Question for parents about Christmas presents

I have one good idea in mind for my kids this year. A swivel car: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081RVIK0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=AOFIBMXVIVCJ6
I think they will both love it, although Cooper is probably still a little young for it, but I am still getting him one so they will both have one and won't have to fight over it like they do everything else. This is going to be their "big" present for Christmas.

I don't go too crazy on presents. I try to pick out a few things I know they will really enjoy. If there is something Devin had been talking about for months, I would certainly try to incorporate that into Christmas, but so far, she doesn't get obsessed on one item yet. I am sure it is coming any day though now. I always try to go quality, and something I know will provide months of enjoyment over tons of little things that will just take up space and never get played with.

My SD who is now 16 started to feel dissapointed on Christmas at one point. And at that point, I talked to her about it. I asked her if there was one thing she really wanted. I told her the budget for what I was willing to spend on something and then she got that one thing and a pair of pajamas, maybe a necklace, and a little cash for me to take her shopping. But that started at more like 12 or 13.

On the flip side I really wanted an American girl doll when I was younger. My parents got me a knock off and I was pretty upset.

But i wasn't a girly girl and didn't just want a doll I wanted my favorite character. I don't know how old she is but maybe find out if she wants it from the stories or just because they are really pretty dolls

Oh she'll get a real one down the line if she's old enough for them (and still want one by then). I had dolls that size when I was a kid, with wardrobe and bed, and I absolutely loved them.

Swivel/plasma cars are great, I just don't think my kids would get much use of it, we don't really have a great place to run it.

I'm really not looking forward to when the kids are older and all they want for Christmas is an iphone or a car lol!

We never really did the santa thing. Too many issues of "Well, why doesn't santa give toys to poor kids in Haiti?" kind of questions lol

So christmas was pretty straight forward lol we wrote lists..my parents ve-toed all "cheap" toys (anything that only had one use, was ugly, too expensive for what it was, something they knew we would get bored off in .2 seconds, sold off TV, popular fads etc..)
by "only had one use" I mean, they NEVER bought toys like polly pocket (which I REALLY WANTED lol) or like..hotwheels, which my brothers really wanted (which did away with most fads)
It had to be a toy that had more then one way to play with it, build it, use it etc.. Art supplies, books, dolls, stuffed animals, bikes, train sets, model airplanes etc.. because you can build them and kind of use your imagination on how to use them.

With rare exception, the toy wasn't supposed to run on batteries. We did get gameboys one year and my brother's model trains all ran on batteries.. but they veto-ed anything that was like, batteries just for the sake of being annoying, plastic toys that beep and buzz and just are generally cheap and a pain.

At the time? I thought it was PURE CRUELTY!!
Now? I get it. and It's something I will do with my kids. I have toys from my childhood that are well made, that I treasure, blocks and books and stuffed animals etc.. that I LOVED, that I played with and used my imagination with endlessly.

So we made our lists according to the rules of things we actually thought we would get.
And we would also pick out toys to donate to kids in Haiti (I think this also was used as a reminder to how MUCH we have getting ANY presents)

when Christmas rolled around.. I'm sure there might've been the issue of "WHY DIDN'T I GET THIS?!" but I certainly don't remember ever having issue lol Christmas is to this day my favorite holiday.

Plus, the lovely rule of "Every toy that is laying around on the ground will be donated to charity" kept our toys pretty well cared for and cherished (not to mention the house clean lol) and it also stopped us from really wanting a BUNCH of little toys (since we never really had them all out at the same time anyway) so mostly, lists consisted of one or two large things.

Lists were only allowed to be 5 items long regardless lol sooooo.. it kind of narrowed things down :rofl1:

I disagree that cars and polly pocket/figurines etc only have one use and can't use your imagination. LOL we have a big pack of hot wheels at the preschool and they boys come up with ALLLLLLLLL kinds of things to do with them and most definitely using their imaginations lol

My little ponies would probably fall in that same category as well as the miriade of Princess figurines Hannah has but I wouldn't say they don't get her using her imagination. they've been on all KINDS of adventures lol. I can't imagine how these figurines (that she's had for at least two years... no moving parts just still small figurines lol from the dollar store mostly) have been a hands down favorite item of hers and she never gets bored of them. there is always something new and fun she comes up with for them. They've been princesses, friends, mothers and children, super heroes, herself and her friends, teachers, doctors, so on and so forth... and they don't change. like you can't even dress them up or move their arms or anything lol they just ARE the way they are but that doesn't stop her from making them into what she wants and having an adventure with them. Sometimes they even pair up with the ponies lol

sorry lol wrote a mini novel there.

The nice thing is is Hannah is really good with her toys. I don't think she's ever broken a toy (other than dollar store crowns which will snap if you look at them wrong lol), she's never worn out an outfit, the only rips in any clothes have been when she's fallen and skinned her knee thus ripping the knee of the tights but that's not really avoidable lol. so I'm a bit spoiled having a young child that really takes care of her things. but stuffed animals are HANDS DOWN her favorite things. she has an obscene amount of them and all of them are special and can't be discarded lol which is interesting in such a small house

I'm with you lol. They make up a lot of stories with their cars and figurines. Chris still plays with all his cars after 2 years (and was telling me two days ago that he doesn't have enough, lol). And yep they love love love their stuffed animals too (Lisa's getting one of those huge Ty Ballz because she totally fell in love with it at the store). I got some cheap Polly Pockets on ebay that I'll probably give to Lisa for her birthday... I liked the old kind better though.

