Grandparents Gifts. How do you do it?

[ahunf]

My mum has always given me say £100 each for my dds for Christmas and Birthdays. I then choose what I think they would like. Order and wrap it and put it together with the rest and say this is what grandma bought you.

When myself and siblings were little my grandma chose all our gifts herself. Wrapped them and gave them to us after lunch so we had more gifts to look forward too.

This year I'm thinking of handing the gifts to my mum but I don't think she will see the point. She never wrapped when we were younger. I did it all.

Their other nan usually gives them pjs and £20. I give them that money to spend on what they wish.

How does it work in your family?

I give them ideas of things to buy but don't buy or wrap for them...

Yep, this.

For PIL and my parents I give them ideas. I often up not always end up buying/wrapping for my parents but they need help.

They generally ask for ideas, then pay and wrap them themselves. Sometimes if it's getting posted to us directly we'll wrap it for them.

My in laws send money, 50% goes into savings and in the past I’ve bought something to open on the day. My DD is 13 now so she’ll get 50% in vouchers as she has requested this. We are overseas so it is different.

we give suggestions and my parents choose and wrap. I did offer one year due to serious illness and thought they may have better things to do but they said no. Think they enjoy it. Not that my mum can wrap as she had a mini stroke but I’m sure my dad doesn’t mind!

My mums sends me £40 for each child and I DH lose, but, wrap and label from 'grandma'. I so the same for my aunt.

DIL's buy whatever they fancy for their birthdays (never anything big thy et are interested in, and often not age appropriate), and for Christmas, they gift the kids £50 in a card along with a bag of small gifts, which are also normally not age-appropriate. (Last year, our 9 yo, who is currently reading the Hobbit, got two 'learn to read books', a set of 'tell the time' cards!).

I ask what they would like me to buy. Buy myself and wrap. I do slide in a surprise gift

I just buy my granddaughter what I'd think she'd like, if it's something that she may have mentioned already I ask my daughter to make sure she hasn't got plans to get the same thing. I buy them and wrap them myself, they get put under the tree in my house. When they come over mid morning for the day, she has the presents from us. She's only 4 so thinks that they're from Santa Claus. She thinks Santa visits several houses for her on Christmas Eve. We'll probably put her right when she's older

My parents are divorced so my dad gives the cash, I give my mum ideas and she buys them, we buy for Mil and she pays us back as she can't cope with it these days.

I give the teenagers money as that's what they like, the younger ones I ask the parents and sometimes they give me suggestions or I make a contribution to a big present or for very little ones they might say put it in their saving account as they are getting plenty.

I budget £100 each for them.

Depends. For my eldest my mum usually gives me a sum of money towards something big he wants then gets him some small
Gifts. She wraps them etc

for the younger two she gets them a few presents each. Usually one main one (something like a dolls house or big Lego set) then gets some smaller ones: she wraps them all.

I generally send DM a link to something she can order online, she wraps it and gives it when we see her. Usually on Christmas day, but sometimes boxing day if we're going to DH's family that year.

GPs ask me what the DC want.

I then order it for them on amazon and quote often wrap. But mine are teens.

MIL buys gifts herself, usually clothes, and gives them to kids herself.
My mother asks me to get then something they'd like, she gives me the cash, I buy the gift and give it to her, she then wraps it and gives you the kids on Xmas day.

For my mum and my dad & stepmum I do the shopping & they wrap then give to the DC on Christmas Day when we all go to my mums for family visiting.

Ex-h parents always asked for ideas but have always done their own shopping & wrapping.

The pick, but and wrap them all themselves, with the exception of my DDad as he lives abroad so he will order them on Amazon and have them delivered to my house and I'll wrap them.

My DO do it all themselves but they do ask me for clothes sizes as they generally but the DC a winter coat and pjs amongst other things.

PIL are not easily parted with their money, they send £10 each and I usually buy DC a bigger gift, wrap it and put PIL names on it. Kids are happy, PIL none the wiser (or magically think that £10 stretches to a lego kit).

My DCs unfortunately have no GPs left but when DF was still with us he would buy and wrap all the kids gifts. He probably bought way too much tbh!

MIL would give DH cash and he would pick presents, then take them to her house so she could wrap and bring them back over on Xmas day. MIL refused to do any wrapping herself the last few years of her life (no health issues, just very lazy). One year DH opened an Amazon box to check the right present had arrived then took it over to his mums for wrapping. She turned up on Xmas day with the opened, still unwrapped box and gave it to DS. DH then wrapped her gifts too after that!

Nothing for my side so just DHs. MIL asks for ideas and gets exactly what I suggest, she likes to spend the same so may come back for extra ideas for 1 or 2 if their gifts aren’t expensive enough. She almost always puts something extra she’s chosen in too, she’s very good at getting ideas off the DCs but will always get what I’ve asked for which is exactly what I know the DCs want. Gifting has varied, they’d try and see us Christmas Day on their way to lunch (over an hours drive) to deliver themselves in the past. Now it’s a mixture of having gifts delivered here, maybe gift week of Christmas or Boxing Day when we see them.

Growing up I never got gifts from 1 grandmother, she had over 30 grandkids so never did presents. In fact no one did presents for anyone but their own kids in my family. My other grandparents, well hhmmm I’d get what ever my grandmother nicked from a shop or place she was working, usually a doll ( I really hate dolls). I really can’t remember how they were gifted, I just remember leaving them as close to the fire as I could in the hope they’d melt or the hair would burn off so I was allowed to throw them away.

We give my parents and my in-laws ideas and they buy and wrap them. My maternal grandma gives my mum some money, and she buys and wraps a gift for DDs as my gran isn't very mobile now - she bought gifts herself when I was little. DDs' other great grandparents buy and wrap their presents.

I buy gifts of things that I know she will like after i have checked with my daughter that she hasnt bought them already.
I wrap them and we open them all together on Christmas morning.
It's far easier for me as they live with me

They always ask me for ideas and I generally share an Amazon wish list for each of the DC with them and they choose something from it, wrap and give it to them themselves.

The wish list generally has a few things for Grandparents' budget (about £35-40), a few around £15, which is budget for uncles on DH's side, and a few for under £10 which is my siblings' budget (lots of kids to buy for on my side of family!). But what I've found in past couple of years is my PILs will choose lots of little bits off my youngest's wish list and then one big thing for my older two which unfortunately always looks uneven even though it's the same budget! And then they'll wonder why they only get 1 thing when their sister gets 4! So this year I did it a bit differently and just sent them a couple of suggestions for one larger item each so hopefully that will work better.

My parents just choose them stuff, buy it, wrap it and give it to them.
In laws send cash, I buy it, wrap it and present it from the in laws, but they live abroad and we rarely see them at Christmas.

We always ask DS and DIL for ideas but also like to choose a few surprises of our own. We wrap and give to dgs when we see them over Christmas. As we only have 1 dgc, we are fortunate that we can afford to spoil him a bit for Christmas. Some years we spend more than others, depending on what we buy.