Christmas Presents

[walant]

What do you guys do for Christmas presents when times like today are tough???

 

[Birbitt]

I always keep my Christmas expenses low by shopping all throughout the year and keeping the gifts up on a high shelf in my closet. Then by Christmas all I have to buy is the clothing that my children will get under the tree. So this year's shopping was done by October and then just last week I got a great deal on the clothing at a local store going out of business.

 

[Black-bird fly]

I'm really excited about this year. We are doing the three gifts each thing (3 magi) and everything but the book is homemade or gently used. I traded a stack of books for credits to a local gently used bookstore where I'm convinced most of the books have never even been opened.

The hardest part is just how much children are marketed to during Christmas. It is everywhere!

 

[GolfingMom]

We've always kept it low key. Usually the kiddo's get ONE gift from us and a stocking stuffer (a treat like candy)...that's it. Even when/if we have lots of money - we keep it simple I'd rather we celebrate Christmas with family, music and laughter than with gifts -

 

[illudium_phosdex]

I try to get as much done as early as possible. Up here in AK we have a place called Mighty Dollar where every thing is $1.50. Kinda like Dollar Tree down in the states. Anyway they actually have a decent variety of things believe it or not.

 

[Neenie1]

I have started early this year. I try and do things very low key. There just isn't any more room in this house for toys ROFL.

So yeah - I am more worried about what to get other people. We are looking at one of those cards for charity catalogues and have stuck it in a fairly prominent place to probably get some things out of for extended family members.

 

[Robinsegg]

We're looking at getting our 2 kids 1 joint gift (more lincoln logs) and a couple of small gifts each. Mil will go all-out, and my parents will give DVD's (approved by us) and Adventures in Oddyssey Cd's (out by Focus on the Family), possibly plus a couple of small toys.

We don't make presents the main thing about Christmas. It's a side issue.
Rachel

 

[Singin4Him]

We want to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas and not focus on the gifts, my son's birthday is the day after Christmas so since we've decided that we will keep Christmas gifts to a minimal anyway and that helps. We also don't do the Santa thing so that helps take the focus off gifts as well. I think that is the key, the expectations come from what you instill in your children.

 

[Robinsegg]

We started out not doing Santa . . . explaining to our kids about Christ's birth. Later, we started watching Santa movies and the like, but they don't believe he's real. Just something fun on tv.
R

 

[EbonNelumbo]

My husband and I have always done one large gift followed by small ones. This is the first year we have a little one to buy for, and I think we intend to look for a little drum (those baby ones they beat on and such) because our son loves to pound things.

I've heard people are tending to go more for what means something rather than what's 'cool' which I think is really neat.

 

[Leanna]

We've always kept it low key. Usually the kiddo's get ONE gift from us and a stocking stuffer (a treat like candy)...that's it. Even when/if we have lots of money - we keep it simple I'd rather we celebrate Christmas with family, music and laughter than with gifts -

I don't want them to just have a ton of "stuff" ... its not really about stuff.... though I like to buy them something nice, we prefer to keep it simple.

I'm already done with the kids because I keep an eye out for really good deals. This is the earliest I've ever been done though. I even got a Plan dollhouse for 50% off for my daughter. That's my best find, I am very excited about it.

 

[suzybeezy]

Our funds are always tight, and my kids go without all year through. So at Christmas time, I indulge them. I started shopping in the summer and was finnished in September. Shopping early, you get to take advantage of alot of fantastic sales. For example, we were able to get my son a remote controlled airplane, which original price was like $100 - and we got in for less than $10! Shopping early, hitting clearances, goes along way to helping a budget friendly Christmas.

 

[jessesgirl]

We found a free train table on a street corner...Jesse is sanding it, replacing some wood and painting it....and that is what Santa (yep, we do Santa) is bringing. We hit a toy store back in August that was going out of business and had all their plan toys for 60% off...so we got him all the stuff to go on the train table. That's his Christmas.

