Readers Question: Practical Christmas Gift Ideas!
A reader emailed with this great question:
“With the holidays coming, can you or your readers please share some practical gift ideas that really get their kids excited? I really don’t want a houseful of toys this year, and would like to find some practical things that the kids can really appreciate?”
This is such a great topic to discuss! In the past, I’ve felt like some of the Christmas gifts I’ve purchased turn into junk right after being opened! My thinking is, even if you can snag a toy for next to nothing, it’s still NOT a good deal if it will be another item collecting dust!
With Christmas around the corner, lets help one another out with practical gift ideas! This will be a great topic to discuss. I’d also be interested to hear how many presents you purchase for each of your kids and what you think is a fair amount. And finally, if you have any frugal Christmas gift-giving traditions, I’m sure we’d all enjoy hearing about those too.
I also came from a family of 8 (like Jessica) and we each got 2 presents. When I had my first daughter I planned on just giving her a few presents because I didn’t want to “spoil” her. . . we ended up OVERDOING it and got her around 20 something presents! All she did was play with the wrappings and boxes. I think her father and I had more fun shopping for the gifts than she did playing with them. Yes, I know that was sooo bad of us but now I have 2 children and I get them about 2 and “Santa” brings them 2 or 3 more. And when they get bored with them we sell them on ebay and they get the money.
Right now we have 2 boys, ages 3 and 1. We try to focus less on things and more on experiences. We take money the Grandparents have given the kids and take them to a water / amusement park, and make sure that the kids know that the Grandparents made it happen (we are sure to take lots of picuters that go on to the Grandparents as a thank you). Or we buy arts and crafts supplies (and send a finished work of art to the giver). We do a lot of hand made / home made gifts at Christmas time. There’s so much more meaning to them. Last year I made a huge set of blocks for my son out of empty (and clean) 1/2 gal milk containers and a set of drums out of empty canisters. He loves them. This year, I’m making him a race track for his cars that will go down the stairs (out of 1/2 gal milk containers). We usually buy our kids each a few inexpensive gifts ($10 or less – which $10 can buy a lot if you do it right), to have wrapped under the tree. While our kids are young, we really try to keep Christmas as inmaterial as possible. There will be plenty of years where, due to the influence of friends, Christmas will become a lot more about “what did you get for Christmas?” We’re hoping to put that off for as long as possible.
I’ll admit I’ve always gone overboard and can count on two hands the number of toys that were “money well spent” – a couple come to mind – Fisher Price Loving Hands doll house, Ripstik, CD player… Anyways, my kids are now 11, 9 and 6. This year, I’m going to be more practical. The two younger ones still believe in Santa so I’ve got to be careful. I’m going to give them some gift certificates for lessons and things they’ve been wanted to do – horseback riding, kids cooking classes, paint-your-own pottery place, etc. The last thing we need are more useless toys laying around the house. Last year, I gave the girls tickets to Disney on Ice and they were thrilled. The memory will outlast the pile of plastic junk under the tree. Advice to those with really small kids – don’t go overboard in the beginning and that’s what they’ll expect each year. Start off big and you have to keep it up year after year! I wish I had done the three gifts like what Baby Jesus received.
I come from a family that has WAY over-did the gift giving ever since I was little. My sister and brother and I would get loads of gifts on Christmas eve from mom and dad, these were the practical things like clothes, pj’s, shoes, etc..(about 15 gifts each). Then on Christmas morning we would get “Santa” gifts. We each had a huge pile in the living room with our name on it. These gifts were toys, games, dolls, movies, etc… this pile of gifts would be at least 20 items. I contiued to get Santa until I married and moved out (and I am the youngest!) at age 20. Christmas in our home is very much surrounded by Jesus and the meaning of Christmas, but the gift giving is huge and so much fun! I bet my mom spent $500 a kid. Now, I have kids of my own (3 of them) and I do the same for them. My parent still have us 3 kids, but now with our spouses also and each of us 3 kids have 3 kids! My mom still spends $100 per person now! so each family, she is spending $500. Chirstmas at our house is so much fun…
We make Chirstmas ornaments each year with the kids at Color Me Mine. We put the dates on it. It’s fun to see how they look better each year and what item they picked out. Plus I don’t have to clean up the messy paint! We also have smaller a Chirstmas since our kids are younger and get lots of gifts from Grandparents. We know when they get older, their lists will grow. I took the kids Christmas shopping this year in July when all the Kmart clearance was going on. I just told them it was for their cousins (who are the same age) and asked them what they would like since their cousins would like the same things. They will be surprised when they open the gifts they already picked out!
