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teachingmyown
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| Posted: Sept 27 2007 at 3:29pm | IP Logged
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I am wondering how you all handle Christmas gift-giving in your large families.
I am making lists of things that I want to get the kids, but of course, they are all things to be shared. Things like Kapla or art supplies or dress up don't need to go to someone specific and actually only leads to problems such as "Those are my blocks, you can't play!". Not that my kids would say such things.
I am contemplating getting each child (except for the 16 yr old) one personal gift, and then everything else will be given to them as a unit. I suppose we could just take turns opening the gifts.
Bridget, did you do this last year? Anyone else? How did it go?
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: Sept 27 2007 at 4:34pm | IP Logged
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My oldest dd requested that we do the secret buddy system this year. We didn't do it last year and they miss the excitement.
For the older children we get them each one personal gift and I tend to pick=up trinkets throughout the year to wrap because I delight in seeing them open gifts on Christmas morning.
For the two younger ones we still buy too much.  I also buy them one gift to share: one year it was a doll house, this year it'll be an art easel. Being girls their gifts are usually identical...to keep the peace.
I tried doing the 3 gifts of the magi one year. I utterly failed .
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Cay Gibson
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Maryan
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We do what my folks did for my 6 sibling and me -
1. We get one 'Santa' present unwrapped - although my dh doesn't do Santa he says St. Nicholas.
2. We get one Mom and Dad present
3. We fill their stocking with socks, playing cards, etc.
4. At the creche, we give one 'holy present' for filling up baby Jesus' bed. This is either one big to-do holy item for the family OR little individual statues, books, etc.
The Santa items were the 'big ticket' items... but since all my guys are four and under -- my big ticket items haven't been that big. But that could be reversed too and Mom and Dad could be big ticket.
ETA -- then the kids switched names and had a ten dollar limit. My siblings and I still do that, but we now have a twenty dollar limit.
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
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chicken lady
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We do 1 gift from St Nicholas (on his feast day), 3 on Christ b-day, 1 from the Three Kings. In their Christmas socks they receive, something they want, something they need, something to eat and something to read!
I shop all year round and we are very use to second hand. Last year the girls received on X-mas an awesome horse stable from Hearthsong. With all the trimmings, I picked it up in the summer for 40.00 at a thrift shop.
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Mary G
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| Posted: Sept 27 2007 at 6:14pm | IP Logged
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Ours is pretty much like Maryan's --
one big "santa/st. nick" gift
a present or two from Mom & Dad
we do the stockings on 3Kings
we also do "collectible" (Beskow) book, treats, sox per person on St. Nick's day
we also sometimes do family-wide presents -- game, videos, BIG books
It doesn't sound like much on Christmas Day but we have extended family that tend to overkill with the trinkety stuff ... but they're getting better!
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MaryG
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JenniferS
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We've scaled down a lot. I believe last year that each child got one "big"(around$25 or less) item. Then we did a few presents that were for all fo the kids. we put things like toothbrushes(my kids get excited about them for some reason), yo-yo's, socks, and such in stockings. It was actually the nicest Christmas we have ever had. Of course, it helped that my dh's hip surgery kept us at home, so we did no running from house to house of relatives.
Now...extended family, that's where we struggle. I'd rather stop the gifts to extended family because it gets out of hand, but I haven't convinced dh yet. His family doesn't understand that concept.
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JodieLyn
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We do a drawing for the kids.. either just our kids or this year.. we're adding my sister's boys into it.. we're calling it the being physically present to exchange presents  exchange.
But it lets us raise the cost per gift to $5 and the kids can actually get something decent instead of the first year they wanted to get gifts themselves and ended up at the dollar store and every child got 5 $1 items 
Extended family is homemade gifts.. food or otherwise. We've done some woodworking items (tic tac toe boards, a wood santa decor for outside the front door, etc) or sewn items, and other things like playdough for the kids.
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Willa
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Molly, I like the unit idea.
We usually do that for one "big" thing -- one year, a ping pong table for everyone. Another year, a couple of family board games. DH usually chooses the big family thing.
The rest are individual and fairly close to what everyone else described, except we don't have the Santa or Mom and Dad labels. I usually try to get them a couple of modestly priced wish-fulfillment type items, then a couple of things they need or that I would like them to like (pastels, new colored pencils, craft supplies, music, blocks, science kits, etc), and then a few fun things (mostly candy  ) for their stockings.
We've gotten simpler in past years, partly because of $$$ and partly because when we first had a growing family, we didn't have many toys and it was fun buying them. Now we have too many toys, even though I weed a lot, and it's no fun introducing new ones that I'll just step on or trip over.
Our extended family is lowkey about gift-giving. The grandparents usually give small fun things or a bit of cash or a savings bond. That's nice, when I read the stories about relatives who give too much.
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Willa
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Martha
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I'm interested in this too!
Until this year, we have had a 3 gifts per child rule.
the logic being the Christ baby only got three and our kids aren't worthy of more than the Christ child! 
1 from santa (whatever they wanted most, not neccessarily the most expensive) and 2 from us.
this year, money is tight, so I'm not sure what we'll do yet.
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stacykay
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We have been cutting back for the past five years.
New this year- no gifts for my nieces and nephews- even if I could keep it to $10 per child, that is still $150.
I was nervous broaching this with my sil. She seemed thrilled and took it further to include birthdays.
My sisters and I give only very small gifts to each other, such as an inexpensive ornament or mug. Usually it is something that reminds us of our mum.
There isn't a whole lot my boys need. They love legos, so I look for those on sale. I try to do one toy, one book, an ornament, and, if possible, a "religious" gift. Over the years, I have given things pertaining to their saint names (an icon- each has their first and middle name saint's icons,) books, statues, videos, etc. I try to find things that really mean something, and if I can't find one, I just don't get anything. I don't want to spend money just to get a gift to open.
We do like to buy zoo or museum passes for gifts. The boys love to go. We also usually give a coupon (homemade) for a movie OUT! I will generally take them after the holiday hubbub is over. And it has to be a movie we would approve for 3+, since we all go!
Other things we have done are bowling and skating coupons.
I am trying to get more of the "make a memory" type of gift for the boys, rather than a toy that can be broken or forgotten in a week.
I also read about someone who would give a tool a year, so when their children were older, they had tools for their own homes.
One last thing- my mil and bil (who would not understand not getting gifts) have EVERYTHING they could possibly need and want. Very hard to buy for, so I decided, since they are both "alone," I am going to do a once a month dessert for each. I am looking at the church calendar and having the boys pick out feast days they want to share with my mil and bil. I am planning crafts for the boys to make, to go along with the food. So, for say, August, I will take a dessert over (something Polish) on St. Maximilian Kolbe's feast day, along with a simply decorated grotto to recognize the Assumption, which would be the next day. I am thinking about having the boys make the famous spoon saints of their and my dh's family's favorite saints to go with their Nov. dessert. I hope this makes sense!
I just figured, since we are celebrating these days here, it wouldn't cost too much to double a recipe (dividing one so half goes to mil and half to bil.) Plus it will give the boys time with their Grandma and uncle.
Lastly (I thought I was done) I am giving "cookies in a jar" to the boys' godparents. Here is a
link. I actually found another site, but can't figure out where it is right now. I, of course, have to try some of these cookies to get the yummiest ones!
We certainly are working with a much smaller budget than ever.
God Bless,
Stacy in MI
mom to 6 dss (Matt-19, Mike-16, Pete-12, Mark-9, Paul-5, and John-3)
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Christmas in the large family
