# Parents: do you suggest Christmas/birthday presents your relatives & friends might give your kids?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-do-you-suggest-christmas-birthday-presents-your-relatives-friends-might-give-your-kids/559619>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 5, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-do-you-suggest-christmas-birthday-presents-your-relatives-friends-might-give-your-kids/559619 "2010-11-05T20:00:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-do-you-suggest-christmas-birthday-presents-your-relatives-friends-might-give-your-kids/559619/21 "2010-11-06T14:27:45Z")

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☹ Oh, poor Shirley Ujest. I so feel your pain. Stuff like that just ruins The Big Fucking Jolly Holiday. Which I loathe to begin with. Turns it into even more of a chore.

When my nephews were small, I had NO IDEA in the world what to buy them for Christmas. (They lived far away, I wanted to be a good auntie, wanted to send something that didn’t have to be returned or exchanged.) No idea. Trucks? Legos? Robots? Dinosaurs? Transformers? Footballs/basketballs/baseball gloves/soccer balls? I would stare at the Toys R’ Us ad, clueless. I was great buying girls presents, but not a clue as to what boys liked. Ask the parents (who were stinking rich) and they’d say, “Oh, get them anything! Anything at all?” Well, that narrows it down, thanks! :mad:  
So I’d send something artsy-crafty (model dinosaur kits), or books. Can’t go wrong with books. I still have the classics my uncle sent me every year when I grew up - Little Women, books of poetry, etc.

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