The four gift rule

ASmallWonder

I understand kind of what @-auntie- is saying because it's kind of how I feel about the gifts my mother would give. They were things SHE wanted to give, regardless of if the person cared at all for it or could use it.  Of course we all know that a gift is a gift but I think she's just saying that for her, pigeonholing herself into giving with those rules wouldn't put a smile on her kid's face.  It just depends on how you look at Christmas.  Are you doing it to supply them with the stuff you want them to have or are you buying them the stuff they want to have.  Neither is wrong, just different.

Eleventy11

Team spoil the kids. I can't imagine only giving my kids four presents, no matter how much stuff they'll get from others. I was an only child, and an only grandchild on one side. My parents struggled when I was little, but I always had a boatload of stuff. My mom would wrap up individual Barbie outfits. The sheer joy I see on my face and my parents in old videos of Christmas morning is what I want for my kids. Maybe that is materialistic, but that is my decision.

ASmallWonder

HilarityEnsued said:

humptydance said:

We have a budget and whatever I can find that works in that budget is what they get. All presents are from Santa. I don't see the issue with them thinking that because eventually they will know mom/dad was Santa.

Exactly our thought process as well.

If my kid seriously questions why I didn't get him presents when everyone else did I will lock his presents up for a week... that is ridiculous.

One year when we were nearing the end of our Santa believing days my mom realized that she seemingly never gave us anything lol  But we never noticed.  It never even registered that none of the presents were from my parents.  We do separate stuff from us and stuff from Santa but don't kill ourselves over it or anything.

Eleventy11

mbenit4 said:

courtnif said:

I can't imagine only giving my kids four presents, no matter how much stuff they'll get from others.

The sheer joy I see on my face and my parents in old videos of Christmas morning is what I want for my kids. Maybe that is materialistic, but that is my decision.

Poor kids that only get 4 presents!!!! I imagine they will need therapy.

Can you believe that joy on faces in videos and pictures is still accomplished without a boatload of presents? Like for real. Sheer joy. It doesn't sound materialistic. It sounds shallow.

Ok...seriously? I was only sharing my experience. My parents walked the roads picking up aluminum cans to buy dinner when we had company. We had no money at all...but it made my parents so happy to watch me on Christmas morning. I don't think they were at all thinking their three or four year old child was shallow.

I don't even limit my parents gifts to four. I get an amazing amount of joy in finding things they would want, and watching them open them. I don't think that's shallow at all. I realize that not everyone has the resources, but giving is such an amazing experience to me. That's what gives me joy...I'm not going to limit that to four things for my kids.

Eleventy11

My mom didn't even limit the gifts to Santa. I got stuff from the fleas on the dog's back and the monsters under my bed.

theimpossibleastronaut

DD won't know what Christmas is this year, or next probably, so she's getting one big toy from us and maybe a few other small items I think.

We won't follow this rule, but we're trying to keep things small this year.

Eleventy11

Sterling13 said:

courtnif said:

My mom didn't even limit the gifts to Santa. I got stuff from the fleas on the dog's back and the monsters under my bed.

Huh?

Sterling13 said:

courtnif said:

My mom didn't even limit the gifts to Santa. I got stuff from the fleas on the dog's back and the monsters under my bed.

Huh?


My mom would put silly things on the tags, as if that is who the gift was from. The fleas was just being silly...the monsters under the bed was actually genius. It made me a lot less scared of them.