Should we give our son used toys for Christmas?

[whoami]

Our son has a lot of toys such as lincoln logs and blocks that have come from my honeys childhood collection. Pretty soon he should be able to play with the rest of his stash and I'm just wondering whether to save for Christmas, or just let him have it whenever the time comes. My sister says that it's "mean" and kids should only get new toys for Christmas. What do you think?

We have 6 rubbermaids of
- legos (4 rubbermaids full of train set, misc. sets, and tons of blocks)
- metal john deer tractors and farming equiptment
- crash dummies
- cowboys and indians (he wants to give, I don't)

[Jazzmin]

Hey, they are new-to-him toys. My kids are getting used toys, I see no problem with it.

[CrazyCatLady]

I would. I'd clean if necessary and wrap it up nice of course. But yeah, to kids new cool toys are new cool toys. I don't think they care (unless they've been taught to care by someone).

My dd LOVES playing with the stuff that her dad and I did as kids.

[nmelanson]

I see no problem with used toys! They're often better than new ones!

[Gator-mom]

How old is your ds? I would assume if he's still fairly young, he wouldn't know the difference! I've given my ds (3) used toys lots of times. We don't have a lot of money, so usually we can give him a cooler toy if we buy them used than spend more money for less on new.

[workjw]

Another vote for saving them until Christmas. My kids have always gotten gently used toys at the holidays, and they are perfectly happy with it. DD is too little to know or care, and DS is old enough to realize that the only way he's going to get the really expensive stuff that he wants is if we can find it cheaper b/c it's used.

[pianojazzgirl]

I'm with everyone else on this... I say go for it! We sometimes give used stuff to our kids on birthdays and Christmas. In fact in a couple of weeks dd will be getting a used bike for her 6th birthday. I'm 100% sure that she'll just be excited to get a "new" bike. She won't even give a thought to whether it's used or new.

[Nansense]

I give my kids used toys as presents for b-days & Christmas.

[HappyMommy2]

Yes - do used gifts as long as you can. Once they get older, I imagine they wouldn't be too into used stuff. But those toys sound great!!

[possum]

Definitely give them for Christmas! I think you will be teaching your child some important lessons - that used things can be just as fun as brand new ones, that items from his father's childhood are special and can help forge connections, and that not all the best things cost money. How sad that your sister has bought into the consumer notion of gift-giving.
We give lots of used gifts including toys for our son.

[whoami]

Haha yeah little man is only 3 so he won't know the difference. I think we'll save for Christmas.

[lach]

I have a big box of my old toys that I plan on doling out for Christmas and birthdays as they get older. They're mostly in really good shape. And the last thing we need around here is more clutter! Recently I cleaned out our storage area and put a bunch of other random things in the box, too: an old jewelry box that I never used that DD would love, for example.

And I'm definitely not a "no presents except on Christmas and birthday" mom. I'm just "overly practical" mom Why give them these things now and then have to go out and buy a whole new round of things in a few months?

[LynnS6]

At least 80% of our Christmas gifts have come from Ebay. Our kids don't seem to mind or even notice and they're 6 and 9. If it comes in a box with wrapping paper, they're happy.

It's environmentally friendly to reuse. If they're high quality toys, they'll last a long time. In fact, I just scored a big Playmobil hospital set for 1/2 price on Ebay. It's been on dd's list for a long time, and I wasn't willing to spend $160 on a new one. (Heck even the $75 I did spend on it feels like a lot!) Now I just have to hide it until Christmas.

ETA: Ds (9) just spend $4 of his own a used stuffed penguin. He needed a wife for Rockhopper, who is Empie's sister. Empie is married to Penguin and they have 3 children (Flappy, Humboldt and Jolly). Grandma and Grandpa penguin also live with the family, and they're all guarded by Mr. King. Given the fact that we already had 8 stuffed penguins, I wasn't about to shell out any money for more penguins, no matter how lonely Rockhopper was. Ds was very pleased to find a good used penguin from Goodwill. I suspect the rest of the extended family will come from there too (ds has already planned another grandma and grandpa, a sibling for Penguin and cousins!)

[Jaxinator]

I would think from a kid's POV it would be *better* to get used instead of new. Remember getting a new toy and being impatient that you had to wait the whole 2 minutes to get it out of the dang packaging? Then your parents took time out of your busy new-toy schedule to clean up the packaging mess??
Another vote for waiting!

[mrskingred]

For the past couples of Christmas' and his last birthday DS got Brio stuff (trains and construction) that I bought on ebay, plus some books picked up at the charity shop and a few new books. It's new to DS and that's all that matters.

[lookatreestar]

omg... are you kidding me? you can only get new stuff at christmas?!?

that aside, i am getting so excited that my dd can start playing with little toys and blocks, legos and lincoln logs too. my mom saved a lot of our favorite toys

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by HappyMommy2

Yes - do used gifts as long as you can. Once they get older, I imagine they wouldn't be too into used stuff. But those toys sound great!!

My 9 yo thinks used stuff is great because of the $ saved. But he does mind if things are dirty or damaged.

[One_Girl]

I gave my dd a used toy castle this year. She really wanted a castle and they are incredibly expensive, there was no way she was getting one new. I found one for $6 at the used store, cleaned it up really well and wrapped it. She loves it and didn't realize it was used.

[stik]

As long as the stuff is clean and in good working order, I think it's fine.

When my littles were really little, I actually used toys they already owned as stocking stuffers. We have lots of generous relatives who gave them lots of stuff, and it just made sense to me to throw some things in there that they had, but had completely forgotten about. If they had noticed I was prepared to say something about how nice it was of Santa to remember how much you liked that toy when you first got it, but they never did.

[spmamma]

We gave DD all of my old read-along books and cassettes this year for her 3rd birthday and she loves them! (Her favorites are Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back!) We even bought her a used cassette player at Goodwill.

I love giving her toys from our childhood. I agree with PP who said that it creates a connection between you and your children, and teaches them the value of reusing things.