Making Christmas equal for different ages

[lovinmyboys]

Up until now, I have had a fairly easy time keeping the “wow factor” pretty equal at Christmas for my kids without breaking the bank. Part of the problem this year may be that we have less to spend. But, also, my oldest is a 13yr old boy and for the first time I have no good ideas for him. 
 

We are doing a family gift of a Nintendo switch and then each kid will get a game in their stocking. They are also getting their needed baseball equipment and winter gear (just what they need, so not necessarily equal). Then I have a few ideas for my younger kids that didn’t cost much and they will love-the new Dog Man book and plush, the little Harry Potter LEGO sets, a LEGO idea book, tinker crates I got on sale, etc. The problem is I can’t think of anything in this price range to get my older son. I think I could get him some baseball lessons and he would be fine with it, but I still think he would be disappointed to not have much to open on Christmas. Part of me thinks I should take the little stuff back and just do the needs and family gift for everyone. But, otoh, my little kids will love that stuff and it was like $25. They are still at the magical Christmas age. I could give ds $25, but I think it won’t be as wow for him as the stuff his brothers are getting.

And, yes, ds would understand, but I still think he would be disappointed.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

We are in a not-quite-the-same-but-similar place with my soon-to-be 13 year old boy.  What he desperately wanted for Christmas were some pieces to the RC airplane he is building.  But that means he had to put them in the online shopping cart for me to be sure I didn't get the wrong stuff.  I told him what his present budget was, and so he chose out what would fit the budget.  It really takes a lot of the magic out of it!  I am not sure how he'll feel Christmas morning, opening things he ordered himself and knows are coming.  I guess this is just part of getting older though.  I will get him a couple tiny surprise items.  So far, I found a random wax seal making kit, as he's enjoyed trying to seal letters with candle wax in the past (with very little success) so that seemed like a cute idea.  

I wish you luck in solving the 13 year old boy present dilemma!  I think you are right to find him a couple tiny things in the budget.  Decor for his room?  A cool item of clothing that wouldn't normally be in the clothing budget?  Tickets to the movies?  An iTunes or google gift card if he has a phone?  A stuffed animal (mine still loves them), some black 3.0 if he is into making art?  An add-on to a collection he already has- some nerf accessories or similar?  Good luck! 

 

[kiwik]

My 12 year old is getting something worth all his brother's presents so far.  I think it will be OK.  I would just get your oldest something little and random or a book.

[lovinmyboys]

He loves his ripstik and does that a lot. Baseball is his favorite thing. We have a basketball hoop in our driveway that the old owners of our house left. He does like to shoot hoops, but we only have a junky basketball, so maybe a better basketball would be an idea. 
 

He used to have more interests, but lately it has been all sports/active stuff-baseball, basketball, ripstik, trampoline, and roller hockey.

He loves listening to audiobooks, so I could get him one, but it still isn’t something to “open.”

[Shoeless]

Does he have a favorite baseball or basketball team/player?  Maybe a jersey for his favorite?

What about a card or board game? Organ Attack and Exploding Kittens have been a hit over here. 

Edited November 30, 2019 by MissLemon

[lovinmyboys]

I’ll have to look at organ attack. We have exploding kittens and he likes that. We played telestrations and cash n guns at a board game cafe and he likes those. I had forgotten about that. 

[Shoeless]

There's an expansion for Exploding Kittens called Imploding Kittens (I think).  

I just peeked in our game closet.  Some other ideas: Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Mr Toast, Bears vs. Babies.

[wintermom]

People live up to our expectations. If you expect him to be disappointed, he probably will be. For us, the Nintendo Switch IS a "wow" item, as are all the games.  Maybe if you ask what he wants, then pick an item from his list that fits into your budget, it will be appreciated by him.  How much "Wow" do you expect from every single item you give? Is there a point when a cozy blanket can be really special, but not "wow" in your eyes?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post. It won't be the first time I don't get the cultural connotations.

[HomeAgain]

Most of our wow gifts have not been something super expensive, but super personal.  I remember one Christmas where oldest ds was about 12 and really into spy stuff.  We gave him the book Spyology, a tinkering kit where he could do things like make room alarms and other stuff, a codex, and what looked like a book on WWII.  He looked at the first page or two of the book and decided it was too dense, but he's a good kid and was really polite and told us thank you very appreciatively. 
3 months later..........he had stacked the book on his desk.  The stack got bumped, book fell, and for the first time he saw it wasn't a book.  It was a secret hiding place, and it had cash in it. 😄  That book ended up going off to college with him so he had a spot in his dorm where his roommate wouldn't poke around in.

