sharing christmas presents / joint gifts

my3girls · 29 August 2011 at 10:32PM

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well :j

I've been thinking more seriously about Christmas this week and trying to get ideas for my youngest dd's - one will be 3 in Feb, one 5 in March.

Everything i see i think they will both like! They both like the same characters, the same type of games etc.

Have any of you given your children 'shared' presents, either from yourself, or 'santa'? Did it work or was it a fighting nightmare on christmas morning?

I'm stuck for ideas and not really wanting two of everything lol, but i don't want them to feel they have to share everything iyswim

Thanks for reading

Jenni
x

Oh and they share a bedroom too if that makes any difference.

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Fen1 · 29 August 2011 at 11:12PM

As a twin, I loathed being treated as 'half' a person. We only had very small gifts for Christmas and birthdays as we were absolutely broke.

One year we had a box of multi-coloured tissues each ( taken out of the boxes ) tied up with ribbons. We used the tissues to make dresses for our dolls. It was important that we had a present each.

Your children really do only need something small each for birthday and Christmas. The thoughtfulness of each gift is more valuable than quantity. If they really like the same things, try buying a set of books or toys from the same range, but splitting it up 4 ways for Christmas and birthday. They'll be sharing the stuff, but still have their 'own'.

PootleFlump_3 · 29 August 2011 at 11:23PM

As children we used to get a joint "big" gift if it was something we both wanted and we didnt mind at all. if there is something they both love then Im sure that providing the rules about how its shared are set in the first place it wont be a problem. Perhaps if its a games console for example you could get them both a game each to go with it on the basis that they can play the games with each other. I personally think its a good thing to have children share things no matter what their age providing they still feel special and that they have still got their own little presents to open as well. x

LJM · 30 August 2011 at 1:38PM

my daughters have had joint presents in the past and have been fine

amandada · 30 August 2011 at 2:45PM

The only thing I've ever done as a joint present, and it was clear that it was for the whole family was the year we got the Nintendo Wii. As much as anything it was to stop either child claiming it as their own, and it did prevent problems.

I think it would be very difficult, and possibly a bit unfair to give a 2 and 4 year old shared presents. Whilst you do want children to be able to share, I do think it's important that they're both treated as individuals. I'd not want to duplicate either, but in the almost 4 months between now and Christmas, you'll probably find that the 4 year old does a fair bit of growing up and, although will still play with toys aimed at 2/3 year olds, will want some different, more "grown up" things for him/herself.

Savvybunny2009 · 30 August 2011 at 2:58PM

If there are toys that they both would like you could get similar items that could be used to play together for example, princess dress up different dresses, happy land play sets, one gets 1 set and the other gets another but can be played with together. It could encourage sharing and playing together but giving each child their own toy without duplicates.

my3girls · 31 August 2011 at 1:11PM

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and help - very much appreciated

I was originally thinking of a doll house sort of thing between them, but now i think i may get them a baby doll each, and perhaps bunkbeds & doll wardrobe which they can share. So their dolls would be their own but they could play together with them.

They would both like the leappad touches, but i'll see how finds go for that one!

Fen - my eldest daughter (8) uses tissues to dress her harumika dolls! I never thought of buying patterned ones, atm they are all white brides hehe........:rotfl:

Great ideas everyone :money:

Jenni
x

my3girls · 31 August 2011 at 1:18PM

* funds even

jcr16 · 31 August 2011 at 6:50PM

I think it depends on the gift. Is at Xmas our children all wanted zhu zhu hamsters and we bought them all their own with their ownballs etc for them. But only last week we got the children a 12ft trampoline whichis a shared gift as something like that you don't really buy one per child .

They have all shared fantastic . But smaller toys/gifts we generally buy them their own.

kayandy_2 · 2 September 2011 at 12:44AM

while growing up me and my siser each had our own presents then joint big present i.e tv or trampoline etc but we both used each others gifts too as we shared a room and their is only 1yr10 months between us....my little cusions who are 6,4 and 3 now have joint presents the big ones and get their own gifts but all share their presents as they all lie the same thing ...when they are given their gifts they are told its their present but tthey must share them with their brothers and this works very well hpe this helps

minety-mum · 2 September 2011 at 9:12PM

My boys have their birthdays 10 days apart in November (there is 3 years between them). My god mother used to send a cheque in October for their birthday and Christmas presents, and we tended to use it to buy big things that we wouldn't have bought otherwise - climbing frame, slide etc for climbing frame, table football, model railway set etc.

sharing christmas presents / joint gifts

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