For those of you who were worried about the onslaught of presents....

[Hoopin' Mama]

How did it go?

(I'm hoping for support-only chitchat - I have already heard enough on here about how ungrateful I am when this topic comes up).

I would say it went.....okay.

Yesterday, family brought over about 3x the amount of toys we purchased. Before they got here I spent some time talking to ds about how Christmas was really about spending time with family. Family got here early in the day and we were supposed to have apps, dinner, dessert, etc, before opening gifts. They brought the gifts in immediately and piled them up in the middle of the room and told ds it was his pile. He was pretty obsessed with the pile of gifts after that, and asked me every 15 minutes when he could open them. He finished eating first and his grandma told him he could go pick out the gift he wanted to open first - we were all still at the table and she meant to pick the gift out but not open it. Well, he started opening it and then about 4 adults yelled at him to stop at once. DH was wonderful in sticking up for ds and telling his Mom it was her doing by the way she worded it.

Ds opened a few gifts and wanted to play with what he had already opened. The group of adults around him kept telling him he had to hurry up, open more, get through the pile of gifts. At that point, I did have to fight the urge to pick up my sweet LO and leave the room (He's 5 btw). I did speak up and request that other people open some gifts and let's take some attention off ds for a while and let him play.

We asked MIL not to do a stocking b/c Santa is in charge of stockings. Ds opened a box of various items that she said were his stocking stuffers put in a box. Several items were the same as the ones I purchased for his stocking , but oh well. They will get used.

I did fight the urge to cry for a couple minutes when I saw the pile of gifts opened and started wondering how our simple Christmas morning was going to compare in ds' mind. But I took a deep breath and got over it.

ETA: Oh, and they had his "biggest" gift, which was also very big in size, saved for last. At that point, ds literally did not want to open another gift, so we decided to save it for Christmas morning. They did tell me I better make sure it was the very last gift he got, because once he opened it he wouldn't want to play with any of the other toys. (Which didn't happen).

DH agrees it was out of hand and wants to talk to his parents next year about it. He is concerned how a day spent with family became a day centered around gifts to ds.

Anyway, we still had a nice day. It took a lot of cleaning up and putting stuff away to get the room ready for Christmas morning.

How did it go for you?

[VisionaryMom]

We ended up not traveling this year, and I'm kind of glad. My mom sent her packages last week. She usually really overbuys, but she didn't get as much this year since she had to mail it. She got each of them about 4 gifts and a bunch of clothes. They zoomed through opening, and I had to go back through them to make sure they saw everything.

We also got another package with 3 gifts per child and a family gift, which was nice. My grandmother sent 2 gifts each. I think getting the packages on different days helped a lot with the chaos.

Our Christmas morning here was very subdued. DH and I actually were up 1.5 hours before the kids. We sat and had coffee. When they got up, we opened gifts, but they really were calm about it. DD is a slow opener. She wants to read each book, play with each toy before she moves on. I actually enjoyed that and hope she stays that way.

DH's parents will be here tomorrow, but they usually only get 1 gift per child. I used to find that weird (my family is not that way), but now I think it's much better all around.

[Hoopin' Mama]

That sounds nice!!
Our morning was very subdued also (family left late last night), and I found a lot of peace in it. We got up first and made coffee and admired the tree. We slowly opened gifts throughout the morning.

Ds is the only little one in the whole family on this side of the country. He is really in the spotlight on holidays.

[A&A]

It went really well this year for us. And you are NOT ungrateful for wanting to stem the onslaught. I compare it to someone trying to stuff you with food--there's just got to be a point at which you say "enough is enough." But you know, my kids are 12 and 7; so it took many years for us to get to this point of people giving us less stuff (and the economy has had an impact on that, as well.)

[2lilsweetfoxes]

Originally Posted by A&A

It went really well this year for us. And you are NOT ungrateful for wanting to stem the onslaught. I compare it to someone trying to stuff you with food--there's just got to be a point at which you say "enough is enough." But you know, my kids are 12 and 7; so it took many years for us to get to this point of people giving us less stuff (and the economy has had an impact on that, as well.)

