Spin off on the 80 presents -- is more better?

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I've always gotten a thrill out of giving my kid a giant pile of presents. Of course, my wallet doesn't feel the same way.

One thing that I do to make up for this is I wrap things separately. When he was little if Santa brought a pack of 10 hotwheels cars or 3 bakugan or whatever, the package was open and each car was wrapped separately. One year he was into art supplies. Now, you can buy lovely art sets with crayons and markers and paints all in a nice box but I would never buy that (at least not for Christmas). Instead I bought and wrapped a plastic box, a pad of paper, a box of 16 crayons, a box of pencils, a pack of markers, a tray of water colors, a pair of scissors, a glue stick etc . . . His stocking was filled to the brim with maybe 10 smaller items.

This year he wanted a quill pen so he could write like Harry Potter. At the store they sold a set -- quill pen and ink. Or you could buy just the pen or just the ink. Buying them together cost the same as separately. In the end I bought them together because the nib seemed nicer, but I was tempted to buy them separately just to have 2 presents. I will definitely wrap him the hat and gloves set I bought as 2 things.

So, do you wrap things separately or together?

 

[mamacatnv]

My DH likes the kids to have a huge pile of presents so like you I do tend to wrap a lot of things individually

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I wrap things individually unless it makes one child have WAY more than another. We try to spend the same ballpark $ amount on each of the kids but sometimes because of the price of the gifts one child will have fewer packages to open then another. If that is the case then I may try to stretch a few out for the one that has fewer and combine a few for the one that has more little gifts.

 

[DawnM]

Well, it depends on what it is! A 300 piece lego set will NOT get wrapped individually!~ although now that you mention it, it might be fun to watch him try to unwrap it!

I try to buy filler gifts if we don't have as many for a child.....candy bars each wrapped ind., life savers, that sort of thing.

I don't like to get too many *filler* or silly things that just wind up not being used and take up room.

My older two are starting to not care about the amount of gifts as much since they now want expensive items.

Dawn

 

[C.Ann]

Have always wrapped things individually.. Looks like there's a whole heck of a lot more there than the money I have actually spent..

 

[DawnM]

BTW: Could you like the original thread?

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I bundle stuff for our kids. We have a lot of people over, so they get a lot of gifts even with things bundled.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We take turns opening, so I prefer items wrapped together and not separately.

DH's family stopped doing the presents for everyone a few years ago, but we did it for a long while and the number of people--OY! They did the take turns opening and their family "fun" consisted of wrapping items as separate as possible. It was irritating considering the next to last year took us 4 hours to open gifts and the last year, we had to have an intermission.

I don't think more is better, especially when we take our time. If you were doing a free for all as I did as a kid, then more would prolong the opening fun. Since the kids have a free for all stocking that they get to open--I do try to wrap everything individually. It allows me more sleep.

But whatever works for one's family is the way to go.

 

[Straycat]

BTW: Could you like the original thread?

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2617142

 

[Straycat]

I don't enjoy wrapping presents that much to want to break up the presents into more gifts. If every present was a square or rectangle box, great but those oddly shaped ones are no fun to wrap. I got 2 fisher price dinosaurs sitting in my closet laughing at me saying haha, you have to wrap us soon.

If it was a 'short on money' year, I would consider wrapping individually but we don't buy presents thoughout the year, so the kids get plenty for Christmas.

I ended up with a few more for DD4 than I did for DS4, so I will be bundling the clothes for the Princess and Me dolls with the dolls. That will even things out. With the bundling, they will both be getting 10 presents each.

 

[Pixiedust34]

I've always wrapped gifts individually, too. I think it looks pretty, and it stretches out the fun of opening gifts.

 

[Disney Doll]

That whole "I like to see lots of presents" thing strikes a nerve with me.

