30 replies to this topic

[momof3luvs1]

I am just wondering when do most of you have your kids write their official holiday list? I usually have my kids write ther letters to Santa in late November/early December but I have found in the past for this to become a problem. I usually have a general idea of what they want and buy it from sales or bf but their lists always surprise me and I find myself rushing out to get more gifts in December and at this point have gone WAY over budget and WAY over with the gift load. Am thinking of having them wriite it in early November this year before Black Friday but it kinda seems a bit early....Im not sure What do you all do?

[kerr1976]

My children are young - almost 6 and 3. My 6 year old has been adding to her list for months. LOL - everytime she says "Oh, I want that" I write it on a piece of paper in my purse and add it to her list for her. It works well for us because it's basically the same stuff she wants over and over - so I pretend to just keep adding to her list. :-) When she gets older, I don't know what we'll do. I'm just enjoying these young years! LOL

[fluffkin79]

They already did it. Our family drew the names for the family gift exchange a couple weeks ago. We need to give ideas for the exchange, so I took the kids to Toys R Us for Geoffery's Birthday Party and let the kids look around. We made their lists then. We told them that we weren't buying anything, we just wanted to look around for ideas of things they would like so we can tell Grandma and the family "Secret Santa". Then I dropped off the kids and DH off at home and went back to TRU to take advantage of the B2G1 sale and the $5/$25 coupon. I've never had them make lists this early before. I have always just gotten whatever I think is good, then shown them those items in the stores or ads closer to Christmas time - right before I had them make their lists. It usually works, they add whatever I point out to them to their lists. That will still probably work for the younger 2, but now my DD7 is starting to get ideas from her classmates and commercial TV about what she has to have. Hopefully it doesn't change too much between now and then. I don't have the extra cash to run out and buy more stuff, and the kids just don't need it. If they really change their minds I will have to return what I already have.

[pogiporkchop]

I'm referencing the kids' lists from last year (especially DD's) for the most part but have been keeping my ears open and do take them looking every so often. No doubt DD will add some more odd things to her list this year...

[conj]

I have them make lists when they are bored and I am out of chores to assign or when someone asks for one. I never shop off their lists... I know what they like... and Santa gets them something they will like.... whether they ask for it or not.

[speeddiva]

Mine make their lists in September and the rule is it cannot be changed after the 1st week of December....because I'm usually done shopping by then LOL

[doublehsmom]

I generally know what I my kids want and then whenever you ask them they can almost alway let you know right off the top of their head what they want. We actually just drew names for our family today (the kids aren't included just adults) but everyone asked the kids and they knew what they wanted I am however still going to have them make a list because we have 7 different places that we go to for christmas and we buy for everyone and they buy for us.

[berry1014]

We wait until Oct, after the kids birthdays and then take them to toys r us and spend the afternoon walking around the store. The kids will tell us what they want and we write it down in a notebook...then later that evening we have them mark off the top favorite items. This also helps when we have family members asking what the kdis want

[Elmck]

I have DD's list in my purse. We do like others and whenever she shows me something she likes I write it down. I can pretty wll judge what she chooses and know what she will really play with. The list helps me know what to tell the grandma's and other relatives what to get, or what to give me money for so I can shop for them.

[dwc designs]

Every year around this time we go out and collect the toy catalogs from all the local stores. This is about the time of year that the girls (DD8 and DD5) go on Santa watch. They start tracking there behavior, finally start listening to us the first time we ask them to do something, (ok maybe the 2nd or 3rd), and the most important start putting together their list. Last year DD5 just grabbed the toy books and circled every page in the book. I asked her to go back and only pick what she really wants. She came back 10 minutes later and every page was still circled except an X across the pages with baby toys because she said "baby stuff is annoying, and she's a big girl." Fast forward to this year. I explained to them that they can't just circle every page again. So first up is DD8. She is such a girly girl and anything in the book that was pink she picked. Easy enough for santa to make a list off of that. Next is DD5. I asked if she circled every page again. She told me me no, "I put a check on every page!" I explained to her that she can't possibly want every toy in the book, some of those are for boys. Her reasoning for doing so was genius though and I wish I thought of it as a kid. Her answer was "I know but if Santa brings me all that stuff for free, I can sell it to the boys in my class and buy lots of more toys." Coming up with the list is always so fun and also so painful in our house. Please feel free to share your Christmas list stories.

[Elmck]

I always ask DD why did you pick this, will you play with it, where will we keep it etc... Last year she wanted a tool bench,(we thought it folded up easily but doesn't) When I asked her why she wanted it she said "Mom girls have to be able to fix things too, boys can't do it all" She got the tool bench!! Her list is always surprising and I would love to get the whole list for her but can't afford to do that. Thankfully she does get a lot of it between all the different family members.

[dwc designs]

LOL. Smart girl. Any tool benches on the list for this year?

[SuggaD]

DD hasn't made a list in years. Lists made it so much easier, even when it was a hard to find item. I have a much harder time trying to figure out what she will like. She has too much stuff as it is and not enough free time to play with them all.

[dwc designs]

DD hasn't made a list in years. Lists made it so much easier, even when it was a hard to find item. I have a much harder time trying to figure out what she will like. She has too much stuff as it is and not enough free time to play with them all.

How old is she? Every year we would drop off all their lightly used toys and such to the local daycares.

