The cost of presents and all this i pad ipod shmod is crazy and it is getting more expensive every year, the money spent on kids and grandkids these days is nuts. Ok so i'm old and i dont understand but i remenber how poor we were, i never expected Christmas presents,,hell if i didnt wake up with a hardon Christamas morning i'd had nothing to play with.

I think that, if anything, advertising has just become more prevalent and aggressive. Poor people still don't get ~~~~ for Christmas, I assure you.

And, seriously, can someone please explain to me what the appeal of an Ipad is? You can get a laptop for roughly the same price. And the laptop has a keyboard. Maybe I'm just being a dumb guy about this... but seriously.

Yeah, poor people still get absolute f* all for Christmas.

Hell if I know, I cannot stand the Ipad or pod or whatever the hell the next coaster they will sell will be called.

Haha! Agreed and double agree with pancakes, don't get the appeal of the ipad.
But ooo that Galaxy 3 phone looks sweet :D Woops it was kids that are spoiled right? :D

Kids are definitely too high tech now. I grew up with little expectations. I knew not to ask for what I really wanted because I wasn't gonna get it. I think that helped me in the long run. Now being grown, I don't even ask for anything at all. I usually just get a gift card with a few bucks and can get what I need.

my children have never been ones to beg. As they were growing up we did not have much money and there were 4 of them...they always had a good Christmas - I made sure of it and so did their dad. But it was not usually super expensive

my kids are prolly more hi tech than most - I wouldn;t know what to get them - one is a Dr EEE (almost) the other a developer and a third ...well on his way ( he tested into calculus in his frosh yr) help

but not quite as high tech mom here also knows that the Ipad is a BIG WTF??????


my kids were spoiled with LOVE from both parents

My kids are all adults now, but we never had a lot of material things, but we always had love. One year they were 6,7,8 they saw the Angel Tree At Wal-mart and asked what it was for. So I explained to them it was for kids who's parents couldn't afford to get there kids gifts. The huddled into a circle whispering for a minute and then asked "Mom can we pick out a gift for them and you not get us one of our gifts?" I couldn't help but smile, every year after that it was a family tradition to go get gifts for the Angel Tree.

my family talked about this recently, with it being christmas and all

that the 'expectation' for a gift is the opposite of what christmas is about

should be about family, and God(for christians), and giving(not always material things, but giving time, or effort,,etc,,)

same thing with valentines day, though its not christian, some schools require children to give a card to everyone in the class,, which kind of defeats the 'special' ness of a card,,,,,


this year we are just picking one name and buying for one person each, with no indicator on the gift of who gave it

we each can feel good to give to each other, and we each should appreciate that someone got something for us,,,,,,the 'credit' makes it more of a competition than a day of appreciation...

Fact is that its not just the kids but adults are equally bad and greedy about gifts. I chose years ago to no longer accept Christmas gifts and told people to take that money that they would have spent on me and donate it to a charity. I also don't buy gifts as I don't think Christmas should be about buying gifts. However; I just decided not to celebrate Christmas anymore as it means nothing to me and only brings back bad memories but I to those that do celebrate it; I wish you all the best.

I do think this obsession with having Bonanza size Christmas' has really gotten out of hand. It sets up unrealistic expectations and sooner or later it backfires. Makes it excruciateing when finally the family comes to the end of the rope or worse runs out of rope because the inevitable hard times come along.

I will probably always enjoy giving gifts but I have made a concious effort to scale back and try to make more of my gifts center around a kindness than be about the bucks.

And as sad as it is I have had a few get their feelings hurt about it because when I was working full time plus I think a few got to where they depended on me to "make it happen" or just look the other way when a Thank You just wasn't gotten around to. I guess it kind of comes to "in doing we teach" and sometimes "less is more".

Being single I do think it is smart to realize that sometimes you have to be your own best friend and prepare for the holidays and plan ways to share the "reason for the season". Sometimes that is with friends and sometimes that is family but even sometimes that is with yourself to some degree and focusing on thoughts rather than things will bring the mind set around.

Thankfully, I have a child who would rather get books, a doctor play set, and maybe a car or two....

I think it's crazy when I hear parents talking about how they have to take two paychecks to buy their kids' Christmas presents.

Good for you Lindy, Reading with your child, imagination play, and toys that help a child manipulte their hands, bodies, and brains are soooooh much better for development and bonding with you and the love of learning.

Sure kids will fuss and plead for whatever is advertised on TV or their kids brag about but when kids get older and look back their happy memories are creating and copying things with their siblings, parents, grandparent's, and mentors.

It is not to say I think some technology skills are not very important because I really believe they are but some technology is a very short walk to things many kids do not have the maturity to handle and those who are good role models have to stay on top of it.

This year, I did get him one big techno thing...a Kurio7 tablet...it's kinda like an Ipad, just cheaper....

we use it as a positive reinforcement for good behavior, compliance, and he like the silly songs and cartoons we downloaded onto it...my son has autism, and this tablet was recommended by his occupational therapist.