Hellobee Boards

We actually do one gift- but this year it had two parts. We did tegu and then a city rug so she could build structures on it.

I'm not into overloading kids with toys/gifts. I just get her a new book because she loves it randomly (for example, though I'm sure others do this in addition to Christmas overload), and this was the first year I ever waited until Christmas to give her a gift. I usually just get things as needed and am too excited to wait!

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Yeah, we never used to, but this year doing the whole Christmas thing I got DH gifts to do with LO (they were wooden kit cars that they spent Christmas building together) and then I got him something small- an adult coloring book. I got the same one. So, just small things! One thing that was sweet- we made our gifts for extended family and at the family party LO walked around and handed them out to everyone- I wanted the same thing, for her to get the sense it was about giving. It was really sweet!

I actually have an opposite philosophy- we don't want the kids expecting gifts for "no reason", so they don't get much other than necessities (clothing, shoes, etc) on a regular basis. So during gifting occasions I don't mind if they get more than one item as long as it's not excessive.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: are you asking if LO gets a holiday gift do they also get gifts throughout the year?
I tend to put away extra holiday gifts to bring out at a later date.

My girls have birthdays in April and August so it's spread out enough where I don't buy a ton of toys in other times.

This year I started want/need/wear/read with the kids.

We actually don't do gifts with adults in either our families any more. But we do sponsor a local family each year for the holidays. DD1 is 3.5 and was able to understand some of it this year. She also helped us pack a shoebox for Operstion Christmas Child. As she gets older we'll also start to incorporate more giving/volunteering activities during the season and throughout the year. I think there are plenty of ways to show children the holidays isn't about just them or gifts without giving gifts to your spouse.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: this year, we got the idea for his holiday gift based on a youtube video he loves watching, which features this particular toy. He doesn't really ask for toys, because we don't watch commericals ( thanks to sprout on demand and pbs!) so he doesn't know what's out there! But on the occasions where he has said I want x, y, z, I will sometimes purchase them and wait to pull them out on a really rainy or cold day when we are home, or use them as bribes for things that he doesn't want to do--i.e. getting a haircut.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I think when they're older it'll be much easier to go your husbands route. But when they're 3 & under its really more gifts that YOU want to buy them. LOL That's why I did want/read/wear/need. It was a way for me to cull down what I bought into categories. You'll find that there will be just so much "stuff" under the tree. It's ridiculous. My Ils aren't even half as crazy as most the inlaws / family I see and it still makes me a little sick tbh.

Both of my LOs' birthdays are very close to Christmas, so there is a lot of gift giving that time of year. I like the idea of want/need/wear/read, but didn't quite implement it this year just because I couldn't think of 4 gifts each! So far, we don't buy much during the year, mostly because I feel like they only play with 1/4 of their toys as it is, and they seem to get random gifts from family members from time to time. But we will buy certain things for no reason, like last year we randomly bought a new scooter for DS because he had outgrown the old one by spring time, and we bought him a new bike in the summer, also because his old one was too small. In general, my philosophy is keep it to a minimum, but that will evolve as the kids get older and express interest/desire for things throughout the year. I kind of want to implement one toy in one toy out and get rid of things they are outgrowing/losing interest in as new toy gifts come in.

@lamariniere: I definitely did not do only one each. More like 2? Haha but I definitely noticed it helped me to stop the random "omg they would love this! And damn you Amazon for your crazy holiday deals!" Purchases.

We really buy gifts/wants/toys about three times per year. Easter, her birthday in August, and Christmas. Other than that we try not to randomly buy gifts such as toys. We will buy clothes as needed obviously. But even a bike we knew she was going to "need" and so we planned that to be a Christmas gift.

My philosophy on things in general is that things need to be age and season appropriate.
My son may want a new bike, but his birthday and Christmas are in the same month, so we won't wait until next year to buy it, we will get it in May, for example.
This is the first year in my son's life where he asked for a specific gift and we made it happen. Won't be like this every year, but this year, I felt the need to honor his request.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: yep. The only hitch this year was that we were away for Christmas and he didn't get it until the 27th. For some reason my sister in law brought the gifts she was giving to her kids over to my mother in laws to open (where we were staying) so my son saw his cousins opening a bunch of gifts and he didn't have anything other than a few books and a toy from my mother in law so we had to show him that Santa in fact did bring the jeep and it was in our house via our security camera to calm him down.
So far, he's syked about it and hasn't mentioned not having more gifts. I think it would have been different if he didn't get what he had asked for though.

My son is not quite two, so I don't know how this will evolve. This year I got him a soccer ball and a kid's book by Mia Hamm for Hanukkah. And then for Christmas we got him a set of dinosaurs plus a dinosaur storage box that unfolds into a playmat. He also got gifts from his grandparents on both sides, his aunt, and his cousin. So he got plenty of stuff. Since we have two holidays, I think that one gift from us per holiday is fine. It's ok if it has multiple parts.

I really dislike exchanging gifts just for the sake of it, so I will not be emphasizing gifts too much. But he's a little kid and he enjoys opening them. I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

I did a big toy purge afterwards though. We live in apartment, and the living room was starting to get out of hand.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: My inlaws usually ask for suggestions and then pick some things out themselves as well. They see our LOs every day.

This year, my mom asked me to do the shopping for our families for her as she was really busy at work. So I had everything shipped to her house and the kids opened it on Christmas.

So the girls still got plenty of presents but I didn't feel like they came from DH and me. With the bonus that I had to wrap very few things!

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: We gave him the soccer ball on the first night. My parents and sister came over for dinner on the second night, so he opened their gifts (Hess truck, small Tegu set) while we were there. After that, no more gifts. I grew up with gifts every night but I think that is excessive.

We gave him the dinosaur stuff at home on Christmas Eve. (And actually, my sister was over again that night and brought another small Tegu set.). And the next day on Christmas he received and opened two gifts from my MIL and a gift from our cousin.

We have plenty of resources as a family. I would rather focus on shared experiences than giving excessive amounts of material gifts. And sometimes I might see something that I would like to get for my son in real time. I'd rather just do that than wait for a particular celebration.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Not related to your question, but due to this episode, my DH gave me a jar of pickles for Christmas. At least they were fancy pickles? And I love pickles. lol

(it wasn't the only present, but was just a joke related to that show)

My philosophy actually is that we very rarely buy toys for LO any other time of year than Christmas. I can probably count on one hand the toys that I bought for her between last Christmas and this Christmas. I would count things like art supplies as more necessities than toys so I don't include that. Christmas is when I get what I've been eyeing for her all year! I think it adds to the magic if getting new toys is not a regular thing.