Christmas Gift Scale....Where are you?

ladyjenna13

I love Christmas!  Everything about it brings a special joy to my heart that I do not feel during the rest of the year.  While family traditions plays a huge role for us, this year it is even more special because I get to see my son have his first reactions to the whole Christmas thing with the lights, trees, and Santa.

We are getting him a lot of toys and books this Christmas.  As well, his out of town GP's are coming, so they will have a ton for him on top of the other grandparents.  By the end of December 25, the entire house will be full of his gifts.  If there is ever a time to spoil young children, I think it is Christmas time!! 

I do not think that Christmas morning is the time to be teaching life lessons. it is a time to see the joy on the kids face as they open up gifts from Santa.  During the season we will visit a shelter one night, a food kitchen one day, and the children will learn the lessons about giving to those in need and understand the idea of giving in general.  They will learn to give during the holiday season, because we want our kids to want to share and give because they know it is the right thing to do from childhood experiences.  But Christmas morning will always be for them, to make thier own memories. 

So, I admit it, I go overboard with the gifts for Christmas.  Where do the other dads stand when it comes to gifts for the kids?

ladyjenna13

Jack9 said:

This is our first Christmas with DS and he is about 9 months old now.  We got him 3 gifts this year, if he were a bit older we would have done more but we aren't really sure how he will be with it being only 9 months. Next year will be a big one for him.  This year we did get pretty awesome ones, this is my favorite, the Fisher Price Crawl Around Car

I am with you, I will be an overboard at Christmas time Dad. This is the time of year to do it and we do the same we always donate and bring food so those are great lessons.  

Jake pointed at that the other day when we were at Toys r Us.  He is too big for that now though.

ladyjenna13

Can't wait to start buying him these kinds of gifts for Christmas.  These things can go 2000 feet now, with payloads!!

Prime

He'll only be 7 months this year so the plan was to not do many gifts since right now we just buy whatever he needs when he needs it and he has plenty of toys.  That didn't last though.

I have started buying legos for the holidays.  I got a lego train and some of the winter village theme pieces.  It is just going to be fun for me for a few years, but I'm looking forward to building those each year when he's older.

ladyjenna13

I saw that Lego train line at the Lego Store over the weekend.  Looks fun.  I am like a crack addict when I get near that store.

I figure for the better part of a decade my boy and I will be building kit after kit.  I know I did.

 

Coltsdad

I am very much a Christmas dad.  It is me who has the boys sit down and watch the Christmas specials... I DVR them so we can watch them again and again.  If it were up to my wife, he'd probably get mostly clothes and a few toys, if it were up to me, I'd wrap an entire Toys R Us up in wrapping paper for them. 

With my oldest being 3, we introduced the concept of picking a toy for those who don't get a Christmas and he selected a Nerf football.  He later decided he wanted to open it, but it went to Toys For Tots this weekend.  This is something that we plan on making a part of tradition where each kid selects at least one toy to put in for donation.  Later, when the kids are older, we will likely do a day at Gleaners Food Bank or at a soup kitchen or something along those lines.

Christmas morning however, is for the kids... actually we do 4 Christmases and they start Christmas Eve at my immediate in-laws, then Christmas morning the 4 of us alone, then around noon we go to my extended in-laws for an insanely big Christmas deal with over 20 people in a small room, then finally around 4 ish, we trek to my parents house for another meal and another round of presents.

Wulfgar

For us, we don't do huge Christmases.  We have been doing cash only Christmases for a few years now.  My wife's extended family has gift drawings so that way everyone gets something.

As our son gets older we will mix in more clothes with toys.  Currently we just buy him new clothes as he outgrows his.

ladyjenna13

We also do multiple Christmas celebrations over the course of three days.  The biggest, by far, is Christmas Eve at my mom's sister's house.  Every year since I was a baby.  Three generations now celebrating this tradition, and it is a big time party with my Irish family.  We do a hybrid White Elephant there, and it gets pretty wild. Every five years or so we will catch a midnight Mass after taht, but with a toddler we can opt out now.  They are beautiful Masses, but long, so long. 

My favorite is now Christmas morning though.  I love waking up with the kid and experiencing the fun that is that morning.  Once they grow up, that is gone, so I make it as fun as possible.  I set up the video camera on a tripod and everything.  This year my father and stepmother are in town, so they will share in the morning with us.