So, at our house, we do Jesus AND Santa. (For more on that, check out this post from last year.)
Gifts are one of my love languages, and I genuinely enjoy shopping for Christmas every year. I try to stick to a general “three gifts” + stocking rule from Santa, but that got a little stretched this year because I finally convinced Jeff to get the kids a kitchen set. Sam loves playing pretend and has been really into cooking lately; plus, Nora will be able to play with it soon too (and, I’m sure, will enjoy chewing on the plastic food in the meantime). We don’t wrap “Santa gifts,” so I love having something “big” for them to see as soon as they come down the steps that morning. I’m even looking forward to a late night “set-up” on Christmas Eve. (Growing up, my parents always drank the same type of champagne as they put together our gifts into the morning and exchanged stockings themselves then. I’m all about continuing that tradition with Jeff.)
So, just for kicks, here’s what my kids are getting for Christmas this year: (Don’t tell!)
KidKraft Vintage Kitchen / Cookware Set / Play Food / Green Toys Dishes
Baby Lit Books / Waiting / Robo-Sauce / The Day the Crayons Came Home
Fox Socks / Wubbanub / Training Cups / Robeez
R2D2 Thermos / Handwriting Maybook / Markers / Play-doh / Toothbrush / Bandaids
(Stockings new from Target this year – I love that they are big & fun!)
What about you? What are your kids getting this year? Do you stick to any “rules” or guidelines when it comes to gift-giving? Wrapped or unwrapped? I’d love to hear!
E
P.S. Here’s a fun fact: This is the first year that I didn’t buy a single Christmas gift in stores – not even the bandaids. I <heart> online shopping! And, if you have Amazon Prime, you can still order almost all of these items in time for Christmas!
We got Millie the KidKraft Uptown Espresso kitchen!! Matt put it together last week and it’s currently living under a tarp in the corner of our garage…so far Millie hasn’t noticed it! It did take him 4 hours to put it together though (we did it early because we’d heard reports of it taking between 1-8 hours…and were really scared we’d err on the long side, so we didn’t want that weighing over us on Christmas Eve), so give yourself plenty of time!! It is amaaaazing though and I can’t wait for her to see it!!
My kids got this kitchen for Christmas two years ago and they are still loving it … So, I’m sure Millie will be a big fan! 🙂
I can’t even thank you enough for the warning about set-up. It took Jeff 4+ hours, and – I can promise you – if we’d waited until Christmas Eve, my kids would have been waking up to NO kitchen set. 😉 Thanks for saving the day!!
We do four gifts–a want, a need, a wear and a read. My boys are each getting something to their personal tastes for wants (they are 2 and 1 so actual wants aren’t really a thing yet), thermos bottles for their need (Mickey and Lightening McQueen!), shoes for their wear (they grow out of them quickly, don’t they?!) and they each got a book of our choosing.
We are looking into a kitchen at some point and I LOVE those kidcraft ones!
Merry Christmas!
so I just have one little guy who is 2 and we don’t really have “rules” which may be a problem. It is so easy to get carried away purchasing stuff for him! Everything is so cute! I can’t wait to hear what people’s guidelines are. I also LOVE the tradition about getting the gifts ready with your husband on Christmas Eve.
We stick to a budget for each child. Since they are still small…you can really get a lot for 100 bucks for each. I look at garage sale sites and consignment shops for toys. They don’t know any different. My 4 yr old daughter is proving to be harder to shop for, so we spent most of her budget on one nice gift, with the rest going towards a shared gift between the kids.
I take up the gifts at Thanksgiving to the grandparents and register/assemble/ wrap them over the long weekend. This way when we arrive on Christmas eve, I can enjoy the night and also not feel any pressure to have to do anything extra with the toys so mommy and daddy can get in a Christmas day nap!
We don’t label them, so no issues about if they are from santa or parents. Each child gets two different and specific wrapping paper, as to let them know which gift is for them. My mother’s gifts for the kids also get their own paper. We aren’t bothering with stocking stuffers, and the grandparents will stuff them anyways.
Just wanted to chime in that we got our kids the KidKraft Uptown Espresso kitchen and they have been LOVING it for the past two years … But it took my husband (who is pretty handy) about 3-4 hours to put together. He didn’t start until close to 11:00 pm, so it was a late night for him that Christmas Eve … So be sure to give yourselves plenty of time (or start early)!! 😉
Oh, I love the champagne tradition! I may have to implement something similar – except, maybe it’s gin & tonics 😉
Going forward, our gift “rule” for the kids if going to be “something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read.” So four gifts. But this year, we had some unanticipated financial hardships, so Christmas is going to be a bit more sparse. Our three-year-old is getting a hand-me-down Barbie big wheels that we cleaned up. She’s going to freak! And we also have a brand-new guy – just two months, so we’re foregoing a gift for him. As my husband likes to point out, “he can’t even find his hands yet! What does he want with a gift?!”
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
We have that exact kitchen. It’s SO cute and my son loves it. But I will chime in with the rest of the commenters that it took my husband and I a good 4-5 hours to put together. It wasn’t necessarily hard – all pieces were very clearly labeled – but you have to assemble every single part of the darn thing! Might need an extra bottle of champagne Also, we have a few food sets from Learning Resources that I love and they even come with cute little baskets.
Our little one is a month old so we didn’t get him anything (other family did though so it’s ok). My question is if those are Santa gifts, do they get more gifts from Mom and Dad? Do you set a limit on those?
Great question! We actually don’t give them anything specifically from us. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it, and Sam’s never asked, so it wasn’t an intentional decision or anything… It just kind-of happened that way. I remember that, growing up, Santa always brought us the majority of our gifts (even well into our teen years) and my parents occasionally (definitely not every year) gave us something special – like a piece of jewelry or something – from them. My kids get absolutely spoiled by their grandparents (not complaining!), so I don’t feel like they need more gifts, and I’m kind-of OK with them eventually figuring out that the “Santa presents” really come from us, so I’ll probably just stick with what we’ve been doing. Then again, I could see us wrapping up one extra gift (maybe books?) to be from us in the future. I guess we’ll just take it one year at a time. 🙂