To go shopping...
I think we're done our Christmas and Birthday shopping and if not, we should be. Although I'm not really in the Christmas mood yet, I have had fun picking out Sadie's presents.
This year we've tried to scale back and not buy too much. Most of Sadie's presents fit in a single (not too large) re-usable shopping bag.
Her big presents from Santa include a FP Racin' Ramps
Garage (used from Once Upon a Child), a pair of ice skates (double blades) and a the cutest pink Hockey helmet. Sadie has already been skating and she LOVES it.
The rest of her presents are smaller items and stocking stuffers. Melissa and Doug crayons, a colouring book, lots of books, match box cars, colour changing cars, a couple of Thomas trains (Christmas themed), play-doh and a set of wooden building blocks.
For her birthday she is getting a Buzz Lightyear doll, tickets to Disney on Ice and more books.
She's getting lots and lots of books (which is a good thing because I'm sick of her current stash).
This leaves out her getting a kitchen and toy food. Originally that was going to be her big gift but then we bought her the Chuggington train table, used, for a fantastic price.
These are ALL of her presents from Momma, Mommy and Santa combined and yes, one is even used. I'm not ashamed to say it.
I'm curious to know what other people think about "big" gifts. Do you pick one BIG item or do you prefer smaller gifts? To be honest, I worry a bit about big gifts escalating out of hand and not being able to match the expectations from the previous year. Are you considering presents you recieved as a child when you buy for yours? Do you think the expectations for big gifts at Christmas are getting out of hand? My brother asked for $500 headphones, as an example. He's 12. Oy. Vey.
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The older they get, the more expensive their "big gift" becomes. We put a dollar amount on each kid and stick with that.
ReplyDeleteAs for books, we're doing an advent book project this year. We're buying 24 books and wrapping them in paper. We're going to put them in a basket and number them. Starting on Dec. 1, she gets to open (and read, of course) one book a night leading up to Christmas. It beats chocolate!
We budgeted $600 between the two kids. They each got a $200 big gift from Santa and then we put $200 on gifts from us.
ReplyDeleteWe got Jackson used stuff last year because there are great things at Once Upon a Child that they'll only use for a short period of time. Why not?
I don't think it has to be a huge gift each year. I think the 'big' gift will be the one thing they really want.
When I was older, I got some "big" items like a tv. So I can see how one gift might cost a lot more for an older child.
We got our kids the following...
Riley:
American Girl doll + a bunch of clothes (big gift--just over $200)
Ariel dress up shoes
1 Barbie set
Jackson:
drum set ($200 -- big gift)
saxophone (toy $10)
some tot sized action figures
Both:
2 gay friendly books I ordered
Play Mobil sets (we want to start collecting them and they can share them)
board games (always good)
That's all I can remember. We didn't get much else. I always try and think that relatives will be giving them stuff too so it's silly to go overboard. But it's hard not to... :P
We always tend to go overboard at Christmas, but we really don't buy them much at any other time so I don't feel bad about it.
ReplyDeleteWe did set a budget this year, but Ian's toys don't cost as much as Erik's, so the budget was just for Christmas, not a set amount on each kid. If we'd done that, Ian would have had a million presents because we'd be trying to spend the same amount of money on each of them. At this age, they have no concept of money so it's more important that they each have the same number of presents (and approximately the same size!)
Erik asked for a $500 Lego set and we told him flat out he's not getting it, not even from Santa. We suggested he start saving his money. We explained that it will take a long time to save that much money, and that if he saved most of it, we'll throw in the last $50. He was totally fine with that and understood that there was no way anyone could afford to buy him that.
Erik's big presents are 2 Lego sets (totalling about $110), a Lego game, and a Lego carrying case from Santa, and from us, a Nintendo DS (bought used) and a few games for it, and a Lego CD player. Smaller stuff is Bakugans, Star Wars figurines, a board game, books.
Ian's big presents are the FP racing ramp, a Trio Hot Wheels building set, and a cash register from Santa. From us he's getting a Zippity and a Cars CD player. Smaller stuff is a Dora toy (the one thing he really wants from Santa), Mr. Potato Head, books, CDs and a small Star Wars toy (from Erik).
Some of those things are stocking stuffers, plus we have some other small stuff for the stockings, like toothbrushes, socks, candy, CDs, Ian will get a harmonica, Hot Wheels cars, Erik will get a few Lego guys, etc.
We buy everything on sale. We haven't paid full price for any of it. Kim is great at finding sales and price matching. She got the Zippity at less than half price. She took her mom to Zellers on seniors day to get the extra 10% discount on things that were already on sale. We've saved quite a bit of money this way and could buy more within our budget than if we'd paid full price. Plus the DS is used so it was cheaper and we bought it a long time ago.
We took tons of older toys to Once Upon a Child yesterday and got quite a bit of money for them, so that helps too. We could still work on sticking to the budget, though... :(
One thing I do every year is take the kids to buy a present for another kid and take them to the police station or fire hall to donate it. Erik has already donated a toy at school this year too.
Oh man, that racing ramps thing is super cute. Dang our lack of a budget. XD
ReplyDeleteWe're doing a few small things. In part because we can't afford to do more than that, and in part because I don't want to start that escalation. I have no problem with the idea of bigger gifts, but I am totally somebody who wants to do better each year, and I can see that being a problem. So better to avoid it, I suppose. XD
Our baby is too young to be aware of gift value or size at this point, that said, we're totally spoiling him... and that's not to mention what the grandparents and other family members are doing! We've stuck more to smaller toys ($30 max.) but have quite a few of them, then we'll add some stuff that he NEEDS like new cloth diapers for daycare which will be pricey, but we'd be buying them anyway.
ReplyDelete