Presents for 12 kids.

[Treesandsheepeverywhere]

My husband and I don't have kids, but have 12 kids in the family/friend group.
Have been trying to get presents and hhooked at the
Doesn't help that 4 have birthdays in November and December.

What’s your question?

£5 or £10 in a card!

Can't be arsed with all that faff

If you don't want to buy presents for 12 kids who aren't yours, that's reasonable. Tell the parents sooner rather than later, though.

If you want to buy them something but don't want to go shopping for 12 kids, what about something like book tokens or Amazon vouchers they can just choose their own.

For Christmas buy per family, rather than for each child. Buy a box of sweets / tin of biscuits, or similar.

Only buy for family kids at Christmas, 12 kids to buy for when you've none yourself is a lot.

Agree buy a family gift so a board game or box of chocolates.

Speak to the parents and ask if you can just do birthday presents? Takes the financial pressure off and maybe you can spend more on the birthday gift. I do this with my friends, as ended up with 16 kids to buy for at Christmas.

Oops, pressed before finishing.

Will start again.

My husband and I don't have kids, but have 13 kids in the family/friend group.

Have always got presents for all but with an additional 4 kids this year to get for, the amount is spiralling.

2 nephews to big brother, 1 niece to young brother.
4 kids to friend A, 4 kids to friend B and 2 kids to friend C.
We are close to all the friends kids with the two sets of 4 also living close by, so we'll see them over Christmas.

How do people manage buying presents for so many? We never buy for our friends/their parents, but do for both parents of niece and both parents of nephews. Which is another 4 on top.

Doesn't help that 4 of the kids also have birthdays in November and December and that's before adding other siblings, parents etc.

Just spent a mini fortune in tkmaxx yesterday, but after allocating presents, realised we haven't even scratched the surface. Feel like sending everything back and shutting myself away (bit dramatic I know).

Not sure what my unreasonable is as I feel a bit mean saying no to buying any presents for the kids or buying cheap tat that won't be used.

UABU - Buy if you can afford it.
UANBU - Buy one present for each friend family.

For context, as we have no kids, we usually get one present from each family.

Sorry its so long.

We don’t buy Xmas presents for friends or friends’ children (and not do they for us). Next door gave each boy a selection box last Xmas and we thought that was very sweet of them (and would be the expected level of present if we did so). Birthdays we do do but only for a very small group!

Sorry, I was trying to get it removed and start again but have updated on here. Thanks.

Take it all back, seriously. Buy a game per family and I promise it will be a favourite gift. Every time I’ve done this people love it! It gets everyone involved and is way less hassle, expense and less chance of failing. Then more personal gift for their birthday. There are so many family friendly games around and lots of kids vs parents versions even so it includes every age.

£5 or £10 in a card!

I misread this as £5 or £10 in a cardi.

Stop now on the present buying. I don't buy for my nieces and nephews or friends children. Occasionally if I see something and I am going to visit I will buy but I am talking a few pounds or a sweet treat.

Christmas I do the 3 for 2 in M&S and a book from the works (10 for £10). Works out fairly reasonable

Stop buying for them. You don’t have to.

Thank you all. Doesn't come easy as I love Christmas and giving. But at this rate, it's just not sustainable and caused me a sleepless night.

This is a great idea.

But I am not big on present buying at the best of times and hate the consumerism around Christmas.

You can buy some nice stuff for just a £5 or buy something joint for them all to enjoy.

I've got 4 kids and told friends that still wanted to buy them a gift to spend the same on all 4 that they'd spend on one. Last year, a unicorn scratch book costing around £3 was my daughters fave present

My children get quite an expensive present each at Christmas from some friends who I suspect can’t really afford it and I have said. The children would rather have a selection pack. If you don’t want to buy chocolate some decent felt pens (£3.20 on Amazon) and a sticker book or magic painting if they are younger.

Check out the Christmas bargain thread on the mnet Christmas board. People post live updates on discounts and offers & I've saved so much money following the threads over the years. It`s on 7 - the one with the hook a fuck game thread 7

Start a new, sustainable tradition. Eg big box of celebrations and a cake for each household. Or buy the same for each child- like £5 and some chocolate coins.

Just tell them that you can afford to buy for the birthdays but can't afford the Christmas presents.

Just chiming in to say, I'd stick with buying individual birthday presents but get family presents for Christmas. A game is a great idea. We would love that as a family.

Don't get stuck in unsustainable gift spirals. Most kids have waaaaay more stuff than they need or can even appreciate. As lots of people have said, it's not normal to give gifts regularly to friends' kids unless they are virtually family. I definitely support the idea of a family gift - better to have a larger thing that everyone can enjoy, whether it's a tin of biscuits or a game or a voucher for a day out, than lots of tat for all the kids. I also think that it's fine to break out of the birthday/Christmas spiral and just randomly bring a gift (or not) at other times. I have a friend who does this: no big deal for birthdays but when I had corona she brought me and my kid a bag of fun stuff, and it was waaaaaay more appreciated than it would have been on a birthday!

Just buy presents for yours nieces and nephews. Buying for all your friend’s is overkill - 4 more this year, might be 4 more next year too - where will it end?

Thank you, I'll try and do birthdays only for friends. Can get away with the two families but one of the ones we'll see over Christmas (with 4 kids) are big on Christmas/presents etc. 2 of the kids from this family are some of those with birthdays coming up.

My aim was to spend less than £10 on each child, but it quickly spirals.