Kids Xmas, is it enough

[Ywosdwos]

So here is what I have so far and now I think I'm spoiling the kids...

DS1 11 YO -
Lego star wars darth vader tower
Lego stranger things
Lego star wars genesis
Lego ideas nasa
Lego creator book shop
Lego Xmas train
Lego star wars at p walker
Lego madalorian set
The child mandarlorian teddy
Lego colleseum
Inline roller skates
Lego star wars sith art

DS2 aged 9

Lego lamborghini
Lego ideas piano
Lego marvel hellcarier
Lego marvel avengers tower
Lego star wars boost
Lego marvel art
Football
Roller skates
Magic trick set
Retro sega mega drive
Lego architecture London
Break the board
Madalroian teddy
Lego super Mario starter set
Lego super Mario Castle
Lego technic cement mixer

DD aged 7
Lol doll remix super surprise
Fun locket secret journal
Kodak printomatic
So bomb DIY
Present pets
Squeake interactive dog
My own rainbow
Vtech secret diary
Scruff a lov snow pal
Little live pet bird
Flossi flamingo
Rainbowcorn
My baby tumbles
Hatchimal flying fairy
Lots of teddies
Aquabeads
Playabil scooby doo
Little live pet fish
So slime
Kenitic sand

I think getting a wider variety of different things- an archaelogy set, or chemistry kit, or starter stamp collection, or sewing kit- would be more interesting. Lego is great, but there are a lot of other things for kids to be exposed to and potentially get interested in. And books and comics, of course.

@TheLastStarfighter hi.. thank you
Yes they have looked after their sets for a while now knowing if they don't they don't get big sets.. they are very expensive and I refuse to buy them unless well looked after... they have display cabinets which we get from amazon, if u search lego display cabinets.. they only keep the big ones on display. The little sets are on shelves but get played with, broken up, remade etc... the bigger ones they do play with to but when they have they put them back in the cabinet.. they keep the boxes and instructions in the attic as let's be fair large lego sets keep value so when they finally are over lego we can resell them on ebay maybe.. this is yet to be discussed
. We will see... they also have normal lego boxes with random pieces which they can build whatever they want those lego pieces are just broken up and put into boxes they have with their IKEA kallax units.

@Otamot they have been given books, they get plenty each year as they both enjoy reading. Not my daughter though haha.. as for other things I have in the past got them other things and they don't really play much with these things.. its annoying. I always get them one thing minimum that's not lego, this year inline/ roller skates so they can do / try something different. Last year was physics set and magnet set which they enjoyed for a few weeks but then back to lego..

How are you planning on being able to store and make sure the kits don’t get mixed up on day one. I can just imagine wanting to open them all up at once at that age?

Kids are amazing at not getting lego mixed up but even living in a lego crazy house that is a nuts amount (sorry!) If we get a large lego set the rule is one small with it and then other toys. Otherwise 3 small tops. Everyone is saying about making up for this year to the kids, I honestly dont think you need to do it with presents, a good fun Christmas of board games, good tv and sweets is all any child needs. (But great choices and I LIVE for kinetic sand!!)

Ywosdwos Off to look up display cabinets, Dh 1 got a walker and tie fighter with confirmation money and they take up the kids study desk

Fair enough then, OP. If it's what they like and you can afford it, why wouldn't you? This year has been pretty damn miserable for kids.

Is it 'enough'? There isn't enough variety, in my opinion, even my lego enthusiast child would find boxes upon boxes of similar lego kits underwhelming for their Christmas presents.

@stayathomer the display sets are pretty impressive... I like them. I think the reason I'm getting them toys is during the last 6 months lockdown all they did was sit at home, watch movies with us, play board games and go out for walks so that doesn't seem like anything special this year, where as last year it was so much more exciting to spend time like that together if that makes sense... as for kinetic sand

My daughter being partially sighted loves the feel of it and also fluffy things hence so many teddy based items.. she also has sensory processing disorder so these kind of toys are amazing for her.

@Otamot we can only afford it this year as we had our annual Xmas budget plus all our holiday money which was cancelled so more than last year. We still had a reasonable budget last year but nothing like this year. Kids are aware its a one off as I agree not to let them get disappointed. They know they missed out on holidays, birthday parties etc this year so all money saved for that makes for a much crazier Xmas.. again not every year lol

You get what you can afford. If you can afford all that then that's absolutely fine. If they appreciate it and are taught to appreciate things then having lots of toys doesn't make a child spoilt in my opinion. If they expect lots of toys and get in a tantrum if they don't get them, then they're spoiled.
Basically if you wanna get your kids loads of stuff and they are happy children that appreciate what they have then it's your business🤷‍♀️

I'm going to be flamed for this but ......

