things that it isn’t easy not to keep buying. It doesn’t help that their birthdays are both a week later.

My mother related that she used to try to find inexpensive things that were large in size when I was little. Small children are just as impressed with a huge chalkboard as they are with a robotic dinosaur.

Same here, although my parents did pay us for our teeth. I don’t know why they chose to conform that that myth, but they did. I knew it was my parents, but I still found it vaguely magical that they could get the money under there, and the teeth out, with me sleeping the whole time.