I have 4 boys (15,13,11,and 4) each year they get 3 gifts. One big one from Santa (something that they really wanted like a DS game) and then the rest is from us. Usually one gift card (Itunes, bookstore, etc.) one piece of clothing (usually a sweashirt)sometimes I do get one more small thing if I find it on sale. I then do fill each of there stockings with small stuff and this is where the gift card goes.
They also then get money from grandparents, I do the money that way they can get something else that they really want.
WOW! What fun to read all the comments.
I keep a reusable grocery bag for each of my 3 girls (stepdaughters) and fill it up throughout the year with freebies, deals and personal treats. That takes care of their stocking plus some overflow!
Christmas gifts themselves are typically 1. Our goal is a family trip or “experiance”. This year my hubby recieved another FREE laptop and so we now have 4 (all free and in good working order… hubby is a techie) So each of the girls are getting a laptop that will not have internet access for school work and their own games.
Last year we got season passes to a big Broadway theater that included 7 shows.
The year before we went to the Grand Canyon (beautiful in winter!)
While we are able to get them “big” gifts we save all year for them and try not to buy anything else. They get enough from Grandparents, aunts, uncles on hubby and my side of the family… then toss in their Mom’s family and it can easily get to be too much!
We do the same thing for Birthdays. One year it was a trip to a water park. Another year they got year passes to Wild Animal Park and Zoo. This year to Universal Studios.
Annual passes are a great way to make a gift last all year.
We also clean out their rooms for donations and pick up clearanced toys all year long for our local Toys for Tots and Firefighters toy drives! The girls love going with us to “give back” to the community.
They also help us package up freebies and stockpile items for AnySoldier/AnyMarine.com each month.
Heidi – does he like trains? My three boys were AVID Thomas the Tank engine fans from about age 2 – 7. They would play for hours and hours and never get bored.
While they are expensive, they do last for a long time. You can also get inexpensive track and engines at IKEA. Costco and Target also sell some off brands. And, Collin posted a day or two ago about getting a Thomas engine for 1.99 from Learning Curve, which would be great with a cheap set of track from IKEA!
The Grandmas are always asking what my kids want or need and I’m always saying NOTHING! lol We have too much stuff! And I feel guilty getting rid of things from them – especially things they make the girls. Agh!
Here have been some good solutions: a zoo pass – we enjoyed this for a whole year and thought of them every time we went, a pass to Pump It Up (they have bouncy houses and slides and an obstacle course), and clothes.
I like to get my daughters craft supplies. They love stamps and there are tons of stamps for $1 at Michael’s and even scrapbook stores. I have a 4-year-old who can make anything out of tape and copy paper =) and I will be giving her a supply of tape this Christmas, lol! She will love it.
I gave my kids dust busters last year and that is AWESOME! They love to clean stuff up with them. It cost the same as a toy but it’s totally functional and helps me out! =) They can suck up their own crumbs out from under the dinner table, lol. They are 4 and 3 now.
I have made gifts for others out of the $1 boxes of candy. I know you can score cheaper candy, but the boxes are cute if you wrap them individually and stack them and tie a bow around them. =)
I love hearing all these ideas!
This is such a great topic! We have three children and lots of family to buy for during Christmas. We have never based it on the number of gifts but rather a budget for everything we buy for the whole season. Our budget is $350. We buy a mixture of practical and fun things. Our kids typically end up with about 5 presents each. We also go through our toys and fill up a laundry basket in each room filled with toys to take to Hope House before Christmas comes. This is teaching them that Christmas is not just about getting things but giving also-and it clears out space for the new presents they will get.
Oh! And school books. You can throw them out when they are done with them. =) My 4-yo will do an entire book in a day if I let her. She loves it!
growing up my sister each had a couch in the living room with all our loot spread out on. Nothing was wrapped and this was all from Santa. There were always a couple toys, but mostly clothes, shoes and school supplies and crafty things. I have a 4 year old now and we are doing the same thing with her. Her 2nd Christmas she turned up with over 30 presents to open between all the relatives and us, so we now ask no more than 2 per family. And she makes a pile of items she is going to donate the day after Christmas.
