Do you generally give your kid new toys and other playthings on birthdays and holidays, or do you buy/give them throughout the year? I know some people rotate toys in their kid's collection, but I'm talking about toys that are brand new to him/her. What about books?
Re: Do you 'save' toys for birthdays and holidays?
Yes. I've also been known to rewrap, and regift her stuff back to her.
Also, the toy bins are kind of like compost piles. They need to be dumped out, fluffed, and rotated every once in a while.
One of C's favorite Christmas gift's last year (a Weeble playhouse) was something he'd already opened for his birthday. I snuck it downstairs and rewrapped for Christmas.
Sometimes, yes. For birthdays/Christmas he gets a lot of stuff (especially from the ILs, ahem) and a lot of times we'll hold some of it back until later. And if we find something for him that we know he'll love but is kind of bigger, we'll get it if it's on sale and stash it away.
I wouldn't say J only gets toys for holidays though--if we see something we think he'll like, we'll get it. We got him an umbrella a few months ago when he saw it at the store. and it's still one of his favorite things.
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Awesome, and so true! I'm pretty sure we didn't give DD all of her birthday presents (in Oct.) because she had gotten so much - between her actual presents and my old toys that my parents are always bringing with them. I find myself doing a lot more saving holiday gifts for a rainy day than saving things I've bought randomly until a holiday/birthday. DD just has so much already that she doesn't need more...
Books I will buy throughtout the year but I really don't buy toys other than birthdays and holidays. We have a nice rotation though with Molly in April, Maggie in August and then Christmas in December so we do get fresh new toys throughout the year at well spaced intervals. Maggie still doesn't ask for things so when I see she likes a friend's toy or something I just put it on her amazon list. This is part of the reason I do not feel badly going a little overboard at Christmas (kids are getting about 7 or 8 presents each not including stockings) because it is really the only time of year I get to really give them the things I know they will like and what I want them to have - I only have 2 or 3 people at birthdays use the amazon list and I only get them one small thing since the party food and hosting the in-laws for 3-4 days is expensive.
When they were under 1 or so I totally regifted them some of their own books and they only got 2 or 3 small presents from us at Christmas that they may have already played with.
I really try to save any bigger toys for xmas or birthdays. he's wanted a "real" guitar since this summer and all summer we helped him improvise with either the Guitar Hero guitar we have or a spatula ;-) However, Santa is bringing him a "real" (toddler sized) guitar this Christmas.
But DH and I do get him some new smaller things occasionally as rewards for good behavior or if it has some education benefit. Like we got him new placemats that are a map of the world and a map of the US and we would work with him to learn the continents, countries and states. After he learned a bunch of them, we got him some big map floor puzzles to help reinforce everything. So yes, they are "toys" but we rationalize that we are not spoiling him because he's learning ;-) right? lol
I don't like the idea of buying him new stuff all the time. I don't want him to expect that every time he wants something he's going to get it. I have relatives whose kids get something every time they go to Target, so pretty much every week they get a new toy or two. as a result they have mountains of toys and they think that getting new toys is no big deal. this will not be happening in our household ;-)