Mom Gets Backlash for 638263848362 Christmas Gifts

[nelliebelle1197]

I have to admit my mom and I probably spent about $800 on two kids  this year. HOWEVER, half of that was for a set of real drums (on sale!) for my 8 year old, who is a naturally talented but rather lazy drummer. A friend's 4 year old tore up the head on his floor tom (from a second or third hand set of cheap junior drums we salvaged from my cousin's ex's kid) and his snare was too small. The cheap drums were killing his ear - the tone was terrible,  they can't be tuned and the cymbals were hideous. I figure since he is rather lazy with it,  a set of Ddrum mahogany  beginners would have a resale value, and the couple of professional drummers in my life agree.

Nothing in that pile looks to have a resale value.

[Grimalkin]

I really couldn't care less. Whatever floats your boat. My kids get things they need mixed with fun things. Some years a kid may get something expensive like concert tickets while another got Legos. Both are super happy. This year we are getting a kitten. I cannot wait! I have been visiting local shelters playing with cats all day like its my job. Not joking. I am torn about which ones to get. 

 

I really couldn't care less. Whatever floats your boat. My kids get things they need mixed with fun things. Some years a kid may get something expensive like concert tickets while another got Legos. Both are super happy. This year we are getting a kitten. I cannot wait! I have been visiting local shelters playing with cats all day like its my job. Not joking. I am torn about which ones to get. 

 

[Grimalkin]

I tried to remove the duplicates sorry! Those are just a few of my new friends. See the poor gal with the chopped tail? She is so flipping sweet. They all are. I want to play with cats as a profession. It's my new calling. (I never had a cat before)

[nelliebelle1197]

The hanging on the bars. Definitely.

[Karma]

11 hours ago, manda b said:

Looks like my mother in law's. She wraps everything. For example, she buys a pack of socks, she opens the pack and wraps each pair of socks.

My MIL used to wrap up cakes of soap for my FIL.  I could have understood it if they were "special" soaps, but no, just normal, everyday ones.

[Toothfairy]

Her life,  her money. 

[mango_fandango]

That's an average of £5 per gift. Hmmmm. Let's hope they're of a decent quality. And what kind of presents are they at £5 per gift?

Besides, who wraps and puts presents under the tree this early?? My parents were/are definitely of the last-minute-wrapping-on-Christmas-Eve mode of operation.

And yeah, this is definitely her bragging. 

[Chelio93]

7 hours ago, Milly-Molly-Mandy said:

Yes we use an online free generator that emails everyone the person they are getting a present for. Just one present for one person as opposed to 8 for each adult. 

First year we did it I saved $300. Which I spent on myself. Ha. 

 

I need that in my life. Does it keep track of previous years? We still draw names out of a hat. 

[Season of life...]

4 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

I really couldn't care less. Whatever floats your boat. My kids get things they need mixed with fun things. Some years a kid may get something expensive like concert tickets while another got Legos. Both are super happy. This year we are getting a kitten. I cannot wait! I have been visiting local shelters playing with cats all day like its my job. Not joking. I am torn about which ones to get. 

All of them--you need all of them. 

Joking aside, I never knew I was a cat person until my first rescue cat, and then I was hooked. Warning: they are like potato chips...it's hard to have only one. You're already showing the signs: you said you were getting "a kitten', but then said "I am torn about which ones to get". 

It's already starting...

[AlwaysExcited]

Why did she bother to buy Christmas tree at all?

[Jingerbread]

7 hours ago, Pixiedust1960 said:

I wonder how much is wanted or used. Who really needs that much stuff.  

I can't imagine the kids each have wish-lists 100 items long.  I can't imagine they're thrilled to spend all day just unwrapping crap.  This conspicuous display is for the mother, no one else.  They'd probably be happier with a handful of bigger gifts they probably can't buy themselves without a year of savings.  Which would you rather had as a kid who has plenty, a new video game console or ten pairs of individually wrapped socks?

I'll disclose (with hesitation, but I'm doing it because I have a point to make) that this year we're spending about that much on gifts, but, and this is a big but, it's a family vacation we'll take in spring to Disney World.  We don't feel the need to make a post meant to get a rise out of people the way that woman did, or to share with the world an estimate of how much we're spending.  Her intention is to show off, and it gets more attention and looks more impressive to have presents nearly to the ceiling than to wrap a few boxes with bigger presents in them.  Our little envelopes that we're passing out with info on the trip looks even less impressive, but we're got nothing to prove to the world like she does.   

That's really what this is about.  It's not the amount spent.  It's her intention in buying hundreds of packages, then posting a photo to show off.  I usually find it distasteful when people post pictures meant to show off how many things they bought, especially when they do it every year.

2 hours ago, Toothfairy said:

Her life,  her money. 

In the end, yes, but that doesn't mean other people can't state opinions.

[ALM7]

7 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

I want to play with cats as a profession. It's my new calling. (I never had a cat before)

Cats are so entertaining.  My dog and I just obey them, and we all get along great!

[Jeebusismycopilot]

50 minutes ago, ALM7 said:

Cats are so entertaining.  My dog and I just obey them, and we all get along great!

