Comments on: Doing Christmas Different This Year

By: Festival of Frugality - The Dough Roller

Festival of Frugality - The Dough Roller — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:05:56 +0000

[...] presents Doing Christmas Different This Year posted at No Debt [...]

By: Valuable Links For Your Life-Jan 7-2009 | Value For Your Life

Valuable Links For Your Life-Jan 7-2009 | Value For Your Life — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:54:19 +0000

[...] Debt Plan’s post about Doing Christmas Different This Year caught my attention. Even though the holiday season is over, I highly recommend you read [...]

By: Philip

Philip — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:42:41 +0000

Along those lines of annoying toys, when my nephew was still about 2-3 we found this toy train that he could sit on and if you pressed any button on it, it would go off making noises for about 5 minutes! He loved that toy and made sure that they fixed it when it quit making noise i.e. new batteries. We know that his parents hated it but we loved how much he would make it go off. I know it will come back and bite me if I ever have kids.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:18:29 +0000

@DFD: “Oh yea… that? It broke… two days later…”

By: DebtFreeDave

DebtFreeDave — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:00:35 +0000

Kevin,
I don’t think they intentionally set out to annoy me but once they found out it annoyed me, they made sure they got that gift instead of our suggestions. As far as giving it away or selling it, I’m sure we will eventually but won’t tell them; they would be pretty ticked off probably.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:05:28 +0000

@Denise: I can imagine it getting more difficult over time. I’d like to introduce kids to a bunch of board games — they’re inexpensive, some can be educational, and all of them require them to think. For example, Yahtzee is a great game because of the math, numbers, and problem solving/strategy.

@DebtFreeDave: We did the same thing with the shopping limit. (Although as I wrote about today, my wife did surprise me with a night at a B&B). Did your relatives intentionally buy it to annoy you or is that just how it turned out? How would they feel if you sold it or gave it away instead?

By: DebtFreeDave

DebtFreeDave — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:14:32 +0000

It is hard with kids; my son is almost 3 and this is the first Christmas where he had some concept that something was going on. My wife and I did limit our shopping on each other to $100 a piece and know each other enough to know what the other needs/wants. We went about the same amount with our son but there were a lot more gifts as we got a lot of deals on Thomas the Tank Engine stuff, his latest obsession. The relatives thing is another story, basically a bunch of stuff that he barely touched when it was opened and stuff that was bought mainly to annoy us (like a Wonder Pets dancing Ming-Ming).

By: Denise

Denise — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 10:42:33 +0000

Just set the firm rule and that is that. Usually it was one show picked by us, in the beginning, like a PBS cartoon type show, and then one show picked by my daughter. Then the TV was off for everyone while she was awake. There were so many other things to do that it is easier that you think it is. We always had a garden, chores, finding bugs outside, going to the library….. When they get older, it is much harder. Also, she had good toys that she could occupy herself with.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:39:46 +0000

@Alisha – good luck with the fight in the future

@Philip – Sounds like a good idea. Kind of like Secret Santa?

@Denise – How do you manage to limit television time?

By: Denise

Denise — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:21:59 +0000

I’m glad that you had a good Christmas. I have found that one main key to keep children from becoming consumeristic is to not allow them to watch television or severely limit it to prepicked shows. Also, pick a number of gifts and hold firm. To limit a family on gift giving to children is very hard. Ive had limited success with this. Usually, a theme gift is the best with everyone contributing. This year, my daughter desperately wanted a gym membership, she is sixteen, and everyone gave her money and gifts towards that. Good luck.