Xmas gifts for grandson

[Unglamorousgranny]

My grandson has his birthday on Xmas Day & will be 6 this year. He still believes in Santa. The trouble is he's got used to a big pile of presents every year. I'd like to add that he's the most loveable boy ever & doesn't act in a spoilt way but little kids get excited about looking forward to a big pile of presents under the tree from Santa. How do you explain why the pile has decreased so much when they still believe?
He already has so much stuff it's hard to know what to buy him, even his parents are struggling. It feels like buying stuff for the sake of it. Where does it all go? And when they're at school, after school clubs, football at weekend etc when do they really get the time to get proper use out of their many toys? We're a bit stumped. How do you cut it right down but stop them being disappointed on Xmas Day?

He is not going to remember how big his pile of presents was last year. A year is an eternity for a young child. He will just be excited to see presents waiting for him and desperate to unwrap them, not counting them and comparing them to last year (unless your grandson is Dudley Dursley?!)

I think you are worrying unnecessarily 😊

If it’s the ‘visual impact’ that you think will be lost, you could get a display of red and green balloons or something. But honestly I try ink it would be better to break with the ‘tradition’ of an enormous pile of gifts sooner rather than later, before the expectation really does set in.

Ask him for a list and give him ONE of the more reasonably priced items for Christmas. If he's well brought up, he'll be happy with whatever he receives. If his parents or whoever are giving him too many gifts, that's not your problem. But not giving your grandchild a Christmas present because he receives too much already seems unfair. I always give one gift from FC/Santa, not all!

As a practical tip, in the highly unlikely event that you get a wobbly lip on Christmas morning because he only has a small pile of presents, look baffled and reassure him that it’s the same size as last year. If he argues, say that it must just look smaller because he’s grown bigger.
Then distract, distract, distract!

Oh, just realised you said it's also his birthday! Poor boy. So then it would be TWO gifts. But it really helps to ask for a list of things that he would like, rather than guessing.