Shared Santa present

[Wallaroo21]

We were planning on doing stockings and 1 main present each from Santa for our 2 and 3 year olds on Christmas Day before heading to families for the day. They will get more presents there of course and then we want to do the rest of the presents from us at home on Boxing Day as a mini second Christmas Day.

They both when asked say they want a rather big semi expensive toy from Santa so I’m considering saying it’s a shared gift for them both but now doubting if that will be a bit disappointing on Christmas Day. Or am I overthinking it?

This has carnage stamped all over it

no no no and no

they don’t have any concept of sharing really. Don’t force it on them over Christmas at all times

You truly believe your 2 year old or even your 3 year old will happily grasp what a shared present is?

I think this depends on the present. If you are talking about a trampoline or something similar then younger children like yours would be ok ‘sharing’.

it is tough, my slightly older children both want a 3D pen. Which I really don’t want two of, it would be a significant portion of my budgets for each them. Not sure what I’m going to do.

I agree with @mummymummymummummum I think something like a slide, trampoline, swing, garden playhouse is ok for sharing as they're the sort of thing they both use at the same time. If it's a more "one user at a time" thing then they're too young to share.

OP, we need to know what the “rather big semi expensive toy from Santa” is before we can comment!

This is why we do small presents in stockings from Father Christmas and main presents from parents. Much easier to manage.

And agree with everyone, at 2 and 3 they are much too young to share happily.

When mine were that age they happily shared pretty much everything even if it was given to the other. The exception being something like a Teddy or doll, if they got one each. (But barbies were shared...)

How long ago were your children 2 and 3 @TheNightingalesStarling ?

10 years ago.
I'm not saying they never squabbled, but they always wanted to play together.

I'm suprised they've asked for something so specific at their age.
Most 2 year olds would just say whatever they are thinking about at that moment in time (for example "Banana 🍌" 😁).
Is it really something they will play with?

Unless it’s something designed for sharing, like a game, not a chance I would do this for this age kids

Ah the good old rose tinted specs

Kids 18months apart, a husband abroad for monthsxatca time with the army...I didn't have energy for remembering exactly which puzzle etc belong to each child and most toys are designed to be played with together any way...

we aren’t talking about puzzles here. It’s the main present

For example your 2 and 3 year old would have happily shared one baby annabel and understood it didn’t belong to one of them but was to be shared?

I said dolls were one each!

But "rather big" suggests something more that us shareable, like a kitchen or garage. Rather than a doll.

It’s this, it’s in Costco which we go pretty much weekly so they see it often unfortunately. Obviously the 2 year old mainly says it as he’s copying his sister but they are both adamant that is what Santa is bringing so I’m worrying one of them will be disappointed at it being chosen for the other. I suppose I was thinking it’s large enough in size to share but perhaps asking for trouble!

sharing one of those is going to result in tears unless they're exceptionally good at playing together!

I think the 3 year would take charge of a toy like that (ie be a bit bossy about what the characters are meant to be doing).
😬

A couple of the Bluey Duplo sets might be better.
Get one each (2 different ones) and they can play together or separate.

I agree!

I would see if you can find someone selling a bundle of bluey toys on FB marketplace instead so there is a much bigger selection of toys for them to play with.

Yeah, originally I planned on the 3 year old having a big singing rapunzle doll and the 2 year old the aeroplane. Maybe I need to try talk her into it the next couple weeks!

At that age it’s fine, they don’t have preconceived ideas

Get another set that goes along side the plane?