[Princess7915]

My Aunt's kids (I have none and they are really the only "kids" now in the family) are each allowed to ask Santa for like their top 5 things they want most. They may or may not get them but it limits the kids from making a huge list - it also helps my Aunt and Uncle figure out what the kids really want most out of the billions of things the "have to have". Then everything else gets filtered on to the general Wish List.

[digman6]

our daughter who is 4 wanted a train set last year ,we did not get her one though. this year she said she wants a train set AGAIN. I thought ok i will look for one. i found one target is gonna have that is Thomas the Train for like 12 bucks. I showed it to her and she said, OH that isnt the kind I like, so I guess she isnt a Thomas the Train fan. If you want a funny story my mom died 6 weeks before Xmas when my oldest daughter was 2 ( she is 11 now). I over bought to deal with my loss at the time so we had many gifts under the tree. SHe saw them all and said," **** there are a lot of gifts to open !!" we laughed to ourselves and said , not to talk that way. how could you not laugh with how random that statement was

[mrsjackrabbit]

we let each of our 3 kids make a list of the top 10 things they want. my youngest (dd7) list is complete. ds9 hasnt even started..well not on paper anyways. he keeps telling me "oh i want that" but hasnt written anything down. the oldest (dd14) just wants clothes from her favorite stores...nothing specific. somewhat funny is my dd7 list. some items are: a cell phone for when im 10 (this is the agreed upon age in our house), a laptop for when im 10 (no set rule on this), a red christmas tree, and a BIG barbie house.....she doesnt play w/barbies and they arent on her list......maybe i should ask what this is for???

[SuggaD]

our daughter who is 4 wanted a train set last year ,we did not get her one though. This year she said she wants a train set again. I thought ok i will look for one. I found one target is gonna have that is thomas the train for like 12 bucks. I showed it to her and she said, oh that isnt the kind i like, so i guess she isnt a thomas the train fan.

If you want a funny story my mom died 6 weeks before xmas when my oldest daughter was 2 ( she is 11 now). I over bought to deal with my loss at the time so we had many gifts under the tree. She saw them all and said," **** there are a lot of gifts to open !!" we laughed to ourselves and said , not to talk that way. How could you not laugh with how random that statement was

funny!!!

[SuggaD]

How old is she? Every year we would drop off all their lightly used toys and such to the local daycares.

DD is 11 now. But she is a pack rat. She doesn't like to give anything away. Our plan is when she turns 13, we are going to garage sale everything in her play room and then use the proceeds to turn the room into a teen lounge. With all the stuff she has, I'm certain I'll be able to mark around $1500. LOL

[conj]

DD has informed me she wants cash, so she can buy a plane ticket to visit her aunt. And, she wants a rabbit. and a turtle.

[Scanner420]

I am literally sitting in my car in the TRU Parking Lot with my two boys. We just finished making their Santa lists!! My wife's still inside with the girls!! It's already a madhouse inside with the sales going on this weekend!!!

[Chewbybell]

My kids wrote their official Santa lists a couple of days ago. They ask for their top five things that they want, and what is funny is that the most expensive thing on either of their lists was a DS game that went on sale at GameStop a couple of months ago for $10. Santa informs me that he already has all of their top five wishes too that he has collected through the year

[Scanner420]

Most expensive thing on: DS-9 List- Caster Scooter DD-8 List- Laptop/Message Phone DS-6- List- DS Lite DD-4-List- FAO Schwartz Kitchen Accessories

[SuggaD]

Most expensive thing on:

DS-9 List- Caster Scooter
DD-8 List- Laptop/Message Phone
DS-6- List- DS Lite
DD-4-List- FAO Schwartz Kitchen Accessories

I would highly recommend getting one of the caster scooters at the mall as opposed to razor. They will get more use out of it. The razor one is short.

[Scanner420]

Where in the mall??

[Elmck]

DD7's list hasabout 30 items listed. I'll list a few Barbie Camper Car for Barbies E reader not a kids one she wants a Nook MP3 player Barbies Books (if you don't get me a Nook) I asked her why she wanted a Nook. Her answer,"I like to read a lot like you do mom, but my room is small and I only have so much room. If you get one and I get one, we'll have less mess. She has heard me talking about wanting one!! I just don't think I can afford the e reader we will see.

[Elmck]

I would highly recommend getting one of the caster scooters at the mall as opposed to razor. They will get more use out of it. The razor one is short.

DD is tall for 7 how expensive are the caster scooters? Could be birthday present.

[llist]

DS7 wrote his out yesterday... definitely top of the list is a ds... and other random stuff... looks like Santa's gonna have to give in this year and get that poor boy his ds lol

[SuggaD]

DD is tall for 7 how expensive are the caster scooters? Could be birthday present.

The ones at the mall come in 2 sizes. The smaller is plenty big for a tall 7 year old and will last a few years, at least. It runs about $119-$129. The bigger one is about $20 more. We got DD11 a razor one last year and unfortunately, it was very uncomfortable for her - she was 5'1 at the time and needed to bend over a lot, so she didn't rider it much. Her friends received the ones from the mall and they were both taller and sturdier and they use them often. DD loved using theirs. Very fun toy.

[pogiporkchop]

I just told mine they could start theirs tonight if they hurried and finished their homework