I feel physically sick at how much grandparents spending on Christmas

I’d either say that you don’t have room for them so they will have to be toys kept at grandmas house or just quietly take half and put them away to give to the school charity sales.

"Aren't these lovely toys kids? They are all special toys that you can play with when we visit grandma's house! Pick two to bring home with you".

She'll soon cotton on.

Oh the be grateful/dead person combo didn’t take long!

Fucking hell. No harm in being a bit brusquer about this. If they have this sort of money to throw around they can put it in a junior investment account or something. If they ‘enjoy shopping and choosing’ that’s very sad, but they can do it with that for their own house, not yours. Agree that most of it stays with them.

Agree that one good idea is annual ticket to theme park or attraction near you - these can cost hundreds!

I suspect they are all about 'stuff' though so you'd need a good way of presenting it as lovely experience that will make them think of granny every time etc ..

It’s very sweet of them to be buying so much but I know what you mean about the influx of presents into the house.
I would be saying that although we are super grateful, most of the presents will need to stay at their house for when we visit.

TBH I’d find it v wasteful too. I’d let the children enjoy opening everything, chose their favourites to play with and put the rest away- to be regifted at birthday parties. Rightly or wrongly, save the waste from a dump or piling up at home.

Does she know about Junior ISA ? Much better idea - one present and rest into child's savings.

It's not the amount for me that is wrong, it is the message it gives to the children. Small cheap things, loads of tat, an expectation, and overcelebration, all of which can carry on into later childhood and adult life.

You need to tell her!!

As Tara suggested above, open a junior stocks and share isa for your kids with Vanguard or other provider and say you’d rather she buy a present for £50 and put the rest in the ISA… they’ll be very grateful when they’re 18

I was about to say the same!

I think you’re going to have to have a difficult conversation with her.
Explain you don’t have the space for tons of toys and you’re concerned that given how generous she’s being there are many things that won’t get played with etc
Ask if she would like to do a family trip to the Christmas panto/santas grotto and spend the money on that, make it a tradition?
Im really lucky in that my own mum puts money into their savings accounts for when they are older instead of buying lots of presents now.
She’ll buy them one thing each to unwrap off a list but otherwise says she’d rather put it aside for when they really need it.
Starting a tradition with your mum instead of loads of gifts means she gets all the excitement of seeing her grandchildren loving Christmas but doesn’t involve loads of presents!

Yeah no, I could NOT deal with so much cheap tat coming into my home. Most of it will end up broken in a week.

We regularly budget about £150-250 per kid for Xmas and birthdays but it is generally expensive/well made/heirloom pieces that will last years and multiple kids.

We got fed up of plastic tat that was discarded by January. We asked that they got one present if they really wanted but preferred they made a contribution to the kids ISA’s.
The suggestion above about annual tickets to somewhere you’d enjoy visiting regularly is a good one too!

But that level of spending on £10 toys means that the OP is facing having 50 new items arriving in her house. Whether her kids like it or not. It's an overwhelming quantity of stuff - and not particularly well-made, or wanted, stuff.

The issue here is not the total spend, it's the quantity. That the grandmother associates a great Christmas with piles and piles of stuff, quantity over quality. It is not being a "fun sponge" to point out that the planet is drowning in all this plastic tat and this is the world her grandchildren will have to grow up in.

@Sadiuit you don't say how old the kids are but we had grandparents the same and we steered them towards experiences rather than "stuff". So tickets to the zoo, pantomime, pass to go to soft play. Also lets you spread the excitement through the year and granny could even accompany the kids to see them having fun doing the high ropes course, roller skating or whatever.

My mother does this every year. No talking to her works. She has a similar budget per a grandchild. I have 5 kids alone… she must know that 70% of what she buys either gets regifted at school parties on ends up on vinted.

my older teenage girls both comment on it to. What frustrates them. Is she asks what they want. She gets that but insists on buying fillers. They don’t want that stuff. By Boxing Day they are sort listing only Vinted as they don’t have space for it either.

But the grandparents are being selfish and controlling as well. They're insisting on getting all this tat because they want the instant gratification that will come from seeing young kids open so many presents. They don't want to put money into an ISA or gift a day out because it'll be years if ever before the kids truly appreciate this. They don't care about OP ending up with a house so full of crap that the kids can't even move never mind play. They don't care about overwhelmed, overstimulated kids at Christmas, they don't care whether their parents can afford days out or university in the future. Yes it's lovely that they want to treat their grandkids but it's selfish and thoughtless and possibly even passive-aggressive if they give absolutely no consideration to what the kids actually need

My kids are grown up now but I used to always feel quite depressed after Christmas at the amount of crap we had to find homes for. My parents spent a lot too but at least they’d usually buy a big present. There’s also a lot of aunts and uncles. YANBU

My ex MIL (now long dead) did the same. Massive sacks of plastic rubbish brought through the year. It was horrific. Useless stuff and a terrible waste. I would have preferred just a few things that they actually wanted/needed. A previous thread on here got slated for having a list but honestly this sort of performative nonsense is ridiculous. Bad for the kids and bad for the world.
I asked MIL politely so many times I gave up. Luckily when we divorced I insisted she did and kept all their stuff at exes house.

Crazy.. would she be open to starting a savings account for them instead?

🚨dead nan klaxon 🚨

If they really wanted to spend that much they could’ve spent £100 on a big present and put the rest in their savings accounts.

You are hilarious, aren't you 🙄

Will they be there on Xmas morning or does she give them to you leading up to it? Just wondered if could donate a load of it, around here they ask for present donations for children who don't get much. If you get to intercept the presents your children would be none the wiser.

And yeah, your mum is overstepping massively even if well meaning.