When my tween was little, I was under the theory that more under the Christmas Tree was better. I wanted her to be “wow”ed by the sight of the tree on Christmas morning. At the same time, I had a budget to keep. Not only would I scour the sale ads, but I would also buy a lot of little items so that she had more to open. I thought that I was getting more for my money. The truth is that I was getting more…more junk.
Now that I have two children, I have begun to realize that not only do we own a lot of stuff– which is not good as a military family that has to keep under a weight limit each time we move. I also realized that my children do not need much. I look at the amount of toys that my children have in comparison to what I had growing up and am amazed. A person may naturally think that it must be great being a kid with an abundance of toys, but the truth is that most of the toys don’t get played with. The favorite toys get attention and the rest usually find a spot lost at the back of a closet.
Over the past two years, while I still stuck to the same budget, I began to buy bigger toys. This is not always in size, but in price or quality. This came fairly natural with my tween as she is getting to the age where the presents that she wants cost more money. With my toddler, I had to make a more conscious choice. Rather than buying several smaller items, I chose to spend almost half of her Christmas money on a more expensive item that I knew she would use more.
Sometimes, you do risk spending a chunk of your budget on something that may not be worth the money in the amount of playtime. For that, I advise that you watch ahead of time as to what your child likes and wants. Be sure to also do your research. Find product reviews online or get advice from parents with children slightly older than yours. “Family Fun” magazine is great at giving product tested reviews of toys that are supposed to be hot for Christmas which allows parents to get a user-tested viewpoint prior to the toys even hitting the shelves.
Even with wanting to crack down on what my children get, I still want them to have fun opening gifts on Christmas morning and the tree to not look bare underneath. A lot of the smaller gifts that I supplement with are toys that the girls already have a collection of like Barbies or a train set. By adding to a collection, it helps with both ensure that the toy gets played with as well as storage since the toy will already have a group that it goes with. I know that my daughters love getting new accessories or tracks for their train set…it adds to the fun.
I’m sure that at this point, some of my readers are wondering why I am mentioning Christmas gifts when Christmas is still almost a year away. The answer is because gift giving happens year round at birthdays. This may be a lesson that I learned from Christmas, but it is definitely applicable to the rest of the year. Next Friday, I will round out January with my final “What I learned from Christmas” dealing with toy organization as well as a bonus “What I learned from Christmas” Quick Tip to make up for the missed week of blogging.
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