This year I found a lot of awesome deals at Kmart and got the Tag reader from Target for $3. I took a picture of my stash and mailed it to everyone who would be buying her gifts. Almost all of the toys have been spoken for and my family now has great deals for gifts and I get a little bit of my money back too.
my mom and my sister were just talking about a good gift to start for my neice who is 11 years old. she is into pictures and making her locker at school fun. so grandma is going to get her scrapbook accessories started. Funky scissors, papers, stickers etc. i thought it was a really neat idea. by the time she really gets into it with proms, etc she will have tons of supplies! granted i think the actual hard copy scrap books are going to go away, there are also computer programs you can get that edit, crop, clip etc.
a great gift idea for adults is a netflix subscription. My husband and I are a netflix home, and well we pay the service charge each month. It would be great to get a gift card to save us a month or two!
not sure about your area’s but the H1N1 is flying around here shutting schools down… so use the bath and body works coupons and deals to stock up on antibacterial stuff not only for kids backpacks in fun kid flavors but for you desk at work or whatever!
also, i was thinking about a nice basket for my day care lady. althought it wouldn’t be for herself frugals like us appreciate the day to day things that we drudge having to buy sometimes… so I was thinking of things that she uses on my daughter each day – dish soap, clorox wipes to keep her house clean, some pancake mix, maybe some brownie or cookie mixes, some purell, maybe some laundry detergant. A basket of day to day items…
although these may not be the cheapest, they sure won’t be dust collectors hopefully. I would love a basket of those things and I am not a in home daycare.
My mom was a couoner growing up, but it always drove me nuts that we’d get sale items that we didn’t want. One year I asked for a Greek Hebrew Key Word Bible ($80). On Christmas morning I recieved a cheaper one. Why? “It was on sale!”
So for Christmas now we give fewer, more thoughtful gifts. If you’re only looking for 2-3 things, and you start early enough (I start looking in August)it is so easy to get a great deal.
We buy lots of items on Ebay. Last year my husband got an incredible deal on a new Burbery scarf for me. I found him a shop vac for his car the day after Thanksgiving for 50% off.
For all our friends I made Jelly last year. It was 3 solid days in the kitchen, but everyone appreciated the homemade jelly so much. This year I’m going to make little seasoned crackers. http://www.6dollarshirts.com is a great place to get T-shirts. You can buy 10 for $50 and they’re so cool.
A favorite holiday tradition for us is to also celebrate Epiphany (Three Kings Day) – the 12 day after Christmas. I think it’s a Mexican custom to decorate boxes, fill with straw and put under the bed for the camels to leave candy and treats. We decorate boxes, fill with shredded paper, and the kids leave them under their beds.We talk about the camels and the Christmas nativity story. In the morning they each find in their boxes another piece for their nativity sets. We give the children a 3-piece Fontanini nativity set when they are toddlers. (It is a collectible set and the pieces are plastic.) Each year they receive another piece on Epiphany. I buy many pieces on after Christmas clearance and have a stock-pile for several years ahead. Our girls are 9 and 13. They love to set their sets up early in December and are still excited to decorate their boxes and receive a new item each year. I use a Sharpie marker and write their initial and the year under each item to alleviate a mixup and for reminiscing. MKW
I gave my daughter a big box that fits under her bed. I filled it with cooking utensils that she can take with her to college. I gave her a cooking lesson certificate and every Wed. she would cook dinner with me for 6 weeks. At the end she cooked dinner on her own for her grandparents. It was a lot of fun, she is only 8 so we will add to her box over the years. I also like to give lessons, she is interested in art, so we did art lessons at the local university Saturday School Art. They offer less expensive classes that the student teachers teach. One year we did swimming lessons at the Y. It was fun to swim in the winter. I always make a cute certificate and some related small things to open. For her birthday it was a date with dad. She and I went and got her hair cut and nails done. All of these had gift certificates so she got to ‘pay’ which made her feel special. I gave them to her in a little homemade book that had pictures of her and was titled Queen for a Day. Then, when we got home, dad pulled the car around to the front of the house and “picked her up” for their date. (they went to her favorite restaurant)
We have eight children and very limited funds so we try to be as creative as we can. In addition to shopping year round for bargains some of the memorable items we had done are art boxes…purchase a plastic shoe box/bin and fill with fun art supplies…my older girls have made fleece blankets/pillows for their siblings as well as friends and relatives. We also try to give gifts that can be added to each year as well as passed on such as Duplos, lego, lincoln logs, etc… HTH! Kim
I grew up in a home where you got a lot of presents under the tree. We still do even though my brother and I have families of our own. So it’s really hard for me to purchase only 2 gifts for each of my kids. We usually spend $500 per child. Santa always brings 1 toy for them to share and they get a book signed from Santa. They don’t get much on their birthdays and any money they do get/earned is put into bank accounts. They also don’t get much through the year of things they want so we just make up for it on Christmas morning.
