How We Handle Gifts for Siblings
This post is sponsored by Walmart
I’ve written a LOT of holiday posts over the years, but I’ve never written one about how we handle gifts for siblings and since it’s one of my most asked questions during the holidays, I figured this was the year to finally talk about it.
Each of our girls gives gifts to each of their siblings (so they’re each buying three gifts) and it’s truly one of the highlights of Christmas for them – they LOVE choosing gifts for their sisters and then eagerly anticipating how much their sister will LOVE it.
We give them each a small budget for each sister (usually $5-10) and they’re welcome to team up if they’d like to get something bigger for a sister or add their own money in if they’d like to spend a bit more.
Popular picks in the past have been little LEGO sets, card games they can play together (I just spotted this Giant Uno game, which I know would be a big hit!), PlayDoh, and always, always, always Squishmallows.
Every year, they love pouring over the toy catalogs that come in the mail, which helps them see what their sisters are interested in that year and then they each make a list of what they want to get each sister.
Sometimes we take them to a physical store to pick things out (Bart usually is the one who takes them because he’s a better shopper than I am) and sometimes we sit down together and order them online (my preference, always!).
Walmart is almost always the store of choice because they have so much variety and there are so many affordable options that work with the girls’ budgets. Plus, Walmart carries so many brands my girls love like LEGO and Melissa & Doug (my sister gave us this wooden puzzle set and those four pet puzzles have been done by all four of my children literally hundreds of times – and more than a decade later we still have all the pieces, which is probably something I want put on my headstone). And they can all be shipped right to my door!
Once the girls have their gifts in hand, they love wrapping them and labeling them and carefully putting them under the tree, ready for Christmas morning.
One extra cute that thing that the girls came up with themselves years ago are “stocking presents.”
They each make handmade gifts for everyone in the family and love tucking them into the stockings before they go to bed on Christmas Eve (and they put them in before we fill the stockings).
It might be things like bookmarks or acts of service coupons. One year Star wrote everyone nice little letters. One of my girls got a friendship bracelet kit a few years ago and that year everyone got custom bracelets as their stocking presents. It’s always a delight on Christmas morning to see what they each came up with!
How do you handle sibling gifts in your home? I’d love to know!
Our children’s school holds a Christmas store every year in December. Parents and teachers donate items – gently used toys, jewelry, mugs, etc. – and the children are allowed to pick out a gift for each person who will be with them on Christmas morning. If possible, the students bring $5 to pay for all the gifts, so it’s actually a fundraiser for the school. My children and I both love it.
Oh this is SO FUN
I only have 2 kids so they just both “buy” (my husband & I pay for it) for each other. But growing up with 5 sisters…when we were younger, around your girls’ ages, we all bought for each other. Usually in the $1-2 range (this was the late 80s and the 90s, $2 went further!). Once we started getting married we switched to an exchange with the BILs for about a decade (we each had an individual, not a couple). Then as we all had more kids we eliminated it as adults. But I do have such fond memories of carefully picking gifts for each of my sisters as a kid!
We have 4 kids and too much little junky toys. Plus they’re getting older and their wish list is a bit more specific and pricey. A few years ago we gave the kids a larger budget, but only 1 sibling to gift to. This allowed them to buy something bigger/nicer that can be kept, reused and remembered. Now it feels more special and thoughtful.
Since our oldest was about 6 we’ve given the kids an allowance (twice their age in dollars each month) of which they have to pay 10% tithing and save 10% for a mission and the rest goes in savings until they need it. We don’t give them the physical money, we just keep a digital spreadsheet and transfer their money into a savings account each month. We’ve always had a “you have to wait 1 day for every $x something costs before you buy it” rule to encourage thinking things through and our kids take after us–they hate spending money unless it’s for something they know is worth it.
Because they’ve always had plenty of money they each buy one gift for each member of the family for Christmas and for our family birthday (we do all birthday gifts at a big celebration every summer). We also encourage them to make gifts; right now my 17yo is creating a custom D&D adventure for his 15yo dungeon master brother.
We do something similar! Small budget and they buy for each other – everyone loves it! I like taking them to Five Below – everything in the store is $5 or under, they have a surprising variety of stuff, and they can pick anything in the entire store with no question about the cost! We started a family economy system this year and will start to have these sister presents come out of their own money eventually.
I’m one of 5 kids and we would draw names (buy one gift) and spend our own money. The surprise was part of the fun! 20+ years later we still do it with the 5 of us kids (if you’re married/have kids you are clumped as one entity ha). I have three little kiddos so we still frequent the dollar store for these things, but I look forward to things evolving as they get older!