This is also the same kid that thanked us very nicely for what he thought was an earwax candle because we put his real gift in a prank box.  I don't remember what was actually in there now, but we all remember how great he was over a gift no-one would ever want. 😄

This year, youngest ds is getting a special balance board for hockey (RYG) along with a set of clip on targets for the net in the driveway.  Dh also found a coding kit (Let's Start Coding) that we will probably end up getting him for an inside activity.  It teaches actual C++, so not plug-n-play, but is kid friendly and skill building.
 

[mmasc]

If he’s enjoying basketball, I’d get him a better basketball. You can get a good one for about that price range...$30 or so. 

What about LED light strips for his room? Amazon has loads of them on ‘deals’ today. 

Edited November 30, 2019 by mmasc
Typo

[Bambam]

I don't know if this would have that Wow factor or not, but could you start him on his own tool set so he would have a set of good tools when he leaves home? 

[Sherry in OH]

I agree with seekinghim45, wow isn't something you can control.  

Why not have a private discussion with the 13-year old?  Would he rather receive the same number of gifts as his younger siblings or one more expensive item?  Is there something he really wants and if that item is too expensive would he prefer cash toward its future purchase or a different gift?  Otherwise, get him the basketball. It might not wow him, but you know it would get used.   

 

 

 

[sweet2ndchance]

When I had kids in that age range, every fall I would have them write me a list of about ten things that they would like to have for Christmas. I would also have them label their top three most wanted items on that list. I tried to make sure they got at least one of their top three items and if I couldn't afford all three of the top three items, I would choose what I could afford from the rest of their list. I started "one from Santa, one from mom and one from dad" gift rules at Christmas when they were young. Since I wasn't trying to make sure there were lots of presents to open every year and I had a list of their most hoped for items, it made it fairly easy to make sure each child was well pleased with what they received. Sometimes "Santa" would bring a big group gift, like a game system, and they would each get a game in their stockings. Stockings were mostly candy and little items that I had picked up here and there for them. As they got older, presents were not as big size wise but they were just as happy since they were almost always getting exactly what they had told me they were hoping for. The lists also helped with relatives asking what items the kids wanted. I could easily make suggestions that each kid would be happy to receive and tell them what was already purchased for them.

Something like the baseball gear, I would have probably bundled together and made it the "one gift from dad" most likely. One year, one of the kids' great grandmothers sent me $100 and told me to buy something for each of the kids from her. We had a record snowfall that year where we lived, so I bought $100 worth of sleds and snow toys for everyone with that money. It was bundled together as a gift for all of them from great grandma. It was a huge hit with the kids and they still talk about that Christmas to this day lol.

[Lecka]

I think it’s a fine transition for this age, but my husband does not agree with me.  
 

A suggestion — hold off on the other video games?  That would be more equal?  
 

Only one video game can be played at a time — make it a multi-player game.  
 

One game system plus several kids each with their own game can work out worse than one multi-player game.  
 

How many controllers are you going to have, and charging dock for controllers?

I would rather start with 4 controllers (it probably came with two) than with more games but only two controllers.  
 

Like — if what I want is for the kids to play the Switch together and not always have one without a turn or lots of wanting to play their game.  
 

 

Edited November 30, 2019 by Lecka

[Catwoman]

2 hours ago, seekinghim45 said:

Honestly, there comes a time when there just isn't the wow in Christmas.  That is if you expect present giving to be the reason for the wow.  Eventually, whether 13 or 18 or whatever, the wow/magic will leave.  Presents will never satisfy.  We have chosen to donate and this year our family is taking a trip in lieu of presents ( 18, 22, 24)

 

Well, that’s depressing.

Why does the magic of giving gifts to our loved ones have to stop? There doesn’t have to come a time where there isn’t the WOW in Christmas. It’s all about attitude. And your attitude seems to be anti-presents, so it has probably rubbed off on your kids. My house looks like a Christmas decoration store exploded in here 😀, so we are all in the Christmas spirit already, and Christmas shopping is a favorite thing for all of us, too. 