I agree with Fran's parents about toys that can only be played with one way though... like those rock Mickeys or whatnot. The kids get bored with them pretty quickly.

I'd get a lot of little things and clothes etc but my mom always had one big gift that was the Santa gift that was not wrapped so I could just play with it before they got up lol(I figure that was why anyway, rule was knock on the door before six I get the cole stocking)! And it usually looked pretty under the tree. I'll never forget the entire my little pony paradise estate under the tree with a bunch of ponys. When I was even younger a toy kitchen. Bike one year.

Yeah, I had polly pockets and power ranger action figures, ninja turtles, care bears, and hot wheels. They were always going on adventures I used my imagination to come up with. Sometimes I used them as what they actually were, and sometimes I made up new characters for them to play. They waged war with each other, fell in love, built zoos, moved in to the house next door to my dollhouse and came over for dinner, went on missions to save african wildlife from poachers, etc.

IDK what a rock mickey is, lol, and I think there are plenty of boring fad toys, but kids are going to use their imagination to play with whatever toy you give them. I think the only toys I'd limit my kid's access to would be video games.

Growing up I learned to hate the holidays thanks to the crazy mother. I swear she took the wish list I wrote to use as a guide as to what NOT to get - only one time did I get something on the list and it was small and not expensive.

Some of the highlights of the 'this is what I think you'll like' items included a Michael Jackson album (when he was no longer cool), a pair of really ugly high tops (again not cool, I actually blurted out 'where did you find these' and lost most of the gifts for the year and got to do all the dinner prep for that slip), a sweater she thought was nice because the teacher in jr high had it (the teacher everyone hated!), and oh a few years after the Thriller album she figured I was into the smurfs and got me their sing song album.

So needless to say I try really hard to be practical and make sure the kids have a good holiday!

They don't do lists but ask for things and I just say 'well we'll see what Santa does' and go from there. Not above getting some used items and working with those as a base either, for my son he's getting a laptop that DH is going to fix up, and then likely some games new and used, and new lego. For my daughter she's into littlest pet shops so going to scoop some used collections, and get some new things, and have a tea set that we're picking up and will put together with some tablecloths and other tea party stuff. Hoping to get an entertainment unit and rebuild it into a dress up station so will look for costumes next month as well.

The actual holiday, we have an early dinner on Christmas eve then Santa pops in with candy bags. Then we head to church for a service, while we're there the elves sneak in with pajamas for everyone that match and a note, so when we come home we put those on and hang out till the kids get tired and go to bed. In the morning we have gifts and a simple breakfast, play with the goodies and then to grandma's usually for dinner. There's also a hay ride through town and other seasonal activities we try to fit in.

I am so excited. My mom and step dad are going to be here for christmas this year

Christmas eve we let Hannah open one gift from us, we have church service and then my personal tradition from when I was a kid is to watch how thr grinch stole Christmas and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Christmas morning we get up, open gifts, make breakfast and watch the Disney Very merry Christmas parade on TV. Later we head to brians cousins house for the family and gift exchange

I think I have confused polly pocket for something else.. I mean, as far as I can tell, this dolls only use was to pull the string and she would like fly around the room lol I still remember the commercial.

There were plenty of toy cars and regular dolls hanging around lol but these toys were a no no.

I also suspect, that in many of these cases, we COULD HAVE played with those toys and imagined and such, but at the end of the day, my parents considered them a fad or cheaply made and sooo... they were a no.

And with the hotwheels.. my dad was really into building model trains and things involving really putting that stuff together, so I guess it was also maybe a way of doing something with my brothers/avoiding the hot wheels stuff lol

Not to mention. Model train sets do look a bit better than bright orange hotwheels ramps lol

We had a set like this in the garage. It was huge, with mountains, lots of details. I loved the thing!

Also wanted to add that my grandparents did not like my brother and me. So for Christmas the only presents we got were from siblings and parents. My mom and dad let us circle things in JC Pennys add book and circle what we wanted. We'd get one big present and a couple cheap presents. Maybe 60-70 dollars total on presents and stocking stuffers.

As we got older we got one decently priced item *well for my brother at least. me I always asked for books so I'd get quite a few* and some clothes.

Yeah i don't think that is polly pocket lol. Polly pocket is a small doll with teeny tiny accessories... Fits in your pocket lol

The catalogs lol oh man how I remember the catalogs. The highlight of my life was getting the huge Sears catalog and going through it and circling what I wanted and what I wanted to buy for everyone else. The best catalog ever.

I don't recall ever being unhappy with a gift whether it was on the list or not. I got stuff brand new, from second hand stores and even garage sales lol. Never mattered to me where it came from.

I loved the Sears catalog!! But my mom worked at JC Pennys and so we had to use that one. lol

Do those places even sell toys anymore? lol

Our sears doesn't lol

Well it's official I feel old XD

Well I think some do, mine definitely doesn't.

http://www.jcpenney.com/dotcom/toys...Id=&deptId=dept20000016&cmJCP_T=G1&cmJCP_C=D6 TOYS!

But I don't think I ever really remember the stores around here carrying toys you had to actually order it and have it shipped to the store for pick up.