Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So far, my 8 1/2 yo son is asking for (and receiving):

Minecraft Lego sets
Star Wars Lego sets
Pokemon items - card sets, figures, plush
3DS XL
7 3DS games
Skylanders Trap Team for XBox One
6 - 8 Skylanders TT characters
Infinity 2.0 for XBox One
3 - 4 Infinity characters
Anki Drive (race car track/cars to be used with apple devices)
Microscope
Science experiment kits (3 or 4)
Books (2 or 3)

This is a huge number of gifts.

I posted it and there are a lot of gifts, plus he'll receive some other gifts and gift cards from grandparents. We always buy many items for Christmas and birthdays - we probably spend the same (or less) on Christmas as those with large immediate and extended families, but we buy for fewer people.

Hey pp, I have a small family too. It's one of the benefits of it, right? I think your list sounds awesome, my ds would be thrilled! We haven't asked what he wants yet, but I'm sure his list would look a lot like yours. My ds is 9.

I agree - we only buy gifts on birthdays and at Christmas - very rarely during the rest of the year so when the holidays roll around - we splurge. We get some cheap stuff, some educational things and also some pricier items. Why not? We do birthdays at home, saving a couple hundred dollars and this money goes towards gifts. My kids are not entitled and certainly don't have false expectations. They all do chores around the house and are doing well in school. I fail to see why being generous at Christmas means your kids are going to grow up to be assholes.

Thanks for the ideas! Very helpful.

Ignore the judgy grinches.

Heads UP!!!


That Anki car racing set (which is damn awesome) is now $99 on Amazon from the Nov 26 price of 149.99.

Thank you! I just saw this and told my husband - he's ordering it now. It's the special gift from him to our son. We each pick a special thing just from us.

We're DS8 the Zome Tool 3. It's an open-ended building toy, that can also be structured into some cool geometrical shapes. Obviously, it's expensive, so it's the "big" gift.

https://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/zometool/zome_tool_creator_3.cfm

Minecraft figurines because he loves all things Mine Craft.

Books-- he likes this "Strange but True" or "Where in the World" type books.

The complete Amulet series (he read the one at the library, but wants his own set).

It actually adds up to quite a bit of $$ but aside from the Mine Craft figures, I think he may stay well occupied over the break.

If the Zome is half as cool as it appears, it may be worth looking into. It's made here in the USA, so we love that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS isn't quite 8 yet, but he wants:

Hexbugs (getting)
A new football (getting)
A spooner board (getting)
an iPad (haha not a chance)

He's also getting some books (the STAT series by Amare Stoudemire) and some clothes. He likes athletic clothes, a lot of boys that age do.

Sounds like my son. He desperately wants an IPAD, not gonna happen. He can use my husbands and we monitor usage. If he had his own he'd never put it down. He loves Hexbugs, but he likes but has lost every one we have gotten him so far. He's getting:

Lots of books
Robot
New soccer ball that glows in the dark
Silly animal feet slippers
inflatable globe
board game that involves a dog pooping (his friend has it and he thinks this is the funniest thing)

Forgot to mention these things all came off his list.

Anonymous wrote:DS isn't quite 8 yet, but he wants:

Hexbugs (getting)
A new football (getting)
A spooner board (getting)
an iPad (haha not a chance)

He's also getting some books (the STAT series by Amare Stoudemire) and some clothes. He likes athletic clothes, a lot of boys that age do.

Sounds like my son. He desperately wants an IPAD, not gonna happen. He can use my husbands and we monitor usage. If he had his own he'd never put it down. He loves Hexbugs, but he likes but has lost every one we have gotten him so far. He's getting:

Lots of books
Robot
New soccer ball that glows in the dark
Silly animal feet slippers
inflatable globe
board game that involves a dog pooping (his friend has it and he thinks this is the funniest thing)

Anonymous wrote:^My DH MAKES me buy socks for everyone and put them in the stockings because he grew up in a poor family with 7 kids and they always got socks in the stockings. No matter how many times I explain that our kids get new socks whenever they need them, he insists. So I just make sure they're really nice socks. *shrugs*

My mom does this: socks, underwear, long johns, etc... like my kids need this stuff anymore than the toys they really want. I just make the kids say, "Thank you."

^My DH MAKES me buy socks for everyone and put them in the stockings because he grew up in a poor family with 7 kids and they always got socks in the stockings. No matter how many times I explain that our kids get new socks whenever they need them, he insists. So I just make sure they're really nice socks. *shrugs*

Some of the pps probably give stuff like underwear for Christmas because everyone can use more underwear... Oh Joy!!!

I am not a big birthday or Christmas person but there are 13 gifts on the list.

I will get my kids 4-5 gifts, plus one from sibling, 3 from grandma #1, 1 from grandma #2, one from cousin-sister

That is 11 gifts. So 13 .. Does not seem like a big deal to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So far, my 8 1/2 yo son is asking for (and receiving):

Minecraft Lego sets
Star Wars Lego sets
Pokemon items - card sets, figures, plush
3DS XL
7 3DS games
Skylanders Trap Team for XBox One
6 - 8 Skylanders TT characters
Infinity 2.0 for XBox One
3 - 4 Infinity characters
Anki Drive (race car track/cars to be used with apple devices)
Microscope
Science experiment kits (3 or 4)
Books (2 or 3)

So FAR?

I didn't say he would get anything else, but he'll probably see something in December that he wants....

I actually kind of feel sorry for him. Way too much stuff. And yes I'm judging - don't we all. Wow - just way too much. Why does he need so much?

He doesn't need all of it, he wants it - in our house, Christmas lists are "want" items not "need" items. Why do you feel sorry for him?