Yes. My cats are my headship. As long as I listen and obey, life is just fine. 

[morri]

12 hours ago, Karma said:

Kris Kringle is where each person in the family/social group is allocated one other person to buy for, so each person gives and receives one gift - usually a higher value than if everyone was buying a gift for each person.  Because it's a draw, the present is not "from" the person buying it, but is from Kris Kringle (another name I guess for Santa Claus).  It works really well for large families. 

ccalled yulklap here or secret santa.

[Karma]

Yes, secret Santa is a common phrase here too.  

[Grimalkin]

6 hours ago, AlwaysExcited said:

Why did she bother to buy Christmas tree at all?

Exactly, she could of gone the non traditional route and shaped the mountain into a tree- she would of been the star of Pinterest.

[xlurker]

Just craziness I tell you!  My kids have always done well and I have spent significantly less on the whole 4 of us, not to mention the extended family members we also buy presents...to my eyes it seems wasteful, and possibly gluttonous

[BackseatMom]

We are actually headed the other way. 4 gifts: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read.

[Walking Cat Bed]

Obviously the one trying to steal your purse has claimed you, @Grimalkin.

[Catey]

Oversharing.

That is all I see.  Going out on a limb here I am going to say that there are  1000's of houses out there just as bad if not worse. My teenagers BFF is getting a 2015 Jeep for x-mas. I think that if you are going to hang your excesses out there for the word to see then buckle up baby and get ready for the backlash. Then don't try to mitigate by downplaying it.

 

I wonder what it will look Christmas morning AFTER Santa pops over, or is she so ito herself she just gives it all from her, no need to share the glory with Mr Claus.

 

[ck29_2000]

7 minutes ago, Catey said:

I wonder what it will look Christmas morning AFTER Santa pops over, or is she so into herself she just gives it all from her, no need to share the glory with Mr Claus.

That fat man in a red suit can haul his ass right back into the sleigh. I saved up for the presents, I bought the presents, I wrapped the presents, they are from ME.  If Santa wants his name on some presents he can put them under the damn tree, but he's not getting any of mine.

[Karma]

17 hours ago, Jingerbread said:

 

I'll disclose (with hesitation, but I'm doing it because I have a point to make) that this year we're spending about that much on gifts, but, and this is a big but, it's a family vacation we'll take in spring to Disney World.   Snipped.  Our little envelopes that we're passing out with info on the trip looks even less impressive, but we're got nothing to prove to the world like she does.   

 

We did this with our kids when they were 9 and 6.  They got some presents to unwrap, but the main present was a trip to Disneyland.  DH printed out the letters DISNEYLAND , cut them out and put them in an envelope, so they had to solve the puzzle.  Such excitement when they worked it out!  DH travels a lot for work and is allowed to use the frequent flyer points himself, which is a huge saving when travelling with a family. Another year we had booked a holiday to South Africa in January and he was really keen to do the puzzle thing again, but since we all had to have a few vaccinations it wouldn't work  

[Elementally Amy]

My parents raised my nephew and i sort of helped (as much as one can while in high school and college.)  He had a friend who always received what he wanted, even the newest gaming systems.  My nephew received plenty because people in the family felt they had to make it up to him that his parents were crummy, but it was still nothing compared to what his friend received.

It was just so much fun explaining to a 6 or 7 yr old why Santa liked his friend more.  I personally will not teach my future kids the whole Santa thing, but in this case it was up to my parents and i wasn't going to spoil that for them when he was that young.

[morri]

i am not going to purposefully teach her either. it is in the culture though, but I wont do the pretend things that thngs are from santa etc.

[polecat]

10 hours ago, Catey said:

Oversharing.

That is all I see.  Going out on a limb here I am going to say that there are  1000's of houses out there just as bad if not worse. My teenagers BFF is getting a 2015 Jeep for x-mas. I think that if you are going to hang your excesses out there for the word to see then buckle up baby and get ready for the backlash. Then don't try to mitigate by downplaying it.

 

I wonder what it will look Christmas morning AFTER Santa pops over, or is she so ito herself she just gives it all from her, no need to share the glory with Mr Claus.

 

Lots of people don't "do" Mr. Claus. 

I wonder, though, how her kids feel about this. My mom always, always overdid it on Christmas buying a ridiculous amount of presents (never ever did our tree look like this, though; even my mom had her limits). And the gifts were usually not anything we wanted. They were things SHE wanted us to have. Which, really, isn't that bad. I buy my kids things they need or I want them to have, like art kits or clothing, but I also buy them things they'd like, too. My mom's gifts were often things that we actively *didn't want (like old lady vests or cloth-covered "diaries" that didn't lock so that she could read them). BUT by the time we were teens, we'd realized she was mostly just trying to buy our love. 

Basically, my mom's excesses were about HER. And I get the distinct feeling that this woman is also making this all about HER. She's probably no fun to live with throughout the year and worse on Christmas day (because of course her kids are going to have to respond with lavish praise and over-the-top gratitude). 

 

(want to add a bit of a postscript to say that sometimes my mom also sometimes pulled off fabulous gifts that were absolutely dead-on accurate, like the year she built AND decorated AND completely furnished gorgeous Victorian dollhouses for us.)