My kid’s birthday is close to christmas
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Anonymous
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It is less than a month away. I always have difficulty deciding if I should give more expensive gifts or desirable gifts on birthday or Christmas. What would you do in my case? And, we also buy additional gifts on behalf of Santa Claus. When should Santa Claus not giving gifts to kids on Christmas? When they outgrow or is there a common certain age threshold? When my kid was born, I started a tradition the number of gifts he receive based on how old he will be. Now I am thinking about it, I may get myself in trouble if I continue this tradition. I don’t want to buy 16 gifts on his 16th birthday. How many gifts do you decide to gift on kid’s birthday?
Grandparents only gift cash, so he gets about $600-$800 from both sides and us sometimes each year . He has been saving them in piggy bank since last year we let him, and sometimes grandparents gift him additional cash for new year and other occasions. These days, uncle an aunt join to give him some cash as well. Should we do something about those cash ? They have been untouched. |
Anonymous
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Early November isn’t close to Christmas - it’s nearly 2 months away. My birthday is late October and the only crossover holiday was Halloween. I’d treat my early October birthday kid exactly as any other kid gift-wise.
For your other questions, Santa always gives gifts, even now that my kids are grown. And if you want to do the 16 gifts on the 16th birthday, just give a few nice items and then smaller doodads. |
Anonymous
| Oh, and yes, save cash! |
Anonymous
| My birthday is in mid December and my parents treated it like any other kid’s bday. You’re over thinking this. |
Anonymous
| He should not have that much cash sitting in a piggy bank! I would put most of it in a 529 and leave some for him to spend. How old is he now? My kids are in college and we still do Santa because it is fun. Maybe Santa caps at 10? Maybe the bday gift can be something he requests and Santa can bring your choices or the other way around. My kids like suprises Christmas morning. |
Anonymous
| How is this an actually problem? Dude, my kid's birthday is actually on Christmas. Just think of a bunch of presents your kid might like and give half on birthday and half on Christmas. |
Anonymous
| My ILs always gave cash for bdays and holidays, and some of my family Sent checks when they were born. Ee put it in a bank account for the kid, and they each have about 4k in there that they can use when they go to college (we were thinking for studying abroad) |
Anonymous
| My son was born ON Christmas. We treat it like we do his brothers’ birthdays - no bigger and no smaller. |
Anonymous
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This is op. I meant his birthday(early december) is less than a month away from Christmas. He is 5, turning 6 this year and he does not need to spend any money. He does have 529, but we contribute money on his behalf. I am not sure if he would like the ideas that we take away his money from piggy bank to put into 529.
Actually I always run out of ideas what to get him, so I may stop the tradition that I started to gift numbers of gifts based on his age. |
Anonymous
Just discreetly take the money in his piggy bank and deposit. Leave some behind, obviously, bc kids are visual and like to see things like their saved up money. Also, remember kids like tangible things to open on Christmas and birthdays Gifting money for a 529 is no doubt valuable, but to a 6 yr it is abstract and seemingly a dumb boring gift. We give the kids a lot of small gifts as opposed to 1 big gift. Seeing presents (whether under the Christmas tree or in your birthday present pile) and the corful wrapping paper and bows is priceless and super exciting to a kid. |
Anonymous
Let him have some of the money to buy a toy or cards or whatever he wants. Put the bulk of money in an Index fund for him- he can use it for something nice when he is in his twenties. My mother’s birthday was three days after Christmas. When she was growing up, she had her party on her half birthday. |
Anonymous
Same. I’m Dec 10 and my kid’s is Dec 15. A birthday is a birthday. It’s not Christmas. |
Anonymous
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My oldest has a Dec 15 birthday. It definitely helped us keep birthdays smaller! But when he was young, a few relatives (my sister and my parents) starting just sending cards on his birthday and gave him a gift for his half birthday. I'd gotten to the point where I couldn't think of another thing he needed in the winter, but there was always something on his mental wish list in June.
He will be 16 this year and he really isn't a stuff kid. We'll get him one or two nicer things for his birthday and the same for xmas plus a few things that he needs. |
Anonymous
| My kids are December 6 and 11. They are 4 and 6 now. The each get one "nicer" gift on their birthday and one for Christmas from Santa. Besides that a few, little things like books, a shirt etc. I put together a spreadsheet to track what we've asked grandparents for etc. Even though they are boy/girl siblings they get a lot of somewhat matching things on Christmas (i.e., last year they both got a little plant growing kit - his an undersea theme and hers a unicorn theme). We do not give them a lot of toys/gifts during the year. |
Anonymous
+1. If you know there are summer type things he might want, e.g. a scooter, give it to him on his birthday if you want, no reason to wait for the half birthday. My birthday is also the week before Christmas. Even though the house was decorated for the holidays my parents always put up streamers, wrapped gifts in birthday paper, and made it clear this was a separate event to be celebrated. |