I love Christmas but should I not get ds a present this year?

[firemaiden]

I adore Christmas: all the preparation, decorating the house, thinking up presents and then buying them etc. My family never really "got" Christmas so now that I have 2 kids of my own, and I get to organise the day, I like going to town. However, I'm wondering whether I should give ds (3 years) a present this year or whether he should just get a small stocking.

Ds has loads of toys and he never really plays with them - probably my fault for buying things like train sets when he was just too young to appreciate them (got carried away as he was my first child ). He just chucks around the toys (we now ration them and rotate a couple of toys each week) or deconstructs them. To be fair, all he would really like as a present is a bucket of grouting or some bitumen or some adult DIY toolset to mend the roof, change a tyre etc etc. Obviously, he is too young for the sort of things he would like to play with but should I not bother getting him any children's toys?

This makes him sound really spoilt and he isn't really - I've made mistakes in parenting and he is less materialistic then I imagined. But I love buying toys for him and his sister and, although I've obviously stopped doing so in-between birthdays and Christmas, it seems really hard not to buy him any main present for Christmas (plan to buy a few small things for a stocking - planting watercress seeds etc which I think will appeal).

What do you think? Perhaps I have answered my own question by the way I have described the situation but I hate the idea of not getting him anything. What can I get a 3year old that he will really appreciate and use? Is there something I and the grandparents and all the aunts could get collectively so that he doesn't get loads of presents he doesn't use?

I'm spending a maxim of £200 per older child this year which might sound a lot but will probably buy them maybe 7/8 gifts in total.
DD has a big rocking horse which we bought for her birthday but is still in the garage, I have now decided as they have a party and get 20 little presents from their guests we will make Christmas the big deal instead.
I'd personally go for one big decent thing rather than lots of rubbish to fill up the landfills, let the relatives buy that.

I quite often don't get anything much for my dds age 6, 5 and 2. Except a stocking. They get loads from other people, relatives and friends, and we do tend to buy bigger things when we see them or get given them so they have more than enough of everything already.

They don't notice, as they are getting so much anyway from other people. I'm assuming they'll get more demanding and expensive when they're older so I'll spend the money then.

books and more books

im getting naff all for my 2 this year - jess will be 2.5 and becky will be 1.2 so not really a lot of point going overboard.

I have bought Jess the tweenies song time DVD and will get them a little people set each and that will be it.

ds1 will be three, and has also had ALOT of stuff through the year, because I've found things second hand that I knew he's love. I got a horse from a mnetter (rocking, not real!!), and I wish I could've kept that for xmas. But My Dad collected it for me and brought it, and it would'nt have gone up our loft hole anyway! ds1 will be getting a fleece for his bed (with Thomas on), a book, and a train for playdough. ds2 is only 8 months now, so he will be getting just an activity table that cost me £2 from a car boot sale.
Shoud also say that ds1's bday is Novemver, so he'll prob get heaps of unneeded stuff from relatives then too.

These are great suggestions - I'll certainly be packing up a big box for ds. Loads of ideas here - I can see the present sack getting bigger but I think the build your own house will be the one big present from us. I can see some competition for using it -hope dh and grandfather doesn't take it over before ds has a chance to play! I quite fancy having a go too so in the unlikely event that ds isn't interested in the bricks after all, I could use it for the first steps towards our much needed extension....