As terrible as COVID ( and yes I've been through a lot of covid related crap too) has been I don't think spoiling kids or making up for the fact you've not been on holiday or done this or that this year is the right way to go about things. I think your mum is right.

It's a prime time to teach kids that sometimes in life you have to go with less/without or make do or things sometimes don't go the way you want.

Buying presents and spoiling them won't make up for it and will raise their expectations later in life.

You say it's a one off but they will probably compare next year with this year.

Not getting at you just in general.

Thing is op you keep saying they understand it's a one off, but they're kids. Even sensible kids are still kids. I wouldn't guarantee they don't look at next year's haul with the summer holiday a distant memory and be disappointed

@bumblebumblebumblebee I won't flame you for that.. it may be true. The thing is I've done it now so I guess time will tell whether or not they will hate Xmas next year... I dont think they will but I won't know until then... also I have moved 2 lego sets to give to my middle child for his bday in December as he won't be having a party so may as well and I'm moved 2 over from the eldest to his bday in February. We will see how it goes.

Wow, that's a huge amount of gifts. Personally I think it's way too much, will they really be grateful? I'd be exhausted and bored after opening all of that!

I think thats too much. Its not even about how much you spent, but can they really appreciate it, is it not going to get boring box after box after box. I much rather get a set each month.

Wow, that's a lot. Too much in my opinion. But then I'm low income and I have £40 per child to spend and am unable to buy adults anything so, it's all relative.

@ChristmasSlayRide made me chuckle lol

I could afford to spend that much but usually aim for around £200-300 each unless there's a big item they want such as bike or computer and certainly don't feel like their missing out. Whilst I agree each to their own, I do think such a vast number of gifts is unnecessary and they won't appreciate even half of them or ever understand the value of money if you can present such a vast array of gifts in one sitting.

[quote Ywosdwos]@blacksax sarcasm as they are bitter.. if they made this post I wouldn't make sarcastic comments unless I had issues with the post. Again if u have issues with the post don't comment, move on[/quote]
I genuinely don't think the sarcastic post about ponies was due to being bitter or whatever else. It was just sarcasm and I was pointing that out.

It's not me who had issues with the post.

This is an open forum for anyone to post their views, and if you don't want people commenting with remarks you don't like, then why start the thread in the first place?

Firstly reading your list made me feel completely inadequate even though my kids will get about £175 each spent on them. Then I thought - I shouldn't feel inadequate because my kids will have a good Christmas and be really pleased with what I have carefully chosen for them. These sort of threads never end well - and I'm sure you're not feeling great about a lot of the replies you're receiving either!

Lucky children!

It seems sensible that you are going to split it as it could perhaps be a bit overwhelming.

I don't get the argument that kids who get lots of Christmas presents are spoiled. Actually their parents are modelling generosity. I think it is how you bring them up that is more important. I get my DC a fair bit for Christmas (a lot to me, anyway) but they are always ready to use their pocket money to get presents for others. They also put a bag together each for the homeless.

@HappySonHappyMum

Firstly reading your list made me feel completely inadequate even though my kids will get about £175 each spent on them. Then I thought - I shouldn't feel inadequate because my kids will have a good Christmas and be really pleased with what I have carefully chosen for them. These sort of threads never end well - and I'm sure you're not feeling great about a lot of the replies you're receiving either!

£175 is a fairly good Christmas budget, don't for goodness sake feel inadequate.

Did you really get all the Lego sets, bar the fake colosseum, from the Lego shop? I thought the Christmas winter train is an older set, and I don't think there's a current geonosis set either.

@10brokengreenbottles yep I did. I got the genesis set in Feb this year and the Christmas train i got on boxing day sales last year. I make sure I never pay full price for anything. The lamborghini I didn't get from lego too actually as it was £360 ish on there and on amazon its 239 so why pay more when u can pay less. Also the piano is the only thing I got from lego that was mega expensive at almost £400 but had 25% of that.

@HappySonHappyMum don't feel inadequate.. I used to read lists of what people got too.and thought why... I always spent far less especially when they were younger.. £175 would have even been too much.. like I said we are a family of 5 and we decided as our holiday was cancelled ( for a family of 5 even a cheap holiday abroad costs £4k) we decided to add some of that money into our Christmas fund and do a bigger Xmas.. this is absolutely not a normal Xmas for us.. but I won't lie I am excited for it.. normal Christmas is £300 per child and let's be fair £300 doesn't go very far with older kids.. one bike can be that much, one laptop can be that much and one phone can be double that much.