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Victorian "4 gift" Christmas - Page 2

post #21 of 33
10/7/10 at 10:45pm
We also do the Want, need, wear, read. It has worked well for our family in the past.
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post #22 of 33
10/9/10 at 1:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vbactivist View Post
Hi! We've been doing it this way for about 6 years now.

We do:

Something you want
Something you need
Something to wear
Something to Read

The 'play with' when they're younger is usually their 'want' anyhow. I find it is a really nice guideline, and can work within any budget. We do it for the adults, too.
We've been doing it this way for three years, I love it!
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post #23 of 33
10/9/10 at 10:19am
I have been pondering this since I first read the post. Last year I tried to do 3 gifts, but then I also did Christmas eve jammies. Then I did stockings, too, and since I didn't want to fill them with treats, I got a bunch of small items (books, cars). So really I got carried away. (What I think was carried away some people would still think was hardly anything at all)
We didn't do Santa, but we always had Santa growing up, and it felt really strange. My son talks about Santa now, and I think we may play along now.
So my questions:
Do you do stockings and what do you put in them?
Do you do Santa? Does he bring the play with item?
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post #24 of 33
10/9/10 at 11:47am
We've done the 4-gift Christmas for a few years. They get Christmas Eve pajamas and Santa brings a separate toy, and we also do stockings. There are always Grandparents gifts as well. Since we open gifts at my parents' house, with my mother in law there, and there are 10 people, even 10 gifts for everyone ends up being 100 gifts under the tree - it looks substantial!

We have a friend who dresses up as Santa and brings one gift per kid the night before. It's fun every year and that one present from Santa is probably enough for the kids, haha!
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post #25 of 33
10/9/10 at 11:55am
If you do Santa, how many gifts does he bring for each child? Last year was the first year we did Santa (I would have skipped it again, but the kids were really excited about him) and I think they each had a couple smaller gifts from him.
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post #26 of 33
10/9/10 at 2:29pm
Growing up, Santa brought us each one gift that was left under the tree unwrapped. With four of us girls, that was fewer gifts my parents had to wrap and they didn't have to worry about using a special paper or anything. Later, my mom told us that she only had Santa bring one gift because she didn't want him taking the credit for all her hard work and wanted some of the glory for herself. I think this makes good sense!
If we do Santa this year, this is how it will be done.
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post #27 of 33
10/11/10 at 11:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vbactivist View Post
Something you want
Something you need
Something to wear
Something to Read
This will be our 2nd year doing this... and its awesome, even to keep GPs on focus without going overboard for the littles.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom View Post
Our revision is:

Something you Want
Something you Wear
Something you Do
Something you SHARE!

The want = usually a toy.
The wear = Christmas Eve PJs
The Do = an outing -- a hike, skiing, snowshoeing -- usually done ON Christmas day to make is special.
The Share = board game they can play with their siblings or a food treat. This year it will be a bin of legos I got at a garage sale.
I love this variation and as the kids get older I can see us moving into this variation easily! I think moments make the holidays more than gifts!

As for Santa - he comes and visits us and everyone gets just 1 gift from him.

We also recognize Hanukkah and that's filled more with the basic essentials (coloring books, socks, underwear, crayons). Because of this our wear is usually PJx2 for the year.
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post #28 of 33
10/12/10 at 11:10pm
I love the idea but I just can't do it. I just can't. I love the look of having a bunch of gifts under the tree when the kids wake up in the morning. Maybe someday.
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post #29 of 33
10/12/10 at 11:38pm
Something you want
Something you need
Something to wear
Something to Read


That is what we do as well.
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post #30 of 33
10/13/10 at 9:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lucky_mia View Post
I love the idea but I just can't do it. I just can't. I love the look of having a bunch of gifts under the tree when the kids wake up in the morning. Maybe someday.
there are 5 of us in the family - so that's 20 gifts. It looks like a lot. I promise
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post #31 of 33
10/14/10 at 12:03pm
Good Morning! I did some shopping online (aww, Etsy, how I love you) today.

Here is what the kids are getting- We are buying a few items to go along with experiences.
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post #32 of 33
10/14/10 at 12:09pm
Disclaimer... I don't do xmas.


I've been recommending the "something you want" thing for years on MDC. So glad it's catching on.

Or if you are very religious... do the three gifts thing. The Gifts of the Magi? You know, good enough for baby Jesus.. good enough for you, kid.
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post #33 of 33
10/14/10 at 4:40pm
My DH has a knack for wrapping and arranging things under the tree, it looks like this amazing bounty of beautiful gifts. Really it's mostly socks and underwear, a few special handmade toys, a Thomas the train computer game. Last year the grandparents sent a ton of stuff, including a huge wooden wagon, so we put the wagon together and filled it with gifts to pull out for round 2. I guess there's nothing wrong with letting the grandparents be lavish, but we won't try and keep up in quantity.

We stopped buying books when we got a second vehicle, the library has all the books we need.
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