David took the day off yesterday, at the last minute, and we went Christmas shopping together.
I'm always curious how other people handle gift-giving, so I'll tell you if you'll tell me!
We give each of our kids 3 gifts from us. I love having this guideline, because once I've found 3 gifts, I can move on to the next child. Santa comes to our house and brings one present, plus fills the stockings. Almost DONE.
For our parents and grandparents we order Shutterfly photo books. This year I also have some little purse-sized notebooks with Joan and Kate's original artwork on the cover (ordered through a fundraiser). DONE.
The kids draw names on David's side- there are 16 grandchildren. So we have 3 kids to buy for, plus our niece who is David's godchild. I ask their parents what they would like. (2 out of 4 DONE).
David and I each got each other a couple of little things. This year we are not exchanging much. (I'm looking at YOU, shitty economy and YOU, medical bills.)
I managed to finish my shopping for our kids without buying a single piece of plastic! I KNOW! For the record, I am not against plastic- if you came to my house that would be VERY obvious. But it felt good to not buy plastic. I'm not sure why. I think I might be a closet hippie.
Today I have a doula client that is having a scheduled Csection, so I'll make a couple of exchanges and pick up a couple of misc. things while I'm in Bigger Town. Then, I think I'll be DONE-DONE.
Plus I wrapped nearly everything last night.
WHO IS THIS PERSON?
Oh, yeah, before I get too cocky, I just remembered that I haven't even considered our Christmas cards yet. If I work on them this weekend and mail them by next Monday, they'll get to (most) everyone by Christmas, right?
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4 comments:
Ooo, fun topic! We buy each kid three presents, too! It just seems like The Perfect Number. We've occasionally changed this, though, like one year when an older child wanted a Big Present so he got just that one thing. And sometimes when children are too young to care/notice, they get one present. But three is our guideline.
We don't do a set number, but we do 1 gift from Santa for each child plus stockings. From us they each get 2 books, 1 toy and some clothes. More for the oldest because he has no hand me downs.
I don't have a set number of gifts per child, although that is an interesting idea. I may keep that in mind for next year.
After Thanksgiving, I take the kids to TRU on a list-making mission, where they are allowed to put anything on their lists they want. I pay attention to see what *really* gets their eyes, though. Then, I parcel out ideas to family, and DH and I go shopping for whatever we choose to keep for gifts from ourselves from the lists. I think it ends up being 5-6 presents per child, but it depends on what the things are, like one kid may get a couple of larger things while the other gets several smaller things. Generally, they each get one large thing and several smaller things, though.
We NEED a guideline like this for gifts. We get stuff willy-nilly for the boys and then we worry that it's lopsided. I think by next year we'll have more of a guideline, since they'll be getting to ages where that will matter.
This year, they each are getting one big-ish gift and a few other stocking-stuffer type things. We also get presents for our nephews (x2), our parents (x4), my grandmother (x1, but that's just one frozen home-cooked dinner, so no biggie), and my husband's uncle (x1), plus each other (x1, ea). That totals (um... got calculator?) 11 people for gifting.
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