Let’s talk Christmas

[nesser1981]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?

I have my list pretty much finished, budget in place, I’m just second guessing myself.

I’m actually struggling more with my 5 year old than my 9 year old and 12 year old.

[kristalund]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?
I have a couple small things picked up for my Kiddos. I always start strong and think I am going to get it all done early, but there is always last minute gifts.

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?
10, 7.5 and 5 are my Kiddos

I need to get my list and budget in order!!

[shawnbear]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?
I start around Summer and finish with Black Friday usually.

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?
10 year old boy. He is really into BeyBlades and video games. Gone are the days of action figures and cheaper toys. sigh.

[LeeAndra]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?
Lord no. I am lucky to have started Christmas shopping by Black Friday. I usually finish a couple of days before Christmas!

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?
I have my 2yo fur-nephew, 3yo son, my 8yo daughter, my 13yo nephew, my 34yo sister, my 62yo aunt, my 67yo parents (and a bday present for my mom), my 81yo grandfather, and my 86yo grandmother.

My husband buys his 15yo son's gifts so those are part of the budget as well but not something I have to pick out.

I'm not too worried about the 3yo seeing as how he's 3. I'll poke around online and see what strikes me. The same goes for my sister's dog. I am buying my nephew's old Xbox 360 + some games for my daughter so she's all set, and my nephew has asked for Best Buy GCs to buy a new Xbox.

The grownups are always the tricky ones especially with my mom's bday being 3 days before Christmas. My sister bought us tickets to see 98 Degrees in concert as my Christmas & bday gift so I'm trying to think of a comparable experience she might enjoy. I've got no ideas so far for the others!

[KingsQueen82]

We're taking a trip to Disneyland next month so that's kind of our Christmas but besides that I told my girls we were going to do the Something You Want/Need/Wear/Read thingy this year. They have so much more than they could ever play with/read/wear/etc and we'll be moving again in a year so I'm trying to keep the clutter down a bit!

Anyways, I have the want and read part taken care of (Hatchimals and Captain Underpants books) but the wear and need are harder for me. I tend to just get them stuff as they outgrow it/break it/etc so I have already filled their needs. But I'm sure they'll end up needing something else before Christmas comes!

One of my girls also still believes in Santa so I'm going to have to come up with something from him as well. My oldest doesn't really play with toys but she does love to open blind bags (like Tsum Tsums and Nom Noms) so I'm thinking a big basket of those and my littlest wants the Paw Patrol lookout tower, or something else Paw Patrol.

[carrie1977]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?
Ummmm...no. I haven't even thought about Christmas yet. Not even on my radar. I usually finish the week before...well, I try to.

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?
My children are 14 (girl...ugh...hardest) and 10 (boy...easy).
Other:
Little brother (16)
Niece (15)
Nephews (11 and 6)

[YepBrook]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?
Yes! I started a little. Mostly stocking stuffers. I did get a Hatchimal for my daughter because she has been dying for one. I figured I should buy it now before the Christmas budget gets tight.

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?
Ben is 11 and Grace is 8.

I don't have a plan yet. They are still working on their wish lists.

[kendallt]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?
A little here and there. I usually don't finish until right before Christmas. I actually enjoy going shopping during the Christmas rush. It puts me in a Christmasy mood.

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?
Mostly for my 16-year-old daughter. She wants makeup and clothes, which is pretty easy. We will probably also be getting her a printer for school.

[renatasluis]

Dont have to shop for christmas we dont celebrate that with presents.
We do gifts at sinterklaas .this is dec 5 th.

[Neverland Scraps]

Have you started shopping?
Yes, I shop all year long, picking up things here and there. However as the kids get older, it gets harder and harder to pick things up in the beginning of the year when things are clearanced.


When do you usually finish?
I will be done shopping by Thanksgiving and will spend Black Friday weekend wrapping Christmas presents. Once Cyber Monday rolls around, I refuse to shop (Walmart, mall, Target, Kohls) until the first or second week of January. I cannot stand the madness, the amount of people or the negative attitudes around the holiday. I just refuse to shop unless it's to the commissary to pick up food!

Ages you are shopping for?
16 year old girl, 13 year old girl and 4 year old boy

What are you planning to get?
16 year old:
RedBubble shirts(will order soon)
poetry books - purchased
cd/music - purchased
makeup (will be ordering soon from NYX)
bath bombs (will be ordering soon)
hippie glasses (watching prices on Amazon)

13 year old:
copic markers (those suckers are expensive!) - purchased
oil pastels - purchased
It book - purchased
RedBubble Shirts(will be ordering when I order big sister's clothes)

4 year old:
Ender Dragon plush - purchased
Lego Jr Set (maybe two) - purchased one
Fingerlings Monkey - just purchased today

I guess this means that I'm almost done shopping for Christmas!
And for hubby, I told him that I'd paint his office (xbox room) a blue for his Detroit Lions. So maybe I'll do that sometime during December as that's his only Christmas present since he buys whatever he wants all year long.

I also forgot to mention every year my husband usually buys one or two presents for each of the kids. This year instead of doing individual he bought them a Nintendo Switch with two or three games. I forgot about that because it's been purchased a few weeks and hiding in our closet!

[jacinda]

Both my girls (14 and 11) are getting new tablets since their old ones are dying, and a santa stocking of little knick knacks/lollies. That's about it. Both of them will have just had birthdays, so really don't need anymore 'things'. Their Dad will hopefully return from deployment just a few days before Christmas, and that's all they really want. Already bought their tablets last month at a big sale. Hubby and I don't do gifts for each other besides a box of chocolates.