In my family, it also took the birth of more babies. When my older two were the only grandkids/niece/nephew, (and this was for years--the next child under my son is over 4 years younger) oh my goodness. Now they have a little sister and a bunch of little cousins.

[AlwaysByMySide]

We traveled, which automatically limited presents. Only gifts from me, and my dad. My dad kept it low key, as requested, although I'm pretty sure that my daughter didn't get anything that didn't have Cinderella/Sleeping Beauty/some other Disney princess on it. I'll deal with the princesses as long as I don't have to deal with 4 tons of them.

[Krisis]

Um, yeah. I think next year we're going to need to put some limits on gifting. I didn't think it would be as crazy as it was. Toby was DONE after the fourth or so present, but we kept opening his stuff anyway and he's been overwhelmed and cranky all day.

I am really glad I didn't finish making his doll in time for Christmas. If I had given it to him today I think I would have been really hurt to be so overshadowed by all the "fun" toys. It was hard enough seeing his stuffed horse I bought him tossed to one side while he played with the PlasmaCars.

[rightkindofme]

We let our toddler open a bunch of presents from the out of town family (all shipped) on Christmas Eve morning so that it wasn't a horrendous over-whelm Christmas morning. That was a good strategy for us. It was just us in the house so things were mellow through both gift openings.

[snoopy5386]

today went awesome - it was just the three of us and DD was great with all of her presents and she kept making us take turns with her to open our gifts too, she didn't want to zoom through opening all of her stuff. We got her 2 toys (a doll bed and a pirate ship), 4 dressup costumes (2 halloween clearance, one I made and one she asked for), a book, a doll and a movie plus stocking stuffers (candy, birdfeeder, socks, little figurines).
The onlslaught begins tomorrow....
Last year DD got close to 100 gifts including 3 stockings from extended family (4 sets of grandparents). It was absolutely insane and I was just sick about it. My sister has already warned us that my Dad has a whole table full of gifts for her and I saw at least 15-20 wrapped gifts at my ILs for her when we were there for Thanksgiving - it looked like a lot of books but still.....We'll see how this year goes, I just hope it isn't quite as insane as last year.

[starling&diesel]

This was our first Christmas with a child ... and it went well! We've been working really hard at instilling a less-is-more atmosphere around us as a family, and so far it's working well. Christmas was definitely a test, as will be her birthday in January.
My mom knit a hand puppet for DD. She also got 2 books, a set of dominoes, a wooden car, a set of blocks, slippers, and a knitted doll from various family members (including us). And that's it! Hallelujah!
I just hope that this trend continues as she gets older. I imagine it's a lot harder then?

[Hoopin' Mama]

Originally Posted by snoopy5386

The onlslaught begins tomorrow....
Last year DD got close to 100 gifts including 3 stockings from extended family (4 sets of grandparents). It was absolutely insane and I was just sick about it. My sister has already warned us that my Dad has a whole table full of gifts for her and I saw at least 15-20 wrapped gifts at my ILs for her when we were there for Thanksgiving - it looked like a lot of books but still.....We'll see how this year goes, I just hope it isn't quite as insane as last year.

Holy Moly. I have it easy in comparison. I don't even know what I'd do with 100 gifts.

Hope it goes well today.

[Hoopin' Mama]

Originally Posted by starling&diesel

This was our first Christmas with a child ... and it went well! We've been working really hard at instilling a less-is-more atmosphere around us as a family, and so far it's working well. Christmas was definitely a test, as will be her birthday in January.
My mom knit a hand puppet for DD. She also got 2 books, a set of dominoes, a wooden car, a set of blocks, slippers, and a knitted doll from various family members (including us). And that's it! Hallelujah!
I just hope that this trend continues as she gets older. I imagine it's a lot harder then?

That's lovely!
The toy market is so incredibly huge for the 3and over kids, but you're off to a good start.

[battymama]

It went well for us, i read your last thread, but didn't dive into the shark pool. Last year we got a heap of stuff and my grandmother and family is constantly giving us stuff. Which is nice in most ways, but i find it so stressful as i really dont have room. We run our own business, so we have a stock room, and i used to be a seamstress so i have my sewing/ craft room, and this year we might have to combine the 2 rooms so one of our friends can board with us.

