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[quote=Anonymous]I deal with this too, OP.

Every year the grandparents ask for my kids' Christmas gifts because they want to pick the item off that list to ensure they are giving the kids something they "really want."

And then consistently, they do not buy that item, or buy something similar but not the same in a way that will actually make my kids sad. Like if my DD asks for an Elsa costume, my mom will buy her a knock off "ice princess" costume that doesn't look right and my kid will be very polite about it but not wear it, and later tell me she was sad because she wanted an Elsa costume like her friends have. And the thing is, the difference in price between these items will be like $15, and my parents are actually pretty well off, and also DH and I could easily have just bough the thing she actually asked for if my mom hadn't "claimed" that item. It's very frustrating.

So now instead of just handing over the lists, DH and I look at the lists and figure out what we are going to buy and will then "assign" a few items to grandparents to choose from. We specifically assign things that they basically can't screw up. And then we ask them to tell us what they are buying from the mini-list we give them ("so we don't duplicate!") and if there's anything they don't buy but we think our kid really wants, we buy that too.

Our kids make incredibly short and reasonable gifts. Like this year my DS wants Legos, a sleeping bag (which he actually needs anyway), some art supplies, and more books from the "Bad Guys" series. We bought everything except legos, sent a list of lego sets we know he'd like to grandparents and said "buy whatever." If they totally eff up the legos somehow, we'll buy a set before Christmas to ensure he gets at least one lego set he likes.

Managing grandparent gifts is the only part of Christmas gift buying I find annoying.[/quote]

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