Maybe presents don’t satisfy you or your family, but that simply isn’t the case for all families. We donate quite a bit, especially around the holidays and we also celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, but that won’t replace the magic of lots of presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Even if we were traveling on Christmas (which we wouldn’t do unless it was absolutely necessary,), there would still be presents. And lots of WOW.  The biggest WOW is watching our family open the gifts we have carefully chosen for each other. 

I hope you and your family have a WOW Christmas on your vacation — and I hope your kids think the trip is a great Christmas present!

[Lecka]

Like — Mario party is 4 players if you have enough controllers.  So is Mario cart and super smash bros.  Any of them could be a fun group game.

If one kid gets Zelda it is one player and they will want to monopolize the one system for hours.  
 

Mario Odyssey is technically two players but it’s not that fun to play the hat.  
 

I would personally start with one game, 4 controllers, and one of the above games or something else known for being fun for multi-player.

And then space out the other games a little, so they can have a chance to be “the new game.”  
 

Edit:  not sure if I’m being clear — I would just give the oldest a multi-player game, not the other kids.  Maybe wrap the controllers for other kids to open if you do that.

Here personally I can guarantee there would be fighting or disappointment if kids couldn’t play together or barely could have a turn with a new game they were very excited about.  But my kids are known to be like this and also — I would rather them get bored with the one game and go play outside instead of always wanting a turn for their game or not wanting to play a multi-player game because they want to play a single-player game.  But I know my kids are like this.  Especially my older son — if he gets a new single-player game he will be sad if he doesn’t have several hours to play without having to turn off and give siblings a turn.  He is like this and my husband is like this so we plan around it to where if he gets a new single-player game he can have a long turn on the first day.  

Edited November 30, 2019 by Lecka

[Catwoman]

10 hours ago, lovinmyboys said:

Up until now, I have had a fairly easy time keeping the “wow factor” pretty equal at Christmas for my kids without breaking the bank. Part of the problem this year may be that we have less to spend. But, also, my oldest is a 13yr old boy and for the first time I have no good ideas for him. 
 

We are doing a family gift of a Nintendo switch and then each kid will get a game in their stocking. They are also getting their needed baseball equipment and winter gear (just what they need, so not necessarily equal). Then I have a few ideas for my younger kids that didn’t cost much and they will love-the new Dog Man book and plush, the little Harry Potter LEGO sets, a LEGO idea book, tinker crates I got on sale, etc. The problem is I can’t think of anything in this price range to get my older son. I think I could get him some baseball lessons and he would be fine with it, but I still think he would be disappointed to not have much to open on Christmas. Part of me thinks I should take the little stuff back and just do the needs and family gift for everyone. But, otoh, my little kids will love that stuff and it was like $25. They are still at the magical Christmas age. I could give ds $25, but I think it won’t be as wow for him as the stuff his brothers are getting.

And, yes, ds would understand, but I still think he would be disappointed.

 

Why not see if you can spend a little extra on ds13?  In my mind, “fair” would be that all of your kids are equally happy with their gifts. If you spend a little more on one and a little less on another, the kids probably won’t care on Christmas morning when they are excitedly opening their presents. (I’m not talking about a huge difference — even an extra $5-10 can sometimes be all you need to go from a decent gift to a great one, particularly with all of the sales that are going on right now.)

I wouldn’t return any of the gifts you bought — they sound great!

Can you arrange to take your older son shopping with you without the younger kids, and see what he gravitates toward? You can tell him you’re looking for ideas for his gifts and see if he heads straight to Dick’s Sporting Goods or GameStop or Hot Topic or ThinkGeek — or maybe it will be a store that you never would have expected! 🙂

Edited November 30, 2019 by Catwoman

[PeterPan]

Don't know what games you got, but an Amiibo for the games could be great. Just get it for the 13 yo and then the others will be jealous, hahaha. This is the one I got my ds. It's pretty great if you have Zelda BoTW, and it's only $12.99, meaning you have money to get him something else if you want. Honestly, at that age I'd consider food. Trail mix, manly, something to eat while they play. Or tools, definitely tools. But check out the amiibo. They'll have them to go with whatever games you bought and they work across games. But my ds had watched a ton of videos to learn about it and this was the one he really wanted.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/nintendo-amiibo-figure-the-legend-of-zelda-link-majoras-mask/5863900.p?skuId=5863900

[PeterPan]

5 minutes ago, Lecka said:

If one kid gets Zelda it is one player and they will want to monopolize the one system for hours.  