My late DMIL (who I really did like overall so this is not a "rotten MIL" vent) used to buy tons of gifts. Lots of them were somewhat useless knick knacks, but she also loved seeing TONS of presents under the tree. I would be shopping with her and she'd buy DH a shirt and I'd say "But that's not his size" and she'd say "That's OK, you can return it after the holiday but his sisters all have 25 presents and he only has 24 so he needs one more thing to open".

The problem was that I had to return it and she never could find the receipt so I'd return it after Christmas and get the 75% marked down after Christmas price instead of whatever price she actually paid for it. After a while, it got to be a pain to do the returns, so I would put it in the donaion bag.

 

[GoldieSaysMeep]

For adults, I wrap things as I get them, however it will be easiest to wrap.

For kids, I wrap seperate because little kids seem to really enjoy ripping paper off of the presents. lol.

 

[Sorsha]

OP and other posters, this is NOT a flame on you, just a general observation - YMMV.

The only problem I have with this is it seems to foster such a GIMME MORE mentality. I have a friend who has always done this with her son and he always ended up with a pile of forty-eleven presents under the tree. He would keep count - literally, and the next year, get all bent out of shape if the present tally didn't meet or exceed last year's count! I would also catch him looking under the tree boasting to my kids "You only have 6 presents each under here, I have 27 at my house!!" Even now, as an older teenager, he is alllll about the STUFF; very into possessions and not very grateful for the things he has.

We don't do this with our kids - we just try to get each kid the same number of gifts, and keep it simple. Usually 2 or 3 from mom and dad, and 1 from each other relative who gives or sends a gift. "Santa" fills the stockings (although I have no more believers - its just all in the spirit).

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

The only problem I have with this is it seems to foster such a GIMME MORE mentality. I have a friend who has always done this with her son and he always ended up with a pile of forty-eleven presents under the tree. He would keep count - literally, and the next year, get all bent out of shape if the present tally didn't meet or exceed last year's count!

All I can think of is Dudley Dursley on his birthday

"37? But last year, LAHHHST YEAR, I had 38"

"Some of them are quite a bit bigger than last year"

"I don't care how big they are!"

"Here's what we'll do, poppet, when we go out we'll buy you 2 NEW presents. How does that sound?"

I'm the OP and my kid doesn't do that. I raise my kid all year long, and whether I wrap the hotwheels together or separately isn't what makes him spoiled or not spoiled. My guess is that your friend's son is either quite different from mine tempermentally, or he's getting different messages throughout the year.

One thing that jumps out at me in reading the other posts, is that the size of the family makes a difference. My child is the only child, and only grandchild. So, even if he takes a loooong time opening his gifts, it still goes pretty fast. I also don't have to worry about making things even.

 

[Pakey]

I never wrapped things separately. Santa gifts were never wrapped and once they got older, they were more interested in playing than unwrapping boxes.

 

[SaraJayne]

Are more presents better? No.

 

[goodeats]

I'm just the opposite. DD is only 17 months old, but I was trying to follow the '3 gift rule'. Because you know Jesus only got 3 gifts (we're not very religious at all, but I like this line of thinking). Ideally, this is something to wear, something to read, and something to play with. So I got a few books and wrapped them up together, and an outfit with a hat and wrapped it up together, and then Santa is bringing a big toy (kitchen - unwrapped of course!). We have a small house, and with she being the first grandchild on both sides who knows how many toys we're going to end up with!

Of course she's also getting a stocking with various doo-dads in it.

 

[NotUrsula]

My rule for checking myself is that come the fall, I ask my kids what they got for Christmas last year. If they cannot remember at least 2 items, then I gave them too many things. (I'm not going for the sort of experience I had as a child, where I can STILL remember what my parents gave me pretty much every year, because they only gave two gifts and it was a BIG deal to them to buy gifts, but if my kid has no clue at all, then there was so much that it was a blur, and it shouldn't be.)

My goal is for my kids to get about 4 items each from us, with more from family. Normally it tops out at about 10 items.

 

[Ember]

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"