Uneven amount of gifts! Help me

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I’ve gone and done it again…dd12 has 30 gifts and ds10 has 23 😅

I need to balance it out. (and no, I don’t want to take away seven of hers)

so far I’ve thought of
a rubix cube
a plain chocolate orange( I had an order age one but forgot he doesn’t like orange flavour!)
a fidget toy of some sort

hit me with ideas please…nothing too big and no major tat. I like useful gifts.

I think you’re getting a hard time, I don’t see any crap on your list either. A lot of it looks like things parents I buy my kids throughout the year anyway (hair clips, water bottle, comb, sports kits etc etc). Mine would expect a few little games / crafts to open but they are younger and two of them aren’t that sporty. If your daughter is older and into sports she will appreciate things like the kit bag and sports clothes.

Jesus, why are people so unkind about a parent providing lovely gifts for her children for Christmas? I can’t see any crap on either list. Lots of useful presents, practical presents etc.

I totally understand wanting an equal number of gifts. When we were growing up, we’d take turns at opening a gift each. It would have been glaringly obvious if one more had 7 more than the other.

I just could never bring myself to get worked up about a parent who works hard to provide for their children, and who decides to spoil them a little bit at Christmas with things they’ll love.

You can't be serious, surely?
Christmas is an absolutely magical time for children. Part of that is the thrill of presents.

Foaming shower gel 😊

7 different types of chocolate!

does he like pokemon? pokemon cards are good and are about £5 for a pack.

thinking of my 10yo, pens and notebooks are a hit, playing cards? (seems the 10yo at school all play blinds, speed and other games)

Lego
pjs
fluffy socks
bath bubbles/shower gel
blind bags/balls
football cards or stickers
water bottle
books
teddy

"Meaningful" and “crap” are subjective terms. I would never have withheld music/book type items until Christmas or birthdays - we had a house full of both and instruments were upgraded when needed, not held back for Christmas. I know others who used to hold such things back for Christmas as they were less used. Apart from anything else, a new instrument would typically cost more than the regular Christmas budget for one child and I had four to consider.

If you have spent broadly similar amounts and bought a mix of the practical and the fun then why not simply wrap the items so they make a similar number of parcels? Group together a few of the smaller but related items so that the numbers match. eg the cosmetic/makeup items could go in one package.

Yes tbf. I don’t buy them a lot of “stuff” throughout the year but my ds reads and if he asks for a book I will get it for him no questions. If she asked I would do the same but alas reading is not her thing! Her elective subjects in school are home economics, engineering and art. She adores PE and sport. I love who she is. Her Reading age is above her age regardless of her not being a reader. She is doing great.

OP what i do to balance things out is I wrap a couple of things that sort of go together up together to make one present. That way you're not buying stuff just for the sake of it. So two books together or some pens and a pretty notepad, that sort of thing.

Ah I love it…I lovely the carnage and the ooohs and aaaahs, paper everywhere. Surely that’s what it’s all about!?

I have wrapped everything now, that’s how I came to the realisation tbh. I have a little list now. I can pop into smyths/tesco and I’ll be sorted in a jiffy. So excited now 🙌

economics, engineering and art

Has she ever read SF, specifically Steampunk written for young adults? Or graphic novels in that area? It might just be her thing.

I’m with you OP. Christmas is wonderful as a child and lots of presents is just great. I don’t buy much all year either but Christmas is a time for spoiling in this house. Ignore other people’s snide comments

I so miss all that .

Eldest is now 34 and the youngest 21 .. With a 32 and 24 year old in the middle
How I miss those days

tube of Pringles in their favourite flavour, weird flavour noodles, those things you can pop in crocs to personalise them?

Which is not what she asked for.

And when she pointed out that that's not what she asked for, you doubled down with telling her what you think she should be doing instead of accepting that your advice was unwanted.

Sneery and self righteous mate, doesn't matter what your "intentions" were.

I’ll run all future posts by you for clearance if that’s ok as I didn’t realise you were the profile in charge of checking all comments related precisely to what the OP was asking. Good to know for anything moving forward. Happy Christmas to you and yours x

This! My kids are getting an epic present mountain because they are getting such thrills as Cheerios, grinch cereal (this is probably pure sugar and not normal in our house because my kids are tiny) crisps, mario shaped noodles….any semi reasonable grocery that has a fun character slapped on it and that we’d use normally anyway. Since we normally do everything own brand. I do this at birthdays too and it’s lots of fun. We will probably get to about 15/20 gifts each this way

I’m not gonna lie my ds would find this weird more than anything, there’s cans of his fave drink in the fridge already.😬

It mainly works because some of it is special or semi special and we’ve been doing it their whole lives. DH always gets his coffee and expensive hot sauce on his birthday, I get gluten free biscuits… It will only work if your DS sometimes runs out of these things or is big into silly joy

Water bottle
pens
notebook
maltesers

Agree with exploding kittens and/or taco cat goat cheese pizza
juggling balls
voucher/promise of a session for clip and climb or similar

Does he have a phone? New phone case and/or a charging bank?

If he's into footie/rugby then you could get some of those mud scrapers for studded boots

The six is a good card game for around that age, my 12yo likes it. He's getting the family edition of cards against humanity but it's a bit more expensive

Well you've missed a trick there because unless he has his fave drink all year round ready in the fridge, you can defo give them bits and pieces like that for xmas, even if its stocking filler

Unless your kids wouldn't appreciate them...but then you've got other issues going on!