How many gifts does Santa bring to your house?

My husband and I have been debating this for about four years. We both grew up in entirely different households. When I was six, the next youngest person in the family was about 35. Santa went to three houses (mine, my grandparents and my Great Aunt's house) and brought me presents! It was an amazing time. My husband has three siblings and his family was not wealthy. Each child only received between 5-7 presents. I have been blessed with being a real bargain hunter. I find items that are incredilbly expensive for a very small price. Our children (now 3 & 4) have never gotten under 30 gifts from Santa. Last year this included a battery operated ride on ATV for each one and so many other really nice gifts. We *may* have spent about $100 for all of the presents. I figure that most people would spoil their kids if they could get everything really cheap.

I guess I am posing two questions:

1) How many gifts does Santa bring to your house?

2) If you could around a $130 on two children and end up with around 30 - 40 gifts for each child, would you?

Please let me know your opinion. Thanks!

Christina

Please tell your secrets for bargain hunting.

My husband and I both grew up pretty poor. Three to 8 gifts would have been great. We over-compensate for that with our two. The more the better. But we spend as much as we can, usually around $200 per child. We don't have a wealthy family, so gifts from relatives are rare. But the gifts can range in price from $1 to $70. So 1 expensive gift, like a bike, can mean a lot fewer gifts.

And last, I sure hope you would volunteer your services to a charity. They could really use someone like you to get the biggest bang for their buck.

send me your email and I will give you all the details you want!!! I don't want to bore these nice folks. I may not answer for a few days as we are going on a road trip, but rest assured that I will answer Sunday or Monday. I bet I can help you through it and your kids can have some great gifts.

Christina
yknottnc@triad.rr.com

P.S. I have given to Toys For Tots and I share with my family as well.

They get stockings full of treats from Mom and Dad, though.

Only kid in my whole generation. Got buried in presents.
Are you talking real "From Santa" gifts? How old are your kids?

Personally I'd get fewer, better gifts, unless they're so little nothing will last long anyway.

is way too many. They must be totally overwhelmed. And opening gift after gift on Christmas Eve or Morning, only encourages an attitude of "what's next?"

My husband's family is Jewish. I was raised Catholic, although I'm not a believer any more. However, I cheerfully celebrate all holidays in a purely secular manner. I grew to prefer Hannukah over Christmas, because of the one gift per night tradition. It forced me to think very hard about what one gift each kid would open that night, and they appreciated that one gift much more than the dozen or so they'd get on Christmas Day.

One of the most successful Hannukah gifts was a flashlight for each kid. They then went outside and played flashlight tag for several hours.

It's great that you're a good bargain shopper, and can get lots of stuff for a relatively small amount of money, but the kids have no idea how much you've spent. They only know they're getting things. You really should scale back on the number of gifts in a serious way. Or you'll find yourself in about ten years being completely unable to satisfy their greed.

No kids here so we're not too big on gifts. But if you can make a big splash for such a reasonable cost, why not? You'll build some great memories and, in later years, your kids will probably love to learn your shopping secrets.


i love to bargain hunt too

Sorry all you kiddie DU'ers, it's the truth.:D