Do you do kids grab bags for extended family?

[DaisyD]

I've never heard of grab bags. We buy for all the kids in the family. In DH's family they stop buying for the kids once they reach 18 but we don't. We buy for them because they are still our neices and nephews no matter what their ages. Honesly I don't know what to tell you. Maybe reduce the $40 a kid to something more manageable. That is a lot of kids to be spending $40 each for, especially if money is tight. Even $25 a kid is still nice and you can still get them something good.

 

[CEDmom]

I think your DH's cousins needs to remind her DD about the true meaning of the holiday. I can't imagine getting gifts for that many children or worse having my child receive gifts from that many people. Who has a house big enough for all that stuff.

I love the idea of a grab bag. It allows you to spend more and get something someone would really like rather than buy something junky that'll get broken in 5 minutes.

I do have an idea for you though. It's something a friend did as a party favor for her DD's birthday. She gave each child a $5 Barnes and Noble gift card. For the younger ones that's enough for a paperback Junie B Jones type book. Maybe you could go a little higher for the older kids but it's still a great gift no matter the amount.

 

[tekmom]

Well, I'm back from shopping. I got the 3 teenaged girls $15.00 i tunes gift cards, the 1 teenaged nephew a $15.00 game stop gift card, the one 9 year old a "Hoodwinked" dvd, the 7, 8, and 6 year old girls really cute watches on sale for $8.00 each. (tried to find Tomagotchis but they were all out) I got a Bionicle for the 7 year old boy and for the almost 3 year old boy, I got a four pack of cute puzzles. For the 3 1/2 year old girl I got a Dora the Explorer magnetic paper dolls set and for the 6 week old I got a little soft stroller toy and cute little soft feet slippers. Everything total was around $145.00. Everything is very nice and I hope they enjoy their gifts. Thanks for everyone's advice and help! I really appreciate it!

 

[mamatojon]

Well, I'm back from shopping. I got the 3 teenaged girls $15.00 i tunes gift cards, the 1 teenaged nephew a $15.00 game stop gift card, the one 9 year old a "Hoodwinked" dvd, the 7, 8, and 6 year old girls really cute watches on sale for $8.00 each. (tried to find Tomagotchis but they were all out) I got a Bionicle for the 7 year old boy and for the almost 3 year old boy, I got a four pack of cute puzzles. For the 3 1/2 year old girl I got a Dora the Explorer magnetic paper dolls set and for the 6 week old I got a little soft stroller toy and cute little soft feet slippers. Everything total was around $145.00. Everything is very nice and I hope they enjoy their gifts. Thanks for everyone's advice and help! I really appreciate it!

That all sounds great! I'm sure they will love it.

 

[Todd&Copper]

We have a small extended family - Mom has 1 sister (who has 2 kids) and Dad was an only child. The parents always got gifts for the nieces/nephews. A couple of years, my cousins bought individual presents for DSis and I (and they were always $1 Store type garbage) while we always just threw our money in with our parents to get gifts for the cousins. If we had a bigger family, I think a grab bag or Secret Santa would have been great b/c the small, junky presents were always a let down - I know I was always hoping for one larger present instead of two or three smaller ones.
Good luck with the individual presents thing! They sound really good.

 

[simba928]

On my mom's side of the family, there are 7 nieces and nephews ranging in age from 3 to 16 (me being the oldest). The adults always buy for all the kids. They always spend the same amount on all of us. The second youngest is 6 years old, I think. She really wants something that is somewhat expensive this year for Christmas. It is twice as much as the amount spent on the kids. My mom and aunt have told her that they would be more than happy to buy it for her, but explained that that would be the only thing she would get from both of them combined, which means that she would have less gifts to open than the rest of us. She is perfectly fine with that. Therefore, I think the problem is with your SIL(?). If you'd like, you can do a grab bag for the kids. Like the adults do one for the kids and the kids do a seperate one for eachother. Me and my cousins do that every year. The first few years, we would draw names on Thanksgiving and would buy a gift with a 10$ limit for that person. Last year we all bought 10$ gift cards, put them in a big bag on Christmas and took turns drawing the wrapped gift cards (they were all wrapped in boxes). This year we drew names on Thanksgiving and are buying a 10$ gift card for that particular person. My one cousin was so cute. She was so excited about doing a grab bag with the "big kids". I was writing the names out on little pieces of paper and she asked if she could write her name. And then we were drawing names and she picked one (after spending a couple minutes trying to decide which folded piece of paper would be best). We told her to look at it and make sure it wasn't herself and then go give it to her mom. She looked at it and ran out of the room yelling "Mommy! I get to do a grab bag! But I can't tell anybody who I got!" LOL.

 

[SleepyMom]

We have been trying for years to get DH's family to play the number game and exchange presents that way, but no one will listen to our ideas. They are all dead set on drawing names, but the fun part comes in when no one wants this person's name or that person's, so it ends up being us "assigned" names. I hate that.

As for the kids, it was always expected for everyone to buy for each kid. OK, I can do that, I actually enjoy shopping and finding that special something for each of the nieces and nephews. Except DH's one brother who never bought for any niece or nephew and then would sit and ask his two kids.. "what did you get from Uncle Z and Aunt Q?" "How about Aunt L and Uncle W?" He would go down and list them all and expect presents from each for his kids and never once bought for any of their kids I always wanted to ask our two DD's what they got from Uncle P, but I never did.