I don’t get my son many presents because everyone else buys him stuff. This year we’ll do more than last year, but money is so tight, so it will be small stuff.
For others, I’m digging into my pile of discount things I’ve been buying all year. Some stuff from internet offers make awesome gifts. Other things, put together make a good gift. . . . the free blanket from Brylane Homes, the .25 Dove skin revitalizer, a bottle of free Bath & Body Works lotion, and other odds and ends. Put it in a cute bag and it comes across wonderfully. (I used one of the 3 piece bags that were also free from Brylane Homes.)
I think tickets to an event or show is a great idea. something that you can take them too. They get a fun experience and you get to spend some time with them. College sports games, a local band playing at an all ages venue, local theater. All of these can be very cheap. I’m 28 and my first concert ever was Rod Stewart when I was 12. I didnt really know his music but I went with both my parents and had a blast cause they were having so much fun.
I buy white wrapping paper, similar to craft paper, and cover my kitchen table. I let my daughter go to town drawing all over it. Then when she’s done, we use the paper to wrap presents for the family in. Makes for a great activity for my daughter, and everyone seems excited to get a piece of her “art”.
I Get great deals all year and store the gifts for giving. I have 2 Fleese jackets that I paid $2 for both XXL, 6 pairs of mens flannel pants that I got for free from JcPenny with my $10 off coupons, I love these mens Item because my Hubby and brother are both Large men. I also have a bottle of Curve cologne I grab for 90% off at CVS for them as well. I just keep adding and adding. My guest bedroom is my storage spot. I have so much girl stuff it’s silly. The stuff for my hubby and daughter I hid in bins in the closet so they can’t find it. I do also get him 1 big thing and her 1 big thing other then that its all freebie stuff or things I bought for all most nothing. I just want to make sure everyone knows that I’m not cheap when it comes to giving, I’m just very frugal and I take my time in building up the gift piles… Smart shopping.
I have two girls, 4 and 19months… I remember my mom always getting us a xmas bear unwrapped infront of the tree so that’s from santa. then i do 75 dollars each… jammies always and something she really wants. last year was baby alive! and this year is the cupcake maker… even though they don’t play w/ everything and it feels like a waste to us. it’s magical to them when they get what they really wanted:)
We do 3 gifts for each child, just like Jesus recieved: Gold(a fun toy), incense(a spiritual gift), and myrrh(a practical gift). This way we can keep the focus on the real meaning of Christmas!
It has become a tradition in our house to make personalized calendars for all of the grandparents. They look forward to them every year.
We take our digital photos of the kids from throughout the year and make the calendars online through Wal-Mart, Office Max, or Staples etc.
It is something that you can’t buy anywhere else and they have it to look at througout the year.
My parents are hard to shop for (they just don’t need/want anything), so we (my 4 siblings and I) go together on something. We have gotten them a nice BBQ, sent them to a Utah Jazz game with a hotel (my mom is a HUGE fan) or some other mini trip. It makes it nice for them to get away together and not have more junk in the house. With hard times for some the past couple of years, we have done a family quilt (my SIL quilts, so we were all in charge of getting a picture to her and so many squares of fabric in colors in my parents bedroom. Then, we all finished it together. It ended up costing each of us under $10 and our parents loved it).
I have 4 kids, 10, 8, 3 and 1. They all draw a name of a sibling to buy for – $10 max. DH and I get them 1 gift – usually a clothing item – coat, boots, pjs etc, but something they need. This year they are getting 2 gifts each and their stockings from Santa. We usually will also get a family gift. Last year we got a nice keyboard (no room for a piano :() and one of the older 2 kids gifts was piano lessons for the year.
