Comments on: The Family Gift: Yay or Nay?

By: Positive Parenting: Building Family Unity | Transforming Children Behaviors Blog

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 06:30:09 +0000

[...] The Family Gift: Yay or Nay? – This year I took a different approach to gift giving for the family. Instead of buying a bunch of toys for my kids, that would inevitably end up cluttering up the house, I opted to buy one family gift and accessories to go with it. … [...]

By: Links for Living to Budget - 3rd January 2009 | Live To Budget

Links for Living to Budget - 3rd January 2009 | Live To Budget — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:34:24 +0000

[...] from Being Frugal asked reader’s opinion on The Family Gift: Yay or Nay?. Instead of buying her kids lots of small presents each, she got one present (paid for with cash ) [...]

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:11:26 +0000

Usually we do gifts from each of the kids to each other person in the family (so each person would be giving 5 gifts . . . that makes 30 gifts, PLUS Santa gifts!!). This year we toned it down a few notches (quite a few) and I purchased 4 family gifts. The kids drew numbers on Christmas Eve, and I put said numbers on the packages. They didn’t get to open them until Christmas, but they went over really well! (We got Guess Who, Dominos, Speakers for the kids computer, and Pictureka (you can see it here: http://www.hasbro.com/games/kid-games/pictureka/). They loved them!! And it was much more budget friendly!!

They still got “Santa” gifts (although, NONE of the presents had a “from” on them).

By: Zach Younkin

Zach Younkin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:35:59 +0000

Let me tell you as a ten year old gamer to always buy used games from Gamestop or even Craigslist.

You can save plenty of money, and I have never had a disc that didn’t work.

Also, check out gamefly for rentals. Email me if you want more details…

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:51:07 +0000

I think that was a great idea! It might not work every year because you may find it difficult to find one gift and/or gift + accessories that both children will be excited about – especially as boys ad girls get older. But the Wii is the perfect example of how this can work very well. Very cool. :)

By: Travis

Travis — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:18:59 +0000

I think the wii was a great idea. We bought a wii last year and shortly thereafter my wife parents, brother, sister, and grandparents all ended up buying one because of how much fun they had playing with ours. Enjoy the gift.

By: Carriemay

Carriemay — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:44:30 +0000

My family always did the family gift until the last of us had left home. We got much a much loved trampoline, games console and even a computer one year that way.

When we got a little bit older, we got to choose what we wanted together and went shopping with our mother for our “Santa” presents.

This is something I plan on doing with my own children when I have them.

By: Liane

Liane — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:50:06 +0000

I’m glad that your kids are happy with their gift. My kids have a Wii, also and I think it’s a great game system. This year, I asked my kids (both teenagers – 15 & 17) what they wanted for Christmas and neither could think of one thing. So, since we’re saving for a car for my daughter and a possible trip to Texas for my son, we decided to do stockings only. Nothing very expensive, but each item thoughtful and fun. After we watched them open the stockings, my daughter (the 15 yr. old) said, “This is just enough.” And later on in the day I asked her if she had a nice Christmas and she said it was ‘perfect’. I have to admit – it felt strange not rushing around purchasing this and that and the frenzy of wrapping, but I’m over THAT. It was very enjoyable, much less stressful, much more economical, and I intend on doing it again next year.

By: momstheword

momstheword — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:52:04 +0000

No we don’t really do that. We have friends that do it though. They have bought a flat screen t.v., a foosball table, a ninento, and things like that. We never did because it was to expensive. Besides, somebody gave my kids a ninento for free when they got a new one.

If we had the extra money and could afford it we would do something like that probably. The only “family” thing we give is a vacation (about every four years or so) and we buy dvds ever so often.

My kids are four years apart and so buying a family gift when they were younger would have been difficult.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:08:56 +0000

We did a large family gift this year, actually a Wii, and did a few small gifts from Santa. Otherwise they got clothes and my stepdaughter is really into cooking so I got her a cookbook for her age group. For one thing, all of us love to play the Wii so it’s some great family time, plus it really did save us from having to open 904876348576 things and then pick up after them. Plus, their cousins also did a family gift Wii too so now they can play online with their cousins. I definitely am considering doing something like this every year, especially since we have a house now it’d be nice to get something that we all can enjoy.

Also, since we always give donate toys every year, it seems like most of them end up being the toys they got for christmas the year before. It got my husband and I to thinking about what a waste that can be for us, when they don’t even enjoy them for a full year!

I think next year we’re going to look into getting a play area for the kids as their gift including swingset and bike area. We have a great dane and a lab so the backyard is pretty much off limits!! :)