Xmas Cards and Presents at Nursery

[Metrobaby]

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 ?

marina, you may regret making that offer, as it sounds like an excellent one to me! i see a thriving business opportunity for you making "home-made" costumes for hopeless Kate Reddy types like myself who really can't do/don't have time for the crafty stuff but feel under huge (entirely self-imposed) pressure to make fantastic costumes themselves. LOL at elves bashing eachother, bless the little darlings

dinny, they start them young don't they? i'm sure a box of chocs will be fine. haven't done my nursery presents yet. i'm thinking of resorting to bribery next year to get ds allocated to a part with an "easy" costume

I work in the nursery theat dd attends, and we are always appreciative of gifts. It has to be said that we receive soooooo many boxes oif chocs, so something different is always nice!! With regards to Xmas cards, some parents do send them to all the children, others don't send any. I shall wait and see how many cards dd receives!!

Littlerach, any suggestions of gifts you'd like to receive from parents? I am crap at presents

BossyKate, they start them so young! Looking foward to seeing it now have made the costume (well, dp did it!) Good plan re bribery to get easy costume next time (though I think ours was easy - I'm just not very handy with a sewing kit).

Feel a bit sad that ds's nursery isn't having a nativity play, this is his one and only Christmas in a pre-school environment.

As for sending cards, all the children/teachers have little message pots, and so it's really exciting for ds to see a little envelope sitting in it!

hi dinny

ds's play was today. i take it back - the only "easy" costume was carol singers. all the others were really tough! had a couple of really good moans with other mothers about how awful it is making these costumes.

ds was tearful and overcome, as were many of the kids. all in all it was quite sweet, but don't think it would have been a loss to anyone to forgo it - bah humbug!

Ours is next week (all THREE performances!) Looking forward to mulled wine afterwards though!!

When I was at work, we used to put presents that were addressed to more than one member of staff under the children's Christmas Tree. We then let the children all sit round in a circle on Christmas Eve and help us unwrap them, and share them out between all the staff (eg. two boxes of chocs or biccies each).
If any were addressed to a particular member of staff, they obviously kept them, and these were usually things like smellies, candle holders, pic frames etc.

And yes, all the pre-school children used to send each other Christmas cards!

Funnily enough, gifts that were always really appreciated were Gift vouchers for Boots or somewhere. Much better than smellies, as it's hard to get things to people's tastes.

I dont send cards - cant be arsed - ds1 writes his own so thats fine

BTW why so you all have to make costumes year after year?

At allthe nursetys/schools ds1 and 2 have been to they make them all and reuse them every year 0 - much less time consuming

Bossykate - I have tried relentlessly to suss you out but I am too hopeless and still don't know which one you are. I thought the children all did terribly well. Especially the reindeer (no, that wasn't mine) and that carol singer. It is odd knowing you were somewhere in that ghastly tent at the same time as me. I would have tried harder to locate you (ie: stood on a chair and yelled "which one of you is bossykate???" but had to chase an angel in severe distress.

haha, jan! thought you must be the mother of one of the mince pies from your earlier comments! hope you will not be offended if i say i would prefer to remain anonymous as far as nursery goes - i don't know who you are either, so we are quits.

yes they did do reasonably well, i did think the whole concept was rather too sophisticated for some of the younger ones. the reindeer was very good - also the oldest one???

JimJams, does your DS1 have enough pencil control and/or the understanding to write over his name in pen if you've written it in pencil? You can then rub the pencil out and it looks like he's written it all himself. Sorry, I can't recall what his level of ability is with this sort of thing or if he'll cooperate etc. I don't think the children in his class would notice TBH, just let him "sign" the cards and write his name in for him afterwards.

DD's 2 1/2 and I received a list with 30 anmes on it, of which I could only visualise about 10 faces.
I've only sent cards to the children I know those that DD plays with more often, or whose mums I know some way or another, I bought a box of cholocates for the nursery staff...I know some other mothers make individual gifts, but ther's about 10 people at dd's nursery, including the manager and it would be difficult to find soemthing for everyone...other than the usual cosmetics...not very original I know, but isn't it the thought that counts....?

I must say initially I was appalled by the idea of being required to write out 30 Xmas cards - but as I've read through this thread I've changed my mind. So long as its voluntary I think its quite a nice idea - and on that basis it would be useful to have a list of names. DD's creche are very big on the idea of giving presents rather than receiving (all the parents receive gifts from the children - this year it was laminated handprints wrapped in pictures drawn by the kids) so it would be nice to reinforce this and get her to make some cards for her favourite teachers and little friends.

nah- he just scribbles soupy. I wrote the school ones. I'll write his nursery ones and get him to scribble too.

JimJams, it occurred to me only today that very few of his classmates will be able to read other children's names anyway so it won't matter if he scribbles or not. The child will ask their parent who the card is from and they can read what you've written.

Your way is definitely quicker than getting a 4 3/4 year old to write them all himself though. 6 down, 23 to go... Sigh.

DS1 wrote his name on 15 nursery cards yesterday. This afternoon he has 24 to do for his school nursery!

I totally agree, couldn’t have written it better.
its for the kids to enjoy and get excited to open their cards.

@MumToTwinz this thread is from 2003! The child in the OP is 23 now!

The child I struggled to get to write cards now has a degree and is taking professional exams.