Far too many presents!

mutley74

Wow 60 presents! your DD is very lucky!!

But as she is still be careful as the demands for kids grows and can be expensive (DS, Wii, phone etc)...and they still expect as much presents to open. My experience is hold some back as other posters for birthdays, Easter etc.

JodyBPM

I'm a bit confused by all this. Mine are 4 & 5 and we've never had this problem.

We buy stocking fillers for the children from Santa, and presents from us which will go under the tree (but not til Xmas eve, to lessen temptation!) They also get presents from grandparents, uncles, aunties, friends etc etc.

They open all their presents Xmas day, unless they are given them after christmas, in which case they open them as they are given them.

Its often a lot of presents, but they have never had a problem with this. This year they have 19 presents each in their stocking (ranging from bubbles or pens through to a £5ish gift) and 10 presents each from us, under the tree. Its a lot of presents (although in total we only spent around £100 per child which isn't excessive compared to many others!)

There's never a problem with them opening all those presents - its what Christmas is about! Children are excited at Christmas!

But on Christmas day, just as any other day, they are expected to behave themselves, and they do!

I don't really understand the concept of too many presents?

onlyroz

jennikitten wrote: »

Since there are a lot of people out there struggling to afford presents for their children, perhaps you could take some of them to a local charity/support group/playgroup along with your children & explain that some people don't get anything for Christmas so it's nice to help other people out?

I would be tremendously upset if I'd bought a present for a child and then found out it had been given away to a charity without it even being opened...

onlyroz

I think presents from family members should be given to the kids by *that* family member, whenever they come around to visit - even if that's not until a week after Christmas. This way, the presents are spread out and you don't get too much in one go, and there's more to look forward to - and you can also thank the giver in person.

mutley74

onlyroz wrote: »

I would be tremendously upset if I'd bought a present for a child and then found out it had been given away to a charity without it even being opened...

can understand what you mean.
After my DS birthday party when he gets 10+ gifts from all his school friends, i ask him to keep a few. The rest are either used as gifts to others or some end up going to children charity gift collections or the local hospital.
( iget fed up with DS opening so many toys. Playing with some for only a few days or weeks, and then never ever to be touched again. What a waste).

Juicy_Tube

laurenjs88 wrote: »

I am getting quite worried by the sheer amount of presents my girls have got for christmas this year. I know that probably sounds ridiculas but DD1 is only 3 and what with a santa sack, a stocking, our presents, family presents and Tree presents she has well over 60 presents to open!

Last year she was overwhelmed and didnt open half her stuff from santa so we are re-gifting it to her this year and have not brought her much at all, a ballerina outfit, toy laptop, a few jigsaws, and a flannel, toothbrush those kind of things. So it wasnt looking like too much but now the presents from my parents & sisters and all of OH's family are under the tree for them as well i am feeling overwhelmed by the amount there is there!

Theres still more to come from my side of the family too! which thankfully we wont get to nearer the new year as they are in Kent.

I am really unsure how to proceed with xmas day as I dont want it all to get to much for her, my usual routine is that she gets her santa presents first thing, then we have breakfast and do the presents under the tree then after tea we have the little presents on the tree, just to finish up the day.

The stocking is goign to wait till boxing day now as its just all too much, we werent expecting the amount of gifts for her that have been given, and whilst of courser we are grateful were just at abit of a loss!

Am I worrying too much? I know a few of the presents are clothes so hopefully this will take the edge off, but she is obsessed with pretty clothes!

I have the same concerns as you OP. We have 3 sets of family buying for 2 children! Grandparents do not stick to *please just buy one thing* My house is over run with toys tbh and that is not from us!

My DS1 has a birthday in Jan too!

We try to share out gifts over January.. we have tried to ask for one gift/ voucher/ money for swimming lessons at Xmas

From us the children have got a bike(DS)and dolls House(DD). Less than £50 each. And just a few tree toys. But believe me, we will be coming home with a car load x

mumslave

stop being concerned. She has a large family that all love her. It will seem like presents to her just now, at her age, but as she gets older, she will realise how much she is loved. Bite your tongue, spread the presents and be thankful for her.

babyshoes

When I was a kid, my grandmother would come over on Christmas Eve for supper, then we would open the presents from her and from my parents, so they were the first, main presents we got and were not 'lost' amongst all the other little presents.

Then on Christmas Day we got santa pressies first thing, and later in the day and on Boxing Day we got presents from family. Seems a good way to spread the pressies out a bit - the day before because you are all excited, on the day itself and the day after when you are visiting family. Spreading them out much more than that I think you lose some of the excitment.

A friend's parents had a different method - her advent calendar was home made with a sort of large wooden curtain ring attached to it for each day (so 24 rings in total. It was quite big!) . Small pressies were wrapped and tied to each ring, and one was opened each day. These were from Santa - apparently he couldn't visit every child on Christmas Eve easily, so he visited early in December, dropped off all the presents with the parents so she could have one a day in December, then on Christmas Day he had left just one large present to open (with perhaps 2 or 3 things inside the wrapping paper). Worked for them!

paddedjohn

the post starts with you telling us about your girls, throughout the thread only one is referred to, is the other girl not getting loads of presents too or is she just a baby?
these days christmas lasts a week so give her a pile a day to open starting with a large pile and gradually getting smaller till new years day

Rachels1979

If we got a lot of presents when we were little my mum and dad would let us open them all (although I never remember having quite THAT many!) but then after christmas day quite a few would go away again. We'd had so much that we didn't notice anything missing, but then something new could be produced at various points of the year so we'd get "new" toys but it wouldn't cost my parents a penny.

Someone said that children won't realise that there are presents from Santa but not Mum and Dad, when I was really little I did point out on Christmas day that I'd had presents from my sisters, Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents etc, and Santa had got me lots but Mummy and Daddy hadn't bought me anything! Think I was only about 4 or 5 at the time!