Yeah hopefully their system is coming with Zelda, but it's probably not. That's going to be awkward if one kid gets Zelda and thinks it's HIS. 

We always do stockings first, so games in the stockings wouldn't work.

What I do is get games and then parcel them out on rainy days. Best Buy had some serious deals going ($20 games), so I stocked up. But I'm not likely to just give them to him. 

If Mario Kart is the game coming with the system, op might like to put steering wheels in the boys' stockings, possibly instead of the games. We really like having steering wheels. They're cheap and you could buy a box and split them up among the kids. Also there's a pro controller, wireless,, that would make a great gift. It's $$ sigh but I guess watch. 

[PeterPan]

We bought ours at GameStop for the convenience, but amazon has tons of them, some in 4 kits. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=nintendo+switch+wheels&crid=3U1IAJ0GSGXS3&sprefix=ninten%2Caps%2C170&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

[sweet2ndchance]

Mmmm... I almost forgot. One year when my oldest two boys were both teenagers, their big gift was their own World of Warcraft accounts. They were perfectly fine with receiving what looked like a gift card but it actually had their login credentials for their new accounts. They were pleased as punch with that gift even though it wasn't big in size or completely tangible.

[JustEm]

We have given games to individual kids before but it was always understood that the game was really for everyone. But we'd only do that if every kid was opening a game too. If we only had one game it would be addressed to all of them

[PeterPan]

It could be a good time of year to start collecting camping supplies. I took my ds to REI and he was like oh I really want to hike through the woods! The weight of the backpacks felt good to him. They have single person tents for not so much or just like an air mattress or sleeping bag from Walmart, the downpayment on privileges of being 13.

[JustEm]

2 hours ago, seekinghim45 said:

Honestly, there comes a time when there just isn't the wow in Christmas.  That is if you expect present giving to be the reason for the wow.  Eventually, whether 13 or 18 or whatever, the wow/magic will leave.  Presents will never satisfy.  We have chosen to donate and this year our family is taking a trip in lieu of presents ( 18, 22, 24)

I'm 33 and haven't reached that point. I love all aspects of Christmas. Gift giving and receiving is always filled with wow even when I know most of the things I'm getting. This year will actually be the first time it is not going to have much wow factor because with impending unemployment dh and I have decided not to exchange gifts because the money might not be there shortly after Christmas.

But all the other wow of Christmas will be there so it'll be fine. I just hope my kids never lose that wow feel with gift receiving, even as adults.

[Lecka]

We have also seen that if there are 3 new video games at once, only one is the most popular, and the other two are not liked as much, where the same game would be popular if it came after a month.  I really would space them out, and start with 1 or 2 games.  
 

And if you do get a 4-player game and have two controllers, that can be disappointing if kids are excited it is 4-player.  
 

The extra controllers cost about the same as a game, I think.  

[PeterPan]

And not to bore you too much on the Amiibo thing, but they're able to use them over and over again, once daily. So it's not like a use it and toss kind of thing. It's way cool, because they can get the full (I have no clue what I'm talking about) outfit in three parts and then bonuses. So literally every day they can use it over and over, indefinitely.

[rebcoola]

I think it's just about getting personal and it can be so hard to get the mark right.  We do the big expensive gifts at birthdays so Dd13 got a brand-new kitchen aid stand mixer last month.  Her Christmas gifts are smaller but I think will get a big reaction partially because they are true surprises.  A pair of Harry Potter sneakers, a nailed it bakers cap, and tickets to a comedy show that is coming to town.  Plus books, candy and our traditional munchkin expansion pack.

[Lecka]

I think Zelda is maybe going to be hard for a younger kid to play, and then also isn’t everybody’s taste.  My husband likes it much more than any of my kids.  It is very much a single player game that requires time to be able to get through one part and does not have very natural places to pause.  Compared to some games where say for super smash bros — you can see how long it will take.  Same with Mario cart.  Mario party has fairly short games.  
 