 

[ShannonMcCatholic]

We are doing 3 gifts- something to read, something to wear, something to play with. My folks have picked out one thing for each child and are buying or making it, and my husband works at a bookstore-so that will all be taken care of on employee appreciation day when everything is 40% off.

They will have one or two little things in their stockings- like clay for the littles, and a movie for my olders.

WE also do gifts on St. Nick's day--and my girls are getting aprons that a friend of mine is making for us. They always get brand new crayons that day, my oldest boy is probably getting a book (it's what he loves). And we do little gifts on the Epiphany--but I wait on those and get them after Christmas.

 

[ukok]

I buy throughout the year whenever i see something on sale that i know my kids will like. If i didn't do it this way they wouldn't get much at all. I don't treat them to things throughout the year and so i do like to indulge them a little at Christmas but this year for example, i have bought a Wii Fit board bwtween my kids. We already have the Wii, but the Wii fit board can be used by all of us. I am considerably overweight at the moment and i know that there are some gentle excercises on there so i am quite looking forward to having a go on it as i am asthmatic i can't do strenuous, and because i have neuro probs i can't do balance, but the wii board will hopefully be a good thing for us all to use.

My daughter is having a some money (she is saving for something special) and DVD's and cosmetics and stuff like that.

My son is hard to buy for as he is into his playstation and i refuse to buy him a game for it as he can complete a game in a few days. I'm hoping to take him out and to have him spot somehting he likes. He tends to know what he is having for most of his presents as i have grown tired of wasting money on things that aren't played with and so now i ask him what he would like. (he never asks for hugely expensive things though and in fact he tells me not to spend money on him cos he knows money is tight).

 

[sleepythesahm]

I bid on some itens from an ebayer and thought I did great. I won my auctions for leapfrog toys for less than 20......but now shes invoived me 85 dollars worth of shipping. (If it weighed more than 5 pounds,Id be shocked). Whats worse is theres a handling fee additional per toy,and its shipping out parcel post, not even a good service that would explain it. So Im not a good christmas gift finder at all. I thought i was, but other people alwas shhock me. In one bad move, I went from saving on some last minute stocking stuffers, to spending more on the stocking than anything under the tree

 

[DragonFaery77]

My husband and I were having trouble thinking of a gift for our son Andrew who will be 18 months old on Christmas, but now I'm thinking we'll get him some books and maybe some CDs, DVDs, and a microphone (if I can find a toddler one). He has so much already, it was hard for us to think of what else we could give him, but he loves music and dancing, so I think that would really get him excited.

 

[peace in the vally]

Its So Hard Because Every Body Comes From Differant Back Grounds And Has Differant Reasons As To Why They Do Something Though Non Are Wrong.
You See My Mom Was In Prison Through All Of My Child Hood And Dad Was Bitter And Angry And Every Holiday Ended In A Huge Fight. My Husbands Dad Tried Commiting Suicide On Three Differant Christmas' And Any Thing They Ever Got Went To A Pawn Shop A Week Or Two Later.
I Have Grown To Love Christmas~ The Real Reason, And The Worldly Reason(of Course Jesus' Reason More ) But I Want To Make It A Special Time Of Year For My Family To Show Them That There Is Real Joy Out There From An Adult Perspective And A Childs....i Also Go Out Of My Way To Make Sure Its More About Jesus Instead Of Santa But What Is Really Wrong With A Little Fairy Tail Child Hood Imagination? I Want Christmas To Be About Jesus And Family. So We Do The Whole Present Thing And The Reading Of The Christmas Story And The Decorating And Cooking And Music And In The End We Know Its Jesus And We Thank Him And Well Isn't That What Its All About? Just My Opinion, Sorry To Go Off God Bless

 

[Neenie1]

I've just about done with shopping - so of course all the junk mail is coming in with enticing bargains ROFL. I am trying to resist it all.

 

[Leanna]

Isn't that the way? I already bought one thing on a big sale that I didn't plan on buying!