Too many birthday presents

[Scotgirl80]

It’s my son’s second birthday and I really don’t want a mountain of presents. He hardly ever plays with his toys and they just end up sitting in a corner collecting dust. AIBU to ask people to either put money into his bank account or donate money to charity? What do people do with all the presents they get over Xmas and birthdays?

You say no gifts, because I think it looks cheeky to ask for money, and he will probably get vouchers or money in cards anyway.

I suppose you could say donate money to charity but people are busy and might think it's a faff/not remember/want to do it for a specified one.

Nearly all my nannied children's presents end up at the charity shop; they have so much STUFF. The ones they keep have to replace something else so we don't have extra stuff. keeping on top of all their clothes/books/toys/artwork is enough work already without adding to it.

I'd have a sort through his Christmas stuff and donate to a charity / charity shop firstly.
Who buys for him? Is there any family who could put together for something big like garden toys, a year pass for a specific place he likes etc?
I think it's fine to ask people you are really close to get vouchers for X so you can spend it as and when he wants something or to out towards Y.
People def buying individually its harder. If you ask for cash, people feel the need to give more. You can't get that cute thing in the sale because you need to see the value of the actual gift.

Put a box in his bedroom and one downstairs and rotate them?
Donate or regift duplications.

Is there a big ticket item you would like to buy for him (train set, bike, playhouse?) And you could ask people to contribute towards it. I prefer to give money when I know it is going towards a specific item and later I can see him play with it, rather than just giving money which goes into an account and isn't used for years.

Or ask for books, they take up much less space than plastic stuff and are education and last longer.

We did a lot of regifting - went to a lot of NCT 1st birthdays and pretty sure the same presents were just passed around and around!

Can you not donate any new and unused toys to your local hospital's childrens ward?

Do you need clothes? My LO just turned one and got so many clothes I don’t need to buy her thing for the year ahead.
If you don’t want anything then say that, don’t dictate money - and a charity donation in the name of a 2year old is a bit much.

I’d ask for money for bank account or clothes and explain why. It wouldn’t fuss me being asked that by people.
People tend to ask us what DD wants and I say clothes would be good or a specific toy

I agree with PPs on books and clothes. My DS was the same, no interest in toys as such.

Totally know where your coming from op, for my dds birthday this year everyone who asked me what id like them to get each of them i asked would they get a book & instead of doing party bags at they parties i bought disney books & let each child pick a book & a slice of cake went down great so think I will be repeating it next year

You could just donate some of his gifts to somewhere like a woman’s shelter? I’m sure a lot of women literally leave their family homes with nothing more than the clothes on their back and their children. They would probably really appreciate some brand new toys for their kids to play with

We didn't buy anything ourselves for the first few years.Presents were opened and at Christmas after the first few the rest were put away to open later.If DD had too much she was so overwhelmed that she didn't play with anything.
At Birthdays we opened most,refitted/charity shopped things(the year that she got all best dolls stuff was the easiest),Then things that were age right she got then and others put away until she was ready.
She had a big chest downstairs and every Christmas and bday went through it and she would take thing she didn't need any more for the charity shops.(apart from the time she put all of them on the charity pile so that Santa could fill her chest when we had to reassess her choices).The other advantage being that they then play with things they'd forgotten about.
My relatives mostly asked which made it easier,book tokens are good as you take them to book shops to choose their own.
It gets easier as relatives give money or vouchers as they get older.

If you get asked for ideas, could you suggest membership of local attraction - farm/soft play/etc? Takes up no room but gives you something nice to do?

I also ask for books and clothes if I don't want to be overrun with big toys.