Comments on: Holiday Buying: More Pressure Today Than 40 Years Ago?

By: Buy and Sell

Buy and Sell — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:28:56 +0000

I don’t think it’s “these days” really – except that stuff is so much cheaper these days, the same kind of dollar spending gets a bigger pile of plastic crap – I think it’s just a family culture thing. In my family, adults don’t really get gifts, and kids get a small gift & a savings bond. Some families are all about quantity. Some do the charitable donation thing.Buy and Sell

By: Diane MacEachern

Diane MacEachern — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:21:15 +0000

I always say, “Repetition is the key to understanding.” For years when my kids’ asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I’d say “a peaceful world” or “just one day when there’s no fighting.” They found that much more complicated than a pair of earrings or a new sweater! But they got the message. This year, my daughter looked at me and said, “I know what you want for Christmas this year.” “What?” I replied. “World peace,” she said. Then she added, “I’m not sure I can deliver…”!
.-= Diane MacEachern´s last blog ..Energy-Efficient Lights and Eco-Friendly Candles for the Holidays =-.

By: Beth Terry

Beth Terry — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:10:09 +0000

As I recall, my sister did not share the Country Camper with me, although my parents encouraged her to. See, she had scored a major coup against her older sister whom she perceived (probably rightly) to get all the good stuff first. Certainly, I got all the new clothes, while she wore my hand-me-downs. I, on the other hand, saw no benefit to this, since mom bought them 2 sizes too big and waited until they were 2 sizes to small for me to pass them down.

As an adult, I’m glad for my parents’ frugality. Then, I didn’t understand at all.
.-= Beth Terry´s last blog ..PlanetBox Stainless Steel Lunch Kit Give-Away =-.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:18:30 +0000

Our issue was that I asked for years for teh Barbie townhouse – which my sister got years later! :-)

Yes, I think my friends feel pressured to spend the exact same dollar amount and gift number for each child. And they wonder why they feel cluttered and are broke for months on end!
.-= Robbie´s last blog ..A precious gift =-.

By: tg

tg — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:55:54 +0000

Didn’t your sister Fran share the Country Camper with you? I mean, would your parents have really gotten two if you both asked? In my family, a gift that big would be one that was addressed to both little girls and that we’d be expected to share.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:37:07 +0000

My son is 4. This is the first year I’m getting him any gifts at all. His grandparents go so overboard, I never felt like I could give him anything…but they give him all sorts of crap we just have to donate or regift, so this year we’re getting him some things we want him to have.

We’ve tried a variety of tactics and I think the answer is, no matter what they say, they buy things because they like to buy things and Christmas is just an excuse. For the people who aren’t huge shopping fans, we’ve negotiated expectations down (he’s getting hand-me-downs from his same-age cousins, both toys & clothes). The grandparents are just not able to be negotiated with, on a number of issues. Fine. If he wants to bug us about something (he really wants a Transformer toy) we tell him “talk to Grandma.”

Those traditions are a lot of work to change, because they involve a lot of different people at once. Maybe this year the recession will have an effect.

By: Eleanor

Eleanor — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Right after college (12 days after my last final) I was on a plane to Mali, West Africa, for a stint in the Peace Corps. I spent the year acclimating to the tropics (hot!), desert (dry!), learning the language, and making friends in my village… oh, and attempting to “help” (mostly I entertained the natives and learned about real life). I learned that children are virtually universal – they all hate baths with soap (but love to play in water puddles with mud) and love playing with little boxes and tins in every culture.

The christmas in the middle of my service, just shy of a year after I left, my mom flew me home for the holidays. On the way home from the airport, I was informed that we had to make a quick stop at Toys R Us to pick up gifts, since it was on the way. I thought it would be fun to see an American store, with electricity and concrete floors and people who spoke English. I wasn’t ready. I walked through the doors and had a panic attack, the first and last in my life. I couldn’t breathe. I saw absolutely nothing that any child I’d spent the past year with would ever 1) imagine on their own, 2) play with for more than 5 minutes or 3) afford, ever. I very quickly identified the entire contents of the store as “Bandaids for Adults to Feel Better” and had to leave to cry in the parking lot. All that money, spent on plastic hug substitutes.

I cried for the children I knew in Mali who could eat for a lifetime off a fraction of the money spent at one Toys R Us in one christmas season. I cried for the children in the US who were being raised by plastic distractions. I’ve spent the years since wondering when we’re going to wake up. I reject the idea that we either have to choose to have less food than children or not enough time to spend with our children. It’s comforting to know others have too.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:51:26 +0000

Wow–I love the range of ideas presented here. I wish I had thought of limiting gifts when my first son was born, but to be honest, I think I (and a lot of other people too I imagine) transfer buying stuff for themselves to buying stuff for their kids–you still get that shopping buzz, minus the guilt. In any case, I have been cutting back, and last year did a “buy almost nothing” Christmas (though my husband did his best to make up the difference). This year I hope to buy/make/give even less to my kids–they don’t NEED anything. I’ve bought them books, a cooperative board game each (we have sharing issues), some art supplies and small (wooden, eco-friendly, expensive) toys for the stocking. I’m also knitting hats and hopefully sewing some clothes. I also use birthdays/Christmas to get them things they need like underwear and socks, and when relatives ask what to get, I try to steer them toward new coats/gloves/jeans–whatever the kids need that I’m too cheap to buy. That said, they still end up with a lot of cheap plastic crap (CPC) that comes in from relatives and friends and which most of the time ends up broken within a few days. I also am going to have them make gifts for relatives so they can get into the habit young (I’m running out of time on this, aren’t I?)
.-= Andrea´s last blog ..Holiday Traditions: Book Advent =-.

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:55:45 +0000

Usually, Christmas and Birthdays are a time to get developmental specific toys for my older daughter – kids seems to outgrow their toys and need new challenges. This year, I tried to make the most responsible choices and avoid as much plastic as I could. She really doesn’t care if something is new or used – packaging for kids is an annoyance when they can’t wait to play with something. So, I definitely pull from yard sales and Ebay.

It is tougher to pick gifts for my younger child because we generally have things from the first one. My youngest has slightly different interests though – so I resolved to buy one or two quality items from a responsible company instead of a bounty of cheap crap.

Aside from that – the kids pretty much just watch PBS cartoons and videos so that helps with the direct marketing of toys and crummy food too.

I would actually welcome used gift giving too – like a used Dooney and Bourke purse or a used in good condition sweater. My mom bought people antique jewlery – I thought that was a fun idea.

By: Billie

Billie — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:51:20 +0000

I did get that Country Camper! I loved it!!!!

Due to finances, our kids really haven’t gotten a whole bunch for Christmas. One year it was clothes and some books. The next year was mostly toys and so was the year after. What we discovered after the second year was that the kids really didn’t play with many of their toys. In fact, Piero hardly plays with any of his toys except his stuffed animals.

This year…. we are going to put away all their toys we are certain they don’t play with. If they ask for them, we will return them otherwise they will head to the thrift store after Christmas. If they haven’t missed them for 3 weeks, they aren’t playing with them.

This year we are going with a slightly higher budget but we are buying far fewer items with a higher ticket price. Most of the budget is being blown on a Wii with 2 games and the complete series of Fraggle Rock DVDs. They aren’t getting much outside of these two gifts which are being gifted to the kids together. The Wii is the only gift that Piero has asked for and we figure that it will likely be the only thing he would play with.

Wouldn’t it be nice if they played with items that were green? But that doesn’t seem to be what kids are attracted to these days. And it seems like a complete waste of money to buy things that they don’t play with.
.-= Billie´s last blog ..Happy Vacation =-.