Does anyone else not hate the big present pile?

[Christmasiscoming2025]

My 4 year olds favourite part of getting presents is opening them so I get him loads of things but it’s not all big gifts/toys. I have got him clothes with his favourite characters on, books, games and puzzles from charity shops, sweets ect.

A lot of people don’t seem to like the big piles of presents on here and say they only get a few presents for their kids and I just don’t really get it as the magic/wow moment is the big pile for kids 🤷‍♀️

I like a bigish pile for Christmas - I think it’ll be 5-10 things each. I’m thinking about getting some breakfast cereal I don’t usually buy as an example of how we get to those good sized number of gifts. We’re due to resupply on markers and crayons, so those will be under there, one toy from us, one from Santa, sonic and minecraft branded clothes (again usually I get boring clothes for them). Not sure how many books - I was trying to get a discount bundle that fell through; last few years we found nice books second hand. If it’s full price it will be one book and a magazine in the stocking. I’m sure an impulse will hit when I go to the store.

But half the kids at school have branded clothes and bags and water bottles already, and their lunch boxes have the kinds of snacks that are treats for us. Treats and craft supplies aren’t only at Christmas for us, but rare enough they feel special still

We usually have to travel so I can’t do the big pile as it’s too much to move on a train or plane.

We just pile everyone’s presents up together and half the fun is finding yours, obviously that pile looks quite big and it’s lovely, but the point is it’s shared amongst everyone.

We don’t separate into individual piles as I do find that a bit grabby and look at me, I’m really keen for my kids to enjoy the whole of Christmas and also gift giving to others instead of just focusing on their own massive pile. I must say the idea of wrapping a pillow/mattress topper as a present for a child to make the pile look bigger is utterly baffling to me.

I like a big pile under the tree, but that's not a big pile per person. That's a big pile of gifts for everyone in the household, and the more people are with you, the bigger it is. I remember being at my grandparents' house over Christmas as a kid, and the pile would be for at least four kids and eight adults, and it was glorious. That feels celebratory and festive to me.

We (siblings and i) used to get a huge stocking each, sack of presents each and then our parents would still have more to give us throughout the day. None of us have grown up spoilt so they did it right. We weren't really given stuff throughout the year though - everything would be 'well put that on your birthday/Christmas list'. We'd also get things that we needed, not just stuff that we wanted (like you say, clothes). I remember being excited about opening a new toothbrush every year in my stocking. It was exciting because Santa chose it.
I do similar with my 4 year old now.

Love the big pile- we have 5 kids here so there is always lots under the tree, unwrapping is an all day thing because we go youngest to oldest, one at a time, everyone takes a look at what the other has unwrapped before the next present gets handed out (finding which one under the tree is the fun part lol) every Christmas eve OH brings them all in and arranges them under the tree and goes “you sure we got enough? Lol” xx

I only buy a couple of presents but we come from a big present wider family and have lots of friends who give too as dc are little. Neighbours, godparents etc...

So we have a massive pile, which I enjoy, but find the kids having too many toys a pain to deal with throughout the year.

This is how we do Christmas there will be 1 main present and quite a few medium priced presents then we literally wrap anything and everything that we would be buying anyway like clothes, underwear, toothbrush, new bedding, arts and crafts stuff, new shoes/trainers, bath/shower stuff. They get about 50/60 presents each. I always found it odd the families who give there kids like 3 or 4 presents because we have never done that.

We went overboard a few years ago and then combined with family members and grannies all giving presents, there was an absolute mountain there. it was interesting to see how quickly the kids just got a bit overwhelmed by it all, a bit tired of the next present

Do you think its because they haven't grown up use to that as this is all my kids have known and love it

Nope, we do the want, need, wear, read so four presents plus a stocking! Each to their own but I grew up with the huge pile and watching back on home movies I didn’t even look at anything, just threw it to one side to open the next, I want them to appreciate each gift. They do get everything they need through the year though like clothes and books etc

I very rarely buy my kids stuff outside Christmas and birthdays so they get it all wrapped up at Christmas 🤣

I always had a big pile on Christmas morning and it was the most exciting thing! My little boy is two so at the moment I’m just doing a few little things but I hope to be able to do the “big pile” during the magical years of 4-10. Once they stop believing and start wanting clothes/ money it will drop off. I’d never post it on social media though - tacky!

@youalright yep mine are probably a bit too spoilt throughout the year 🤦🏻‍♀️

Yeah i agree I've never posted pictures online

Its fine it all evens out 🤣

Yes, same here!

Maybe get him a mattress topper. All kids would love to get a mattress topper on Christmas morning surely!

Growing up, all the families that I knew would jumble all the presents up under the tree, which is what we did too.

It was a big load of presents, but they would be for multiple people - a big part of the excitement would be peering at the gift tags, trying to work out which ones might be for you. Just 3 or 4 presents each, in a family of seven, makes for an exciting pile of presents under a tree, and it’s what we’ve continued doing.

I only encountered the concept of setting out an individual pile for each person from Mumsnet.

Personally I find the idea of that less exciting than not knowing if the next present pulled from under the tree will be yours or not, but that’s probably partly because people tend to prefer Christmas traditions they’ve grown up with.

I used to love our big present piles, I don't think we were ever overwhelmed by them and none of us have grown up spoilt or entitled.

What I hate is the competitive christmassing that you see on social media. I have no real issue with people buying however much they want for their kids, it's the bragging and showing off online I don't like.

I think too many presents take away the focus on what's being given. Then again it depends what the presents are.

we do one main present from us plus a stocking from father Christmas. About £200 per child in total.

I’m feeling a bit mean now reading this thread. They have gifts from other family members so probably about 10 presents each under the tree. We are neither a poor nor a rich family. We do travel for christmas though so couldn’t bring back piles, and wouldn’t have anywhere to keep the stuff, and the DC aren’t interested in clothes, bedding and toiletries etc.

I fewl guilty if there isn’t a pile. I just dont want it done too soon. I want it to be enough. But im an overworrier. We get a lot second hand and we clear out things beforehand too. As kids we got so much stuff it was unbelievable! But that was the 90s. And we had big houses.

@ SharpLemonShark -
“I think do what you’re happy with and what you can afford but keep an eye to the future too. At 4 it’s easy enough to wow them without spending a fortune ”

This is so true! A stocking for a four year old is easy and inexpensive. But by the time they’re at university….yikes!

Love it.
Xmas stockings full if crinkly wrapped up gifts too - SO exciting!!
🎉🎉🎉🎄🎄🎄