My kids do like to hang around and watch my husband play a video game and chat, though, sometimes, when he has a new game and is going to want to play it a while.  Or give him advice about what to try.  Zelda BoTW and Mario Odyssey can both be fun to watch and give suggestions.  But — it depends on the kids and how badly they want a turn.  And how much they like watching other people play.  And how much the player wants help or wants to figure things out on their own.  

[rebcoola]

Yes.  

2 minutes ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

There are Harry Potter sneakers?  Can you send a link?  

https://www.journeys.com/search?keywords=vans x harry potter collection

[Lecka]

Amiibos are those plastic figurines?

We don’t get into those bc price.  My husband said no to Disney Infinity and another game before that that used plastic figurines.  Lego Dimensions is another one.

If we started down that path we would not just have one figurine.  
 

My kids are aware of these for sure.  
 

Edit:  Skylanders was really popular a few years ago with the figurines. My husband said no to it.  There is always a need to buy more figurines if kids are aware of that and think that way, and my kids would want more figurines all the time.  

Edited November 30, 2019 by Lecka

[PeterPan]

4 minutes ago, Lecka said:

We have also seen that if there are 3 new video games at once, only one is the most popular, and the other two are not liked as much, where the same game would be popular if it came after a month.  I really would space them out, and start with 1 or 2 games.  
 

And if you do get a 4-player game and have two controllers, that can be disappointing if kids are excited it is 4-player.  
 

The extra controllers cost about the same as a game, I think.  

Yup, that's how it is here. I try to parcel them out when he's bored, so he's more likely to engage. 

                                            PowerA Joy Con Comfort Grips for Nintendo Switch Black                                       This is the comfort grip to hold the joy cons. It's $10 and might go well with the amiibo. The pro controller is nice, but that's $63. 

Has anybody used                                             HORI D-Pad Controller (L) (Zelda) Officially Licensed - Nintendo Switch                                       ? 

2 minutes ago, Lecka said:

I think Zelda is maybe going to be hard for a younger kid to play, and then also isn’t everybody’s taste.

Yeah, hopefully she sorted that out with the games she bought. There's such a range. My ds LOVES Zelda BotW and plays it a ton. He's terribly inefficient. Maybe there's a sense in which your oldest ds can't get good at it when dad is on there looking better? Like maybe get him his own console, kwim? My ds wandered for the first two years. I don't really know much about it, but my friend was watching him and she was like dude, he so is missing the inferences on what they're hinting he should do next. LOL And he still does that a lot, just wandering. But he has beaten everything and is playing in Master Mode now, so he eventually figured it out. He just took a lot longer. An adult would be more like hello, I have a plan, this is what I'm doing. 

I think they're just now coming out with really diverse games. For a long time it was really slim pickings. 

Op probably already figured this out, but if she goes to Walmart she can see the games on the tv and play some of the demos. That's what I usually do when trying to figure it out.

2 minutes ago, Lecka said:

Amiibos are those plastic figurines?

We don’t get into those bc price.  My husband said no to Disney Infinity and another game before that that used plastic figurines.  Lego Dimensions is another one.

If we started down that path we would not just have one figurine.  
 

My kids are aware of these for sure.  

Haha, I know!!! And I thought well it will be an endless pit. And the prices on amazon are HORRIBLE. But when I went to Best Buy (after he begged and begged), I realized almost all the amiibos they're selling are for Smash Brothers right now. I didn't look at GameStop, but at BB yes mostly for Smash Brothers. So I don't get Smash Brothers and then none of the amiibos are useful. Or that's how i'm spinning it, haha. 

So yeah, I only did that one and it was $12.99, not $25. And I ordered it online so BB had to find it. The first store never did, and the 2nd store didn't have any visible on the shelf even though they had them in inventory. So order online is my advice if you want to do it. 

[Lecka]

My son just likes other games better.  He is also mostly playing multi-player games with friends, and doing voice chat.  He doesn’t play much that is single-player.  My husband likes puzzle-solving games much more.  

Edited November 30, 2019 by Lecka

[PeterPan]

3 minutes ago, Lecka said:

My son just likes other games better.  He is also mostly playing multi-player games with friends, and doing voice chat.  He doesn’t play much that is single-player.  My husband likes puzzle-solving games much more.  

