I have a beautiful step daughter (husband's previous relationship) aged 11 and a beautiful daughter with my husband aged 8. The girls get on so well, they are best friends :-)
We spend equal amounts on them at our home with regards to Christmas presents and my family treat my step daughter exactly the same as my daughter (as they should) all spending the same on them both or getting them the same presents. We take turns with my step daughters mum to have her every other Christmas day or Boxing day, for example this year we have her Christmas Day and she is at her mums on Boxing Day next year it will swop.
The thing I find really hard is that when my step daughter then goes/comes back to her mums for Christmas, she gets presents from her mum and step dad, aunties/uncles, grandparents and they have a much bigger family than we do, so the lucky thing gets a lot!! I feel bad on my daughter as I think she wonders why her elder sister gets so much more than her. It never used to be an issue but as she's getting older I can see it bothers her a bit. I suggested to my husband we get my daughter an extra present so she has something to open when our step daughter goes back to her mums but he said no, we get them equal presents or step daughter will feel we give our daughter special treatment and that's that.
I was just wondering how you deal with this situation? I'm really not sure what to do for the best!