So i was so worried about getting a lot of big items, but it was ok. She got an art desk from my mum- which i picked out, it folds up into a black board, and will give us more storage, a big but lovely wodden dolls house, still flat packed so easy to store until she is old enough. From the rest of the family she got a little toddler doll house (i know this means she has 2 but the big one is not age appropriate) i wasn't sure if she would like it, but she has been playing with it all evening, a swing, some noisy thing that she already has, a nice pram, a little gardening set (my aunt over heard me saying how much she loved gardening with her dad and got it for her) a wooden sorting box and a couple of small things.

Her favourite things this year was a little wooden ring stacker and 2 metal play saucepans that i got her. Also bonus hilarity when she tried to sit on the tiny little toilet from her dolls house she is so adorable, i could just squish her.

[Red Pajama]

I wasn't really worried, but I should have been. MIL asked for a list and ignored it. She went for quantity over quality. Tons of toys for the twins that will not last long just because they're not strong enough to hold up to hard play. Everything she got for my daughter (just turned two) is for 3 and up or 4 and up. We barely could fit everything into the van. She only shopped for the kids. They're my kids, and I'm resentful. I can't imagine how my husband's siblings feel.

On a good note, she stopped trying to do santa, and left that to us.

[darcytrue]

this is the first year (since I was the parent of an onlie child anyway) that it wasn't too bad. the g'parents did good this year.

[April Dawn]

My parents bought just a few nice wooden toys, and I don't exchange gifts with my extended family. But DH's family is completely gift-obsessed! He's already decided that next year he's going to talk to them in early fall about how we've decided to try to keep Christmas simple. Hopefully it will work!

Edited by April Dawn - 7/5/11 at 8:05pm

[Jackies Ladybug]

my dd got a doll, a book and a good bunch of clothes that she really needed.
i think i made it really clear at her birthday that we dont want people overloading us and wasting their money especially with how tight money is right now because of the economy.
i loved how few our gifts were and they seemed very well thought out and will be well loved. My MIL even did good with just buying a few pieces of clothing and a bunch of grippy socks which is what we asked for. i feel like i got off too easy and at any time someone will drive up with the dumptruck full of crap and unload it in our front yard.

i dont know what i said to get them to finally listen! i hope it doesnt wear off.

[hibiscus mum]

I have no idea what we're going to do with the 3 train sets and 3 toy pianos. All plastic, of course. Unfortunately, DH's family aren't "gift receipt" people, so i can't even return/exchange things.

As a side rant, why do all the kids toys have to look so unrealistic. I know, I know - the bright coloured plastic is what kids seem to like. But really, why can't the toy piano be black and white? The tent trailer in the Little People camping set DD got is pink. ???

[journeymom]

Hooray for the crappy economy!

Everyone on my husband's side of the family was too poor, ncluding us. So we didn't do a gift exchange between the nieces and nephews. Whew! We never really could afford it, dh's brothers and sisters even less so. In past years it's been a pile of cheap stuff people could ill afford to give the kids anyway.

So this year my MIL crocheted nifty gifts for all the grand daughters. For my 14 y.o. daughter she crocheted and felted a groovy purse. Daughter truly appreciates it (and so do I).

We had a great time at SIL's house for dinner last night. We had good food, played Pictionary and went home and got a decent night's sleep.

[AGF]

I actually like when this happens! I don't have to look ungrateful for getting a ton of presents we don't need, the kids have something new to play with and we get to donate to some kids who really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by hibiscus mum

I have no idea what we're going to do with the 3 train sets and 3 toy pianos. All plastic, of course. Unfortunately, DH's family aren't "gift receipt" people, so i can't even return/exchange things.

As a side rant, why do all the kids toys have to look so unrealistic. I know, I know - the bright coloured plastic is what kids seem to like. But really, why can't the toy piano be black and white? The tent trailer in the Little People camping set DD got is pink. ???