[wendyp]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?
We don't celebrate christmas with many gifts only a few like something read and to wear and maybe something small to play.

Mostly we celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5. And i already started shopping for that. Most of the time i'm finished 3 days before the day lol.

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?
4 year old:
- Hatchimals Suprise a shared suprise with her sister since there are 2 inside.
- My little pony the Krystal palace with princess cadence
- princess little kingdom: Ariel
- coloring scribble plates
- book
- chocolate letter

10 year old:
- Hatchimals suprise with her younger sisters. There are 2 inside the egg, so each one.
- Gel a peel
- book
- chocolate letter

9 year old:
- book
- chocolate letter
still searching so they each have at least 5 gifts.

[rach3975]

I'm trying to ignore the fact that I have to start buying gifts again....nooooo! I have no idea what I'm getting anyone, and none of the kids has any ideas for me, either.

Jason is 14. The only thing he truly wants is a gaming computer, and that's not in the budget right now. It doesn't help that his birthday was a few weeks ago, so the ideas I had I used for his birthday. I'll get him some books and gift cards, but I need to come up with at least one real gift.

Ben is my one somewhat easy kid to buy for. He's 11, but since he's very into magic there are always related things I can buy him. I may also get him a new portable DVD player to replace the one that broke over the summer; he has some DVDs that he still likes.

Lauren has gotten hard to buy for. She's almost 9 and has outgrown toys, but she's still young enough that she'd be crushed if she didn't get anything fun. I'll get her a few things for her room, a gift card for Bath and Body Works that she asked for, and I have no idea what else. Her birthday is in December, so I need to come up with 2 sets of gifts. She loves history and has been asking to go to Colonial Williamsburg (about 3 hours away), so maybe her big birthday present will be an IOU for the 2 of us to go down to Williamsburg for a weekend.

Other than the kids, I'll buy a small gift for Dan (and more for his January birthday) and give calendars to the adults in my extended family. Not sure yet if I'm buying for my niece and nephews--we usually only exchange gifts for the kids if we'll be seeing each other over the holidays.

My strategy is usually to do the bulk of my shopping online on Black Friday. I sometimes find great gifts on sale that I wouldn't have thought of or that would have been too expensive without the sales. The week or two after Black Friday I'll fill in with anything else I still need.

[jaye]

I'm lucky if I get my tree up before the 22nd, lol. Not a big fan of Christmas until it gets to dinner and the evening.

Haven't started shopping but not worried at all.

Buying for my soon to be 20 year son. Will be cash, couple of gift cards and I always do a Santa bag with socks, underwear, body wash and his favourite goodies.

My nieces who will be 16 just after Christmas and I will get them clothing gift cards and a little something to open. Birthday will be fast food/coffee gift cards.

My parents will be a gift card to their favourite restaurant and a nice bottle of wine or something I've made.

Brother and sister in law will be a nice local bottle of whiskey

[mariewilcox]

Have you started shopping? Yes

When do you usually finish? Usually not until the week of Christmas because I spread it out over each paycheck.

Ages you are shopping for? 17 year old daughter; son/daughter-in-law; grandkids (8 and 4); parents, sisters

What are you planning to get? Everyone is getting my daughter's senior photo framed. I already have my daughter's 2 big-ticket items bought (yearbook and LL Bean boots). She'll get a couple gift cards and her stocking stuff. I have my list done and a few gifts bought for others on my list. I'll pick up the rest with each pay check from now until Christmas.

[lovely1m]

I have started. I usually finish the last of the little things a week before Christmas. I am kinda behind though. My son is 11 years old. He wants a new bike and a drone. I think I will get those. Then the rest of my family needs to be done, too.

[~Cindy~]

Have you started shopping? When do you usually finish?
No other than a few small things I saw during the year. I usually finish by the first of December.

Ages you are shopping for? What are you planning to get?
Cole (8), Cade (4 Nov 1st), Audrey (6 months).

With the baby I'm not too worried. She's too little to even know.

Cade I want to get a bike for his birthday or Christmas but, I told him he had to use the potty all the time. So he's not getting one until then. I've looked for things and just can't seem to find anything.

Cole wants a xbox one and that's a BIG gift. So I told him if I got him that then that would be it. Which I will probably do a few smaller things.

We started a limit of five gifts per child last year. With one big gift they get from Santa. They have SO much stuff that it gets harder and harder to figure out what they'd even use or like.

[JennNtheBoys]

Have you started shopping? Yes, I have been picking at things here and there since last Christmas.

When do you usually finish? a few days before Christmas LOL

Ages you are shopping for? for my kids -- 10, 12 and 15

What are you planning to get? These guys are all pretty easy to shop for, but they want expensive things so that's where it becomes tricky. They will all get some Lego, a new Nerf Gun, and I am hoping to get them snowshoes this year as something to get them outside and active. Other than that, it'll be a new video game each, some nerdy collectibles/table top games, they each have asked for some specific clothes.... and other than that I really don't know. They don't get a whole heck of a lot throughout the year, so Christmas is a day full of spoiling in our family.

[hollyxann]

Have you started shopping? Yes and No lol....I've only bought 2 smaller things but hey it's a start lol

When do you usually finish? I try to finish a week or 2 before Christmas...although last year I pushed it to the last minute. lol

Ages you are shopping for? 6 yr old...and then my nieces and nephews which can be tricky

What are you planning to get? I'm currently at a lost and all over the place. Kennedy loves crafts, Barbies, Legos, Calico Critters, Trolls, animals and American Girl doll stuff. Sooooooo.......pretty easy because I can go anywhere with it but that's the hard part.
I think I'm leaning towards more Barbie stuff, Legos, games and crafts.