For our kids, Christmas is more about needs than wants. DH and I don’t exchange gifts either. Our kids grandparents are great! They give clothes, crafts and other things like that. DH’s parents give all the kids a suitcase and sleeping bag when they are 2. My parent give savings bonds for birthdays instead of toys!
This all didn’t come out nearly as well as it tumbled around in my brain.
We have a 3 Wisemen Christmas. Since baby Jesus got three gifts so do our kids. My husbund still wants Santa to bring the gifts so Santa brings each child three gifts. They usually include one small toy (a Barbi or a transformer), a new sweater or PJs, and a dvd or cd. Since we have four kids we usually buy one big gift for all of them to share. Last year they got a big blue pool we found on clearance and swimsuits we also found on clearance. Another thing we do is give them a few extra chores and pay the kids a couple dollars. We then take them to the dollar store and let them buy for their siblings. This may seem like a modest christmas in todays society, but it has taught my children to be very greatful for what they do get. My oldest daughter (8) was just as happy to get the $5 bead set as she was the american girl doll from grandma!
I am sick of “stuff” too! This year we are asking for swimming lessons, money to go to day camp, piano lessons, children’s museum passes,a state park pass (actually 2 since we live right on the border), horseback riding lessons… This way my kids can try out all the things that they may not have been able to before. And my house has less “stuff” collecting dust.
My sister in law gave my 5 yr old daughter the bast gift. She got a scrapbook case and filled it with all kinds of art supplies. Crayons, paper, stickers, markers, ect. and she loved it. You can find lots of cool art supplies at dollar stores, to make these!
Also we have 2 children this yr and we usually set a dollar amount for them. I’m not working this yr, so dont know what it will be yet. We deffinatley dont need more toys and grandparents usually get them more than enough. They a few presents from santa and from us.
I think there are a lot of parents that go way overboard on electronic “babysitters”. We don’t do electronics for our kids, no ipods, cell phones, computers, etc. We have a tv in the family room with a dvd player and a wii. They are limited to 1 hour of game time a day, and 1 movie. They don’t usually even use their time. They don’t have tons of toys either, they have imaginations and each other to play with. For Christmas they get the clothes they need, and bathroom items (DH has a bathroom bag, so the kids think they need them too :)), and coupons. They love that they get their very own coupons to use. Some that we give them are…..
Good for:
1 candy bar
1 pack of gum
30 minute late bedtimme
Date with dad
Movie with mom
Late night (we don’t do sleep overs, so they get to have a friend over until bedtime, up to 1 hour later, and watch movies or just hang out)
1 free chore (yes, my kids have chores!!!)
A trip to the park (for the little ones)
Etc.
wow, reading this, i realize how much i spoil my girls and my son, who is now 27. growing up we didn’t get much, so i have always overdone it at christmas. both my parents passed away in the last year and a half so my girls age 5 only get from us and their 82 year old grandmother. we do have a tradition where the night before christmas we hide the three wise men and they can’t open their presents til after they find them and take them to Jesus. but i think after reading this, we will also start a tradition to give toys away to a charity or goodwill before getting new ones. and to focus on buying an item from a giving tree to an underpriviledged child. thanks for the ideas.
We do a big gift from Santa for my daughter (last year it was a play kitchen, this year it will be a dollhouse). We buy her tons – clothes, little toys, knick-knacks. We also buy her an ornament with the appropriate Christmas year (i.e. My 2nd Christmas) and one of something she’s into. Between my hubby and myself, we just exchange ornaments. We do savings bonds for nieces and nephews with a small toy. Nothing for anyone else usually. Although I did find $1 scrapbook calendars at Michael’s, so I will put pictures of the grandkids in, for the grandparents.
I have two girls (3 and 1) and they have too many toys from their relatives so I don’t by any. This year we are turning things around with presents to use or learn. They each are getting three presents (we celebrate Epiphany) and I have bargain shopped the whole yr so my oldest is getting things like art supplies, coloring pillowcase, and a necklace making kit. For the little one we are getting books, clothes, and we are making a bowling set from materials in our home.
One tradition we have is that each Christmas each child gets their own ornament to hang on the tree on Christmas day. To make things easier on our relatives I make a list of things for our family that they can get for us like: tickets to shows, zoo, aquarium, classes etc.
Our extended family believes in giving gifts to everyone so this year I am going to try my hand a gift baskets with all the great freebies and ideas I got from here!
