Xmas Cards and Presents at Nursery

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dd does to nursery - she is 3yrs. The other day I got a list of all the names of the children in her class for sending xmas cards. I must admit I am surprised its happened so early - I thought kiddies xmas cards were only exchanged once they were at school. Is anyone else doing this for their ds or dd at nursery ?

Plus I was thinking of giving the nursery staff a present too. I'm looking for ideas. What do other people give ?

I agree with the list - they are usually requested by the parents in the first place. Our nursery used to do it but ds and dd would tell who they wanted to send cards to - not necessarily the whole list. However, the school is not aloud to give out lists, Katherine - I usually nip into the class a bit early and scribble down the names from either their book drawers or coat pegs.

bag of chocs

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Mine are 4 and 6, and they can send as many cards as they want, to whoever they want ... but they have to write them themselves! They start off reluctant, but as the postman comes round in school, they become more eager ... it's good writing practice. DS2 is actually sending very few to classmates - he seems to play more with children from the parallel class.

I think the cards for all the children is nonsense, but of course I don't want mine to be the only one who doesn't do it! Last year I made a potato-stamp with ds's initial, and got him to stamp all the cards. Obviously he got bored after a while, so I finished the stamping and did all the writing on my own. Pointless really. I think only one other child 'wrote' in the cards, the others were all done by the parents. Well, it bulks out the number of cards and makes for a nice display! As for the teachers, I gave a large box of chocolates.

Why can't the schools give out lists of names? No addresses, obviously. But if you're expected to give Xmas cards to classmates, how else are you to find out names? My ds still talks about children who left in September!

Well, I didn't ask for a list. And I don't want to. Who are these kids who love getting Christmas cards. DS is 26months and couldn't be less interested. He's pretty baffled by Christmas anyway. Wants father Christmas to bring him a ladder and a porcupine. As a kid I thought cards were rubbish and only opened them in the hope they might have money in! I am utterly, utterly amazed by the idea of two year olds sending and receiving cards - it's bonkers. And who does all the work? Not the bleedin' nursery, but ME!

Aloha - I assure you my 29mth old ds likes opening envelopes and looking at the pictures on the cards! His eyes lit up the other day I told him the name of the little girl who sent him in (she's his favourite ).

I love it all.... the whole thing!!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

I LOVE IT TOO!!!

Aloha, your post is hilarious!

Am particularly amused by the ladder/porcupine combination .

Guess what, I actually wasted several seconds wondering how I was going to get him an age-appropriate ladder and porcupine. He's getting Fimbles instead - and some stickers.

"age-appropriate ladder"!! LOL!

I like the list- otherwise I'd have no chance of finding out who to send to. This year I ds1 is at nursery and school - I asked school for a list today. DS2's name also seems to have gone onto the nursery list so we're getting loads of cards for him as well- he doesn't start until january!

presents. Did a mass shop in Thorntons yesterday for school. chocs going to his LSA, his teacher, the autism outreach worker and the SENCO, then a slightly bigger box to share around the others (there are some TA's etc attached to reception). Also have to get nursery keyworker something (she likes teddies so I'll have a look at the NAS house of fraser teddy bear, something for the manager and something for the other adults to share. The good thing was I spent so much in Thorntons I got a free box of chocs- yum.

Can I ask for some opinions. I have always written the xmas cards and then got ds1 to scribble on them. In the past this was the only time he would agree to hold a pen so it was useful. I'll do this again for nursery cards. However I'm wondering waht to do about school. obviously the children have all written their own names in the cards he receives. They all seem pretty good wth him, but I don't know how much understanding they have. What I don;t want is for him to scribble in the cards then get called a baby iyswim. So how likely is a reception child to a)notice and b)care?

DD started in reception in September and is not able to write her name (you very kindly gave me some advice on a dyspraxia thread) I've written her cards for her, she did some hugs and kisses on one but didn't want to do anything on the others. None of the other children seem to have taken any notice as far as I can tell and I think she would have said if anyone had said something.

This seems crazy to me. We have a gang of parents at nursery who have become friends, so we tend to go out for a drink after the Xmas play with our children, and we often email one another. But we don't exchange Xmas cards. There are so many children at nursery, including very part time ones whose parents we never meet, or whose parents are dead shy, that nursery just says that everyone understands not every child can be invited to every birthday party; no one would dream of sending Xmas cards to the whole class. Sometimes the teachers send little cards to all their children, but I sort of think this is a little hint to parents to put some money in the staff collection box or bring a gift. We just give a small gift like chocolates to ds's own keyworkers. I have to spend so many hours signing our work Xmas cards that I never to do personal ones any more!

I agree with Aloha. AND I Love Xmas

DS plays with all the kids at nursery and yes he has a 'special' friend. But he (and more than likely the others) will not lose sleep if they do not get cards from him. I did one general one for the staff and will get a large tin of chocolates for them all.

Having said that, I hated it in school when you received cards from people you hardly spoke to and felt duty-bound to go out to buy a card to send in return

dd aged 3.3 months made her cards for her "friends" in nursery, i printed off the computer a quarter folded a4 paper with a blank front, happy christmas lots of love from and a big space for dd to write her name(not very elegible i must admit but she enjoyed doing the kisses..xx)and on the back put a 'created by **'so at least her name was on it!
i thought she would remember about 8 or 9 of her favourite friends and that would be it(and that was all i was going to send to...)but she actually remembered 21 out of 23 of the other childrens names so i sent in 2 blank names and asked nursery to put the name on the top which they did and apparently the two she couldn't remember have only been going for a couple of weeks, well done dd
all we put on the front was stickers from elc and glitter pens and she happily spent 2 hours making them last weekend with lovely christmas music in the background
ps:dd has cerebral palsy and i was so proud of her and enjoyed spending some quality time with her

Clearly I have the only 2 year old in the world who won't let me get away with NOT sending cards to her nursery class mates.

I have had so much grief over these wretched cards, a list would have been lovely! Trying to work out names and spellings from dd's pronouciation is hilarious. I just know we're going to miss someone out and it's going to be embarrasing.

And of course we're getting the staff a gift (a box of smellies to share out) - these people are SAINTS in my view!

I think its lovely that 2 year olds want Christmas cards. It shows a lot of social understanding IMO.

I must say I don't 'do the list' - dd1 (4) has just sent a wodge of them to the children she particularly likes.

Jimjams, in Reception not all the children can write much yet or produce signatures on demand, so I think for this year at least you'll be fine. Ds declined to sign his cards (making me feel Aloha has a very good point here) but his class is small and "they're all doing it". He did sign the cards to his teachers though, little creep
Bk, fancy not wanting to spend hours brandishing felt and velcro to fashion an elf/mince pie/bell costume! For a consideration, I will do this for you in future, I'm ashamed to say I love sewing, papier mache etc. Hope your ds is a "resounding" success, mine had to be separated from the other lead elf due to fisticuffs on stage.
Agree with the others that a list compiled by a parent is a godsend. There is one reception mum who has three older children at the school and she had all our details out of us by the end of day 2. It's so handy and we've all used it loads.

Thanks for the replies - that's helpful.

Working at Thornton's would be dh's dream job!

BK, my dd is a servant in her play (same nursery, remember?) I was in shock at having to make costume - thought I had a good two more years to go before all that! I have just got then a huge box of M&S Chocs - worried now should have got them individual pressies.