do you buy your DC something they want even though you think it is a ridiculous waste of money?

[toastymarshmallow]

DD1 (7) wants Jelly Fun.

You make up shop bought jelly (not included) and let it set, put it in this thing and twist it and it chops up the jelly. The gummies are just a cube of undiluted jelly microwaved in a mould.

It is £15 for something that does the job I could do with a potato masher.

Do I suck it up and buy it anyway?

Could mr frosty be to blame for the rise in consumerism. All those children of the 80s frustrated by tight sensible parents now buying whatever their children desire!!

I have to say I like Tsum tsums. But not shopkins or nom noms or anything else tiny and destined to be lost around the house within a week.

My son wanted BBQ party for ages and thanks to the endless adverts for it he never forgot about it. I relented, even though I thought it looked crap. It is, even he knows it. The other day he asked if he could give some of his toys away... I asked "like what?" BBQ party was the first thing he suggested
I still think I would get the jelly thing though and, as others have suggested, make it from Santa. I asked for chocolate factory when I was younger. It probably sounded rubbish to an adult but I still remember the excitement of unwrapping it and making chocolate lollies.

I wanted mr frosty. Never got it. Dd wants it. She's not having it, nor is she having the choc lolly maker. Maybe I'm mean, I just think she will live without it and she has some amazing presents to open.

We bought DD a set of 3D pens (£40) and a complete waste of money. The UV light that came with it to set it doesn't work properly and the gloop that comes out of the pens is very sticky.

What Paleontologist said.
Train the kids to recognise marketing strategies designed to rip them off.

Find something that actually is magical and exciting and has play value.

You're being asked to spend money on landfill.

I remember the excitement of getting some of these things, I also remember the crushing disappointment when they were rubbish: potters wheel, some kind of magic cake making thing, buckaroo.

I'm not entertaining a Hatchimal.
I also had a Mr Frosty-less youth BUT one year I bought a Furbie (hardly got looked at), last year I bought Baby Wow and now this year I refuse to cave into these things. These toys are above the £50 mark so it goes beyond just 'a bit of fun'. You can use your imagination and find something much better.

I had no idea so many were traumatised, we should start a support group for those who didn't get a me frosty.

My house is filled with utter tat the children have played with once or twice. I of course have a hatchimal, and last year a furby.

I didn't get a Mr Frostie either!!!

My DS9 asked for spy gear walkie talkies with video £59 .... I cried buying them .... But Ho Ho Ho the magic of Christmas !

Luckily, our DC are still a bit young to really want lots of tat, and so far we have been able to steer the eldest towards 'naive' toys when he spots some tat he wants. I think we will generally be adopting the educating our kids about marketing strategies, but who knows.

I got my ds the chocolate coin maker for his birthday. We spent two.hours to produce 1 chocolate coin...he hasn't asked to play with it since! He is a bit young for it but he really wanted it. I'd do it again life's too short not to treat them.

Didn't get a Soda stream in our house either....

My 4 yo wants doggy doo doo, I really really don't want to buy it because the reviews are shocking, however I probably will end up buying it.

Yes a few things. Memorable one was boom boom balloon all the prong things were lost in a week and it was consigned to dark corner for ever more.

Its all part of the fun though isn't it.

There's a MNer who bought herself a Mr Frosty for her thirtieth birthday isn't there.

Another deprived kid here. If the cost was bearable, I'd usually just buy the tat. My own childhood was so bloody political, every purchase had to fulfil my mums apparently impossible criteria for acceptability.

I hate buying the trash but it's only for a few years, and we're sensible in lots of other ways.

I embrace tat (and then bin once the toys have had it) but £60 is not tat money!

I always want Mr Frosty and the Playdoh hair salon, I never had either!

I used to grumble at buying the tat that was bits of crap but looking back now, I'm glad I did. Mine are now 16 and 21 and while Christmas is, of course, still wonderful, that time when they're so young is SO magical and goes so fast .

I bought a chocolate coin maker from the charity shop, so the kids could experience it being crap without wasting money or a getting a bad present. Then we gave it back to the charity shop so they could sell it again. So I basically gave £2 to charity but now they know not to trust the adverts.

My best purchase to date has been lego. For both girls and boys. They never seem to tire of it.

Mine never normally watch TV adverts so have no clue about 'stuff' thank god. None of us has ever heard of a hatchimal.

But we recently let them watch Milkshake for a few days when on hols and Oh My God they became obsessed with toys they'd seen on the ads esp Sylvanian families. Constant nagging about toys I've never heard of.

Milkshake is now banned!