Feckin' Xmas

Chuffola

Just had to drop £900 on two XBox Ones for my sons for Xmas. To be fair they had saved £150 each towards them (14 yr old twins) but that £600.... That's two flights to Amsterdam + hotel or a nice new guitar and/or amp. FFS. It's a couple of Strymons and change!

Bah, and indeed, humbug.

I'll get some socks in return. Which, indirectly, I'll have paid for.

Myranda

Could you not buy them each a photograph of an xbox one and then buy yourself a guitar and enough gin to seem like a drunk dad who accidentally  forgot Christmas - they're young, they'll forget

Phil_aka_Pip

When I were a lad we never 'ad stuff like Xboxes. And I'm sure that if such things did exist, I'd have had to share it. One each is a bit much

Myranda

Why not one console and two controllers? They're twins right? 

Chuffola

It seems clear to me that neither of you understand the way of the teenage world.

I totally agree - one between two would be more than generous. However, xboxes are their window on the world - that's how they talk to their mates, via the headsets and they have them in their rooms. 

I never got anything like that as a nipper but, to be fair, unlike their friends they don't have iPhones or hollister t shirts or Doctor Dre Beat headphones or Nike shoes.

They're generally not spoiled so, despite my ranting, a big pressie each at Xmas isn't that extravagant.

I like Myranda's idea of photo and gin, though. Have a wisdom.

Myranda

Tasty tasty gin!

monquixote

If you want to see their little faces light up, buy them a torch.

Fretwired

monquixote said:

If you want to see their little faces light up, buy them a torch.

That's how my dad thought ... I got a few torches as presents .. :-)

Emp_Fab

£900 on children's Christmas presents ?

You're either very, very rich - or insane.

My money's on the latter.

You could have sold them for medical experiments and made a profit.

jd0272

I stay out of it frankly. Two of my kids got an iPad each last year and that was just for starters. Causes much unrest. They get way too much. But each year, come November, she goes berserk with the presents. There's a wii sitting in a cupboard somewhere they've never even looked at.

What will we get them this year she says? Well you fckd yourself last year love, says I, cause how do you top the iPads?

Harmony and cheer blah blah blah.

chillidoggy

I haven't got to worry about kid's Chrimbo presies any more, my sons all grown up (still in hospital though). Instead I've been landed with £4,000 for his Uni fees.

strumjoughlamps

jd0272 said:

What will we get them this year she says? Well you fckd yourself last year love, says I, cause how do you top the iPads?

I don't really get this attitude, sounds very negative to your partners decisions, and why the need to 'top' the iPads.. I would imagine the kids would find it very easy to play you against each other... remember 'united we stand divided we fall'..

Fusionista

Christmas is just a drag.  

Best one I ever had was on my own (well with a few hundred strangers) in an ashram in India. No excess, warm balmy days, lots of singing and playing guitar (and other instruments) - it was fun.  No crappy retail advertising, shitty consumer durables, rubbish telly, sickening sentimentality or family tensions.  

If I had £900 spare I think it might be a fishing trip to the Azores...

Bod

Most of our kids presents come from car boot sales.  Why spend full whack when you can have the stuff that other people paid full price for and the kids lost interest in by Boxing Day?

boogieman

My kids are grown up too but we used to put a firm cap on their Xmas prez spending. Once they got to the age where they started wanting expensive, usually electronic, stuff they were also old enough to know how much it cost. If they wanted say a games console and it was above the spend limit they'd either have to contribute from their savings, ask a relative to put in as well or wait till a birthday and combine Xmas & birthday gifts. Kids already think you're made of money, there's no point giving them extra encouragement.

strumjoughlamps

Bod said:

Most of our kids presents come from car boot sales.  Why spend full whack when you can have the stuff that other people paid full price for and the kids lost interest in by Boxing Day?

interestingly enough my 3 yr old who desperately wants a digger, this one..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rolly-Tractor-Frontloader-Rear-Excavator/dp/B00091V932

will be getting this exact one..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141107183161?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

as there was no way I was spending £150 on such an item, and the  one I got off eBay I cannot find anything on it that says its been used, we were so chuffed to have won it.. so I think in some cases 2nd hand can work for pressies.

jd0272

strumjoughlamps;85097" said:

jd0272 said:

What will we get them this year she says? Well you fckd yourself last year love, says I, cause how do you top the iPads?










I don't really get this attitude, sounds very negative to your partners decisions, and why the need to 'top' the iPads.. I would imagine the kids would find it very easy to play you against each other... remember 'united we stand divided we fall'..

Because she spoils them consistently giving the reward without the children 'earning' through consistent reasonable behaviour. Hence they're behavioural fucking lunatics.

And if the pressies aren't 'as good' as last year's then they're not happy.

Bod

I guess it depends what they've been brought up to expect.  My kids don't bat an eyelid at second-hand, and are aware that they get more presents if they're second-hand than they would if we bought new.  I'm not saying that everything they get is second-hand, but the vast majority is.

chillidoggy

Secondhand was de rigueur when I was a kid. If I didn't get secondhand, I got nothing.

Chuffola

Agree - 2nd hand stiff is excellent and I've done that with bikes, drum kits, PCs.

Bod

Chuffola said:

Agree - 2nd hand stiff is excellent and I've done that with bikes, drum kits, PCs.

I draw the line at secondhand stiffs.  I don't want social services involved.