14 November 2008

quality vs quantity

It's time to start Christmas shopping, and I have a dilemma. Basically, my children have TONS of toys- two houses full! They are the only grandchildren on both sides and really have every toy you can imagine. So here's where the dilemma comes in.

They really just want trucks for Christmas. They have a MILLION trucks, matchbox cars, trains, etc. But, if you ask them, they want trucks. We don't have a big house or a playroom, and we don't have much room for something big, so that's out. Everything they don't have here they have at their grandparents house.

So what I'm thinking is this: I may just.buy them each one awesome, pricey car or truck, and then if I can score any cheap toys with all the sales, I can get a few smaller things.

What are you doing about this too-many-toys/ not-enough-money issue?

6 comments:

LauraC said...

My boys are still young (2 1/2 this weekend!) so we're planning to always keep Christmas low-key so that they don't know any other way. The last two Christmases, we bought them one big toy (chairs the first year, play kitchen last year, Skuut bikes this year) and then a few small stocking stuffers.

But how we are planning to celebrate Christmas is another thing! We are going to wear PJs on Christmas eve, bake cookies, listen to Christmas music, have a fire in the fireplace, drink hot chocolate, and talk about Santa. Maybe watch a Christmas show.

(My word verification is COUGH which is fitting as I have a horrible one!)

Heidi O said...

We don't buy our kids much either. They get too many presents from their grands and from all their aunts. Last year my suggestion was for games for my older son who had just turned 4. I like Laura's idea of keeping the gifts more low key and making the festivities more fun.

manda said...

We get our kids TONS and TONS of stuff and they get TONS from family. I had many holidays where I spent alone without toys. So I do make up for my crappy childhood. I shop all year sales and stuff. Christmas day they open like 5-10 toys and the rest go into their closets. Each week they are good they get a new toy from their stash. That way its not a ton of stuff opened sitting at the bottom of the toy box. Whatever they don't like goes on Craigs list and back into the Christmas fund for next year. I never pay much for Christmas anymore.

Krista said...

My boys are older now (16, 14 and 13) but then they were young we did a few things:

1. Shopped thrift stores and yard sales for gifts. It won't scar them, I promise.

2. Before each holiday we would go through their toys and get rid of some. We found a charity that took gently used toys and fixed/cleaned them up and donated them to battered woman's shelters.

3. We always did (and still do) the Victorian poem- Something they want, something they need, something to play with and something to read.

Hope this helps!

Kimberli said...

My girls have everything they could ever dream of, and a playroom full of toys they don't touch. So, this year, we chose to buy them something really cool to share (dollhouse), accessories for stocking stuffers and then 1 or 2 other cool things for each. That's it. That's all they need - which isn't really true, because they don't NEED anything. Besides, once a kid opens 20 presents in a row, they're numb to it. How about buying them a cool remote control vehicle??

libraryliz said...

We're doing the museum pass thing this year with my mom, but another option might be magazine subscriptions--my daughter loves getting her magazines every month (Babybug when she was really little, Lady Bug and High Five now that she's almost 4), and she doesn't miss the toys since we too have pretty much everything she could want. And her birthday is Jan. 5 so we get pummeled this time of year.