I forgot to add to Anon: 12:25, we also get our daughter Christmas pajamas that she opens on Christmas Eve to wear that night.
This year we filled two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child- through samaritans purse- I was impressed by how selfless my 4 yr old son was. I shop at Rummage sales for my kids for christmas. They’re little enought that they dont even realize and you get the benefit of not having to pull all the plastic off!You can never play all the fun out and I only buy toys in great condition. Also as a parent- you dont feel bad if they dont like it that you just wasted your money!
I am not sure if this true country wide. Our area here in Massachusetts has an active Craigslist free section. Over the summer, many brand new items post garage sale (what did not sell) were available. I picked up a handful of new & sealed free items for our son for Chanukkah.
Our son likes Thomas, Mario, and building blocks (like Lego). I only invest or pick up free items that have resale value.
The other avenue to consider is garage sales. It is a bit of gamble. I’ve gone to garage sales where the people just want the items out of their house. They will sell their brand new merchandise cheap (cross pen set for $.50, liz clairborne diary $.50, etc). Other garage sales are antithetical. I’ve had a lot of luck at garage sales this year. Brand new huffy bike, training wheels, and bell for $6 for example.
Of course, Target bi-annual toy clearance is the another consideration.
I love the coupon idea! That is great!
My side of the family only buys presents for kids under 18. Then all of the adults kick in $25 and we adopt a local family from the school. The women get together and shop (so we still our get our fix). The kids wrap the presents and the men deliver the presents on X-mas eve to the family in need.
As for my family we have 2 little girls 3 and 6. We just moved to an new state last year, and kike most kids today they are spoiled. So this year we are going to adopt a family locally and let my girls help shop.
We also have a few traditions – Each year I get my girls a new set of pajamas and give them to them on x-mas eve. We also get them new ornaments each year.
I love the idea’s I have heard on getting rid of the wrapping paper and limiting gifts to just a few. Thanks everyone for sharing.
Last year was the first year my son was really interested in opening gifts, and we ended up going way overboard (he ended up getting tired and opening in two shifts!). Fortunately, I didn’t spend a lot–although it definitely wasn’t as inexpensive a haul as some of the couponers who post here–and he really didn’t have a lot in the way of toys. However, it was all solid, classic toys and books that he enjoyed–no gimmicky, junky plastic stuff. This year, there will be less! He loves the Tag reader, and I have quite a stash of books from TRU, and dad will want in on the action, so I have not really stockpiled for him this year (gasp!). I do have all my nieces and nephews’ gifts purchased, though. One thing we do for him (and will continue to do until he’s 18) is bank the cash gifts he receives. He gets enough from “Santa” and extended family that he doesn’t need the cash. My parents did this, and I had a $10,000 nest egg after college.
I have 3 boys ages 10, 12, 14. The only gifts they get at christmas is from my husband and I. They do get a small gift from one grandparent. I try to get at least one big thing on their list. Last year Santa brought them an xbox but that was for all three of them. I try to have at least 8 to 10 gifts for them to open which includes santa gifts. They always get pajamas, a shirt or two, socks and underwear. Their stockings will usually have a new toothbrush, toothpaste travel size deodorant and body spray. I put some candy also. I am sure it seems we go overboard but that is all of the gifts they receive. Their birthdays are 4 weeks apart so they get one gift for their bdays and we go out to dinner. Every christmas we always try to pick names off of the angel tree to buy gifts.
A lot of people have addressed the children for Christmas, but here is an idea for an older person that my sister gave me. For Christmas last year, they gave her husband’s grandmother one week’s worth of frozen meals (the grandmother lived by herself) as well as a special meal with their family. They went and picked the grandma up, brought her to their house, and let her pick out the menu. Very cute and so appreciated by older people! (For the frozen meals, she just made extra when she cooked for her family to compensate so she wasn’t actually making each of those meals individually.)
I am the youngest of six kids, and when I was growing up, our present to our parents every Christmas was for all 6 of us kids together to plan, cook, serve and clean up the Christmas feast so that Mom and Dad could relax on Christmas day.
I have two sons 3 and 9 months. The little one is going to be getting toys that were my older sons when he turned one. No one will know and we are saving a ton of money! Older son wants a bike and will get some other things he is into too. We too are doing Operation Christmas Child this year and will do some other sort of volunteer work or visit a nursing home or something to show the boys that Christmas is not about gifts.
