A Christmas with kids question...

I find most kids have no idea what things cost, so no.

I try to keep it equal in the amount of money we spend. As they have gotten older the # of gifts doesn't seem to matter to them. I don't know that they, at 11 & 9, keep track. I do. I know my brother & I did as kids and there was definite times it was not very even. Many of the things they get/ask for are things like video games that end up being shared anyway. 2 boys, close in age and with similar interests make for a lot of overlap!

I individually wrap everything so I try to make sure the stack of gifts is equal because they work their way through their gifts one at a time. Price wise I try to get them what they want but I add a few things for the one who wants less pricey stuff.

With my kids being 9 years apart it's just feasible to spend the same amount and get the same # of gifts (or even remotely the same) DS14 understands that he gets far less items but more is spent on him, we've made that clear ever since YDS arrived. This year he's getting an Xbox One and tix to an NBA game, if we spent anywhere near that amount on DS5 he'd have more gifts than he ever needed. But if they were closer in age we'd try to keep it more equal, or at least less obvious.

Yes, I keep the number and value equal.

The number has to be equal as we all take turns opening and it would be obvious if some didn't have the same number of turns as the other.

I just don't think it's that hard to keep it equal.

Now why don't I just read your response before I even bother replying  You always say what I like in a better way!!

I aim to keep the total spent and number the same. they do know that we spend about the same amount, so when they ask for the bigger ticket items, that is going to mean less gifts for them overall. but even then, i'll usually wrap up something small like batteries or their favorite cereal or something silly, because they do alternate opening gifts and it's no fun to watch brother open one after another when you're finished.

I had 3 brothers and we always had the same number of gifts or very close. each year one of us would have a big ticket item, my parents rotated who got it each year. we never kept track money-wise if we were equal, we just noticed number of gifs.

My two have always played the game of who wins Christmas. At this point, they are 28 and 32 and it is a joke but yes, they counted. Every year, one of the jumps up and yells "I won Christmas!"

I keep things equal with my kids. My dad was always pitting us against each other, so everything was a competition. In the end, we dumped him and kept our friendships with our siblings.

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I never paid any attention to that as a child. I doubt my sister did either. The BF's father is obsessive about being dollar-wise equal to all of his children. An example: a few years ago he took the whole family on vacation. Youngest sister's luggage was way overweight and he had to pay $50 so she could check her bag. When they arrived at their destination, he gave the other three children $50 to be equal.

Another: a few years ago at Christmas, all the children got checks. This was based on the fact that he paid for the driveway for oldest sister (let's say it was $5k for the driveway). So oldest sister got a check for $1k (I'm making these numbers up), he had also paid for some work on youngest sister's house, maybe $2k, so her check was $4k and the other two children each got checks for $6k.

I should note, the baby in the family (my BF) is 37, long past the time when children should even be paying attention to things being equal.

It wasn't something I paid attention to when I was a child and my kids don't either. I do spend the same amount on each, though. My kids are pretty good about understanding that if they ask for a high dollar amount toy, they will get less in total number of gifts.

I spend about the same with the kids, but don't worry if it's not exactly the same. And I don't try to get them the same amount of gifts. I give them the option of getting something expensive, but getting less gifts or getting less expensive gifts and getting more.

When they were little, it was pretty easy for me to keep the cost/number of gifts even.  But now that they are older, one year my oldest really wanted a laptop.  So that was much more expensive than what her younger sisters wanted.  So she knew she would have less presents, but she didn't care at all!  Then when my younger girls were that age, they also wanted a laptop.  So for us, it does even out over the years! 

I try to keep the number of gifts the same rather than the amount spent. I do try to spend a similar amount on each kid, but as they don’t really know what stuff costs it’s more about the number of gifts being equal. When DD got to an age where she stopped believing in Santa, I started giving her less in number but higher priced gifts. Then I would buy her several cheaper things so that she had a similar amount of gifts under the tree as DS.

My parents always spent the same on the three of us, so I guess it seemed normal to do that with my two boys once they were out of diapers. I keep a running total in my purse and then make it up in the Santa present on Christmas Day. One year my youngest asked me not to get him anything from Santa so his brother could get and XBox. He said playing with his brother on line would be good enough.