What are your dh's favorite puzzle solving games? My ds swears Links Awakening would be a horrible regression, but I think the puzzles look intriguing. 

My dd LOVED Malgrave Inicident on the Wii, and I still wish they'd bring it forward.

Adding: I've been thinking about getting LA for *me*, and I don't know if I have enough brain cells to keep up with it, lol.

Edited November 30, 2019 by PeterPan

[PeterPan]

11 hours ago, lovinmyboys said:

little Harry Potter LEGO sets

Did you see BestBuy has the Harry Potter lego switch game set for $20 for Black Friday? We haven't played that one, but the Lego games tend to be really charming, real winners. Of course, I say that, and my ds struggled at first. Then it sorta clicked and he took off. 

[MysteryJen]

My sporty boy liked the juggling balls set we got him at that age. It is fun and challenging and he still juggles for fun.

Also- he had a unicycle. A bigger gift- but he liked the challenge.

[lovinmyboys]

This thread has given me some good ideas for ds13. I really was stuck on ideas for him. And I will have to look into the switch games and make sure they can all 4 play the games they get. I remember my parents kind of stopping giving gifts at some point and just giving me money. I think that is what I wanted, but I am just not ready to do that. I know Christmas isn't about the gifts, but I do want to get my kids special gifts still. This year our budget is a little tighter, although I think doable. It is harder with teens. I could give my 7yr old a Christmas he would love for $50 very easily- not so easy with ds13.

[Lecka]

My husband mostly plays on the desktop.  He plays a lot of Magic The Gathering:  Arena right now.  He continually needs to pay US$ to keep buying more cards, to have cards he wants.  Like we are planning on him spending $60 when the next set of cards comes out.  I think that is in Jan or Feb.  
 

For more kid-friendly, maybe plants vs zombies?  My younger son plays Angry Birds 2 on my phone right now.  

[Farrar]

I agree with Seekinghim that the wow factor isn't something you can keep forever, not without going totally wild.

While obviously you don't want to be deeply imbalanced long term, I don't think it needs to be straight up equal. Mine are the same age, but growing up, I saw this. Different grandparents in my family had different approaches to this and I think it was fine to have some years you get something big and others you don't and someone else does. When I was a young adult, grandparents often gifted life starting money or pieces of furniture to me, and still were giving toys to my much younger siblings and cousins. But other years, the siblings and cousins got a trip and I didn't. This year, my mother is giving my boys a big, big gift and taking a trip with them - my nephews will get little toys. But hopefully in a few years when they're older, she'll take them to WDW or something and my boys will get like a gift card for Starbucks lattes or something. And we'll all be okay with that.

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, parent said:

My 8 yr old plays hockey.  Can you please post a link for the balance board?  We got a super deker for his bday last year. It is pretty fun but was a definite splurge.  

I agree with the rest of your post.  I strive for thoughtful gifts they'll remember rather than $ amount.  

I cannot for the life of me find the exact one now on Amazon, but this is the same style and price we paid: Gymwell Balance board.  We have the wobble ones, but ds uses something like this in his off ice training, only a different brand.  His trainer there spends a lot of time developing core muscle and balance with the kids, which ds has really needed this year.  With a schedule change he won't be going to off ice training for several months and will need to continue at home.  This lets him practice stick handling (puck handling?  No clue) while working his balance.

I just checked out that superdeker.  Ds would love something like that!

[Garga]

3 hours ago, Catwoman said:

 

Well, that’s depressing.

Why does the magic of giving gifts to our loved ones have to stop? There doesn’t have to come a time where there isn’t the WOW in Christmas. It’s all about attitude. And your attitude seems to be anti-presents, so it has probably rubbed off on your kids. My house looks like a Christmas decoration store exploded in here 😀, so we are all in the Christmas spirit already, and Christmas shopping is a favorite thing for all of us, too. 

Maybe presents don’t satisfy you or your family, but that simply isn’t the case for all families. We donate quite a bit, especially around the holidays and we also celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, but that won’t replace the magic of lots of presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Even if we were traveling on Christmas (which we wouldn’t do unless it was absolutely necessary,), there would still be presents. And lots of WOW.  The biggest WOW is watching our family open the gifts we have carefully chosen for each other. 

I hope you and your family have a WOW Christmas on your vacation — and I hope your kids think the trip is a great Christmas present!

