After seeing all my friend's facebook photos of their trees with presents under....

[perceptionreality]

I am not so worried I spent too much on mine! I feel I've been sensible. I spent what I could afford, I did not get into debt and my children have nice things that they will appreciate.

Some of the photos I could not believe though - entire living rooms filled with presents for 2 children!!

I don't mean to sound smug, just thinking aloud really.

whenever I look at the presents under the tree I remember they will all have to go somewhere eventually :o

Yep. A bootfair. Sometime mid July next year

Or in a box under their beds,

i saw 1 last year i had to comment on i dont think the person was best pleased with me but there was presents everywhere , some fok think that stuff is all that matters

A mum from primary school years ago had a huge bay window. It had to be filled with presents, that was the only thing that mattered-they had to fill the bay. And this is one four year old we were talking about.....

i know its christmas but some just go mental with the parcels imo ,

As they get older the parcels get smaller but more expensive.

yeah they do sparkling dd2 has a new mobile and a few ds games in the teeniest of boxes . spose for younger children you have big toys eh ?

That's it mrsjay, So if you start with mahoosive piles when they are little they get smaller and smaller as they grow up.

Don't know about presents getting smaller. Ds1 got electric guitar and amp. It's huge and loud too I expect

And hopefully you got the headphones too Mama.

aww he will be well chuffed mama , dd1 plays guitar and she got a new electric one for her 18t h birthday invest in headphones so you dont here it , is a godsend

hear*

well dd1 is getting a hooge present its in the garage she doesnt know she thinks shes getting an ipod

I had a moment of realisation when by the time Ds1 went back to school he couldn't remember most of his presents. So you are entirely right not to go overboard.

I have a bay window too and it is most certainly not filled!

In the days when I was married and had a PFB we did used to buy her rather too much but she would get overwhelmed by it (is autistic) and would end up crying hysterically. Added to the mess in our living room I've ended up feeling less is more.

As the kids get older there have been subtle changes in both stocking contents and tree presents to keep some volume and silliness but so they get a " big present" and a fair bit of lesser stuff.

For instance under the tree for ds was the biggest box of " real weetabix" I could get- his weetabix capacity is huge so normally he gets aldi! Dd1 had lots of toiletries packed in a nice waste paper bin lol ( she's at uni so a good terms supply of stuff is great for her). Also quite few edible treats as I know they'll not eat them all at once now!

DH and I do the same- I had a big present and " goodybag" that was mosly jars of pickles this year lol

I absolutely hate these photos that seemed to of become popular the last few years courtesy of FB.... The ones with all the presents lined up and displayed in a 'ooh look how many gifts' stylee. Its very bad taste IMO

I cringed when I saw them, they are very vulgar.

I know the feeling. Several of my FB friends have just had their first Christmas with children just like me. They have photos of huge stacks of presents for their PFBs. I commented to DH that such people would probably be appalled to see how little DD got in comparision. I think she got plenty though and she still has presents under the tree that she hasn't got round to opening yet because she likes the paper and gift tags best at 8 months old.

Totally agree - I got stuff I know they wanted and would play with, whereas my mum went really overboard with mine again, and I hate it. Like people have said, where do you put it? It's all just shit they don't need, will get overwhelmed and bored with.

I thought the same and also knew that some of the presents in the huge pile were very expensive.

I agree- My daughters best present was the register style printed paper I printed her out at work- thankfully I saved it as we will be needing more. I gave her sections for name and AM and PM ticks and she LOVES it!!!

Totally agree with what you're all saying!

This year, for once, i stuck to what i could afford, no credit, no catalogues, just good old money. I stuck to a budget aswell and the kids really loved everything they got.

I spoke to them about how this year i needed to be careful and i feel such relief that i managed it and didn't go overboard and need to worry about the consequences now!!