I like the coupons idea. We do an advent calendar each year, but it turned into a little greed-fest so I wasn’t sure if we would do it again. I know my kids would love coupons for special events with us or their friends.
Thanks,
Melanie
We have been planning ahead this year more than normal and trying to be more practical. I picked up a new bedding set for each child at Target for $17 per bed (sheets, comforter, pillow case, and even came with towels). I have ordered them each a magazine through Amazon really cheap thinking that is a gift that will last all year plus they love getting mail. They are each getting a computer game also found on clearance at Target for $4 each. Not sure what else….but we are thinking very practical.
I forgot to mention. We ask family members to purchase I-bonds for our son. My brother just purchased one so he’ll receive that for Chanukkah.
I have horror stories of what my son received from my ILs.
I have 3 kids ages 6, 5, and 2. We give them 1 gift each Christmas and some stocking stuffers that my husband is in charge of. He makes a trip to the $ store. They get plenty of stuff from other family members. In order to focus more on the giving instead of receiving we encourage each of the kids to make something for each other, then when we open the gifts we make a big deal about the giving by having each child pass out the gifts they made.
With 11 kids, we have really limited how many gifts our kids receive. They get a book and new jammies on Christmas Eve (look great for pics the next day and read themselves to sleep). We have never done santa – we felt that if lied to our kids about that, could they believe we told them the truth about G*d who is even greater?
Our children receive one gift plus stockings from us, and they usually pitch in together to buy gifts for each other – then they get one nice item from their siblings instead of a bunch of junk.
We used to put a dollar limit, but have found that it works better for us to just get them what ‘fits’. Mabye one child gets a $500 sewing machine that we know she will take with her, while a much younger brother gets a $30 playmobil set. Our kids have never been ones to compare dollar amounts, and each gift is a fit so they like it. We feel better about buying them something that will last long-term instead of something trendy like clothing…
For us, it actually saves us money to just buy what they will love instead of stocking up on a bunch of great deals that I end up not giving to our kids… though Toys for Tots appreciated it when I used to do that 🙂
We end up spending quite a bit on Christmas, but we don’t buy our children items for no reason throughout the year.
Right now we are taking an extended trip in our r.v. and I plan on getting digital readers for our 4 or 5 oldest. We are avid readers, and the older books that they like are free downloads, so will save us money in the long run. (at least that is how I am justifying it) 😉
We do a couple of things here in our home.
1.) Each year my husband and I chose 1-2 ornaments for each of our 3 children and we write the year on them somewhere. They always have something to do with something that happened during the year specific to that child. For example, my youngest (girl) really found and loves Tinkerbell and Elmo this year, so she is getting themed ornaments from Disney and Sesame Street. For the middle child he recently took to Toy Story so he is getting those. I am still on the hunt for my oldest teenager, his is always the most difficult but it is SO much fun for them putting up “their” ornaments every year on our tree. My oldest still looks thru his and talks about them with such happiness every year.
2.)The teenager (first born), somehow I started a tradition of getting him a nutcracker every year. As you can imagine this can get costly and space consuming so I started getting creative and last year he got a musical nutcracker ornament. I am still looking for ideas for this season. But I have to say they really make the best nutcrackers if your kids are into them. We have Pirates, Egyptians, etc. You can really find one in almost any genre.
3.) We also buy all of the kids new pajamas to goto bed in Christmas Eve, this makes it a really special night and the photos in the morning are adorable with new jammies on.
4.) Another fun thing we do is hot cocoa and cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve. It’s cheap and the kids love it. They each have their own mug (which is the really special part) and every year when we unwrap them from storage it brings back memories.
5.)Admittedly we go a little nutty with the number of gifts we buy the children. So this year we have decided to sponser a family in need as well as donate what we can to ‘Toys for Tots’. I have already started gathering toys on special deals or store clearance that would be perfect for donation to a needy child.
I had an idea driving home today…for my friends and family I am going to go to the dollar store and get baking accessories, and get some mixes and frostings (have found a bunch of coupons lately and the commissary on post has Betty Crocker mixes and frostings on sale for .99!) and sprinkles and put together a baking box where they have almost everything to make a yummy treat for themselves!!! And if I can find cheap and cute dishes or silverware then I will include that too in the box!