 

2 hours ago, parent said:

I agree.  I think we can get a wow factor even as adults.  It is achieved with thoughtfulness not $$.  I am SO, SO, SO excited about my gifts for my husband this year!  Not very expensive but thoughtful and special.  I know will be a wow factor because of the thought behind them.  And I love to receive a gift that is a thoughtful surprise rather than getting the 3 items I sent links for...

I also think a trip can be a wonderful gift of fun memories and even my little kids might opt for a fun trip (like Hawaii)  over traditional Christmas because we don't do many big vacations like that and they do seem to value experiences. 

 

 

I know I’m getting some popcorn that I love this year and I’m definitely “WOW!” about that popcorn. I can hardly wait.  I’m finally getting my dh the ukulele he’s been wanting and I can’t wait for him to be able to play on it.  

Now, there is a bit of truth that sometimes it’s hard for teen boys.  My sons keep saying, “I don’t know,” when I ask them what they want.  They honestly don’t know.  They really don’t need/want anything at the moment.  They recently bought themselves a couple of video games and if they didn’t have their own money, I’d have gotten the games for them and had them wait until Christmas.  So, I do understand that sometimes the wow is gone, when the person already has what they want.  I don’t think it will be a “WOW!” Christmas for the boys this year, because there’s nothing they want.  

I did pick up a few “Oh, cool!” things for them, but maybe not “Wow!”  

I don’t agree that there is a certain age where Wow goes away for good.  But I do agree that some years, there might not be a full-on Wow, but maybe merely an Oh-cool!

 

[lynn]

For my 2 oldest (2.5 years apart) I always kept number of gifts to open the same.  My 2 youngest I kept it monetary because baby girl was into American girl and I just felt I should keep $$ equal.  Two oldest didn't really care they get the things they wanted even if it didn't come close to the younger.  

[TABmom]

We're in the exact same boat. Except my ds is 12. We're also.doing a Switch as a family gift and games for each. BUT- the switch is the only thing ds wants, while the youngers, 5 & 9 want several other things. And they only "kindof" want the switch. So, right now, I have several more things for the younger to open. My kids will be wowed with the switch- but I want ds12 to have a few more things to open. One idea I had was the mini weapons of mass destruction book. I also thought about a box of junk food- that would thrill him, but would probably make the others jealous. 

[matrips]

My 14yo only has a basic watch on his list.  He suggested that if I get him his usual $1 pack of baseball cards, to put one to a box and wrap them so he’ll have lots of presents and each one will be a surprise (different player).  So I might be doing just that 😂

[Catwoman]

41 minutes ago, seekinghim45 said:

 

 

I think there are a couple of factors in this.  First are love languages and yeah mine just isn't gifts.  I LOVE Christmas.  The WOW for me is in family getting together and playing games, piling in the car and seeing the Living Nativity, singing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs and remembering the wonderful gift of Jesus.   Part of it is my experience on the mission field... it just feels wrong somehow to have excess presents, but that is my issue of culture shock.  Secondly we did years and years of too much gift giving.  It was so stressful to find the perfect gift especially for my husband who has everything he could possibly need and buys what he doesn't.  I've made him photo books of mission trips, framed pictures, clothes, etc.  The problem is he always wanted to make sure I had more present than anyone.  So everyone else is through opening presents and I am opening so many more.  It was embarressing and I didn't need half of the stuff.  Words of affirmation and quality time are y love language.  Dh has finally gotten that over the last few years.

Anyway, I am so excited about not having to buy gifts, to make sure it is even, etc.  That takes all the fun out of Christmas for me.  There were very few times the kids had an over the top WOW reaction to the gifts.  Despite hours of looking for just the right thing.  I understand that other families are different.  

 

But it sounds like you and your family are still having a WOW Christmas, and as long as all of you are on the same page, that’s great!  You’re not in competition with anyone to do the holiday a certain way, and you should keep on doing whatever makes all of you happy. 

If you’d posted that your family loves to receive gifts at Christmas but you can’t be bothered with the shopping, I would think that was selfish and that you should suck it up and go buy some presents, but as long as everyone is happy with going on the trip instead, it’s all good, right?

As for us, we will be sticking with our usual more-is-more approach to Christmas. I make no apologies for the excess and consumerism. 🙂