If their birthday is pretty close to Christmas

I started buying gifts in October without having a real idea of what was for Christmas and what was for their birthday (which is next week). Now I'm trying to figure it out. Just wondering, do you tend to divide up the gifts roughly equally, or do you just get them each one or two things for birthday and give the rest at Christmas, or what?

For the b'day, I'm leaning towards giving them sleeping bags, flashlights, and slippers, along with a tent-and-tunnel set-up we bought at Costco. It seems like that all kind of makes a "theme." Plus, those are most of the gifts where we actually have one for each kid, rather than shared gifts -- somehow, it seems more important (to me) to have individual gifts on their b'day. Just curious how others do it.

 

I have no advice. I do like the theme idea though. Is there anything you just can't wait for them to have? Maybe you could give that to them for their birthday? ardon:

 

Nadia's birthday is exactly a month after Christmas, and it seems like Christmas has always been the bigger deal, with tons of gifts.

We save a couple of "big" gifts for her birthday, but then she gets lots of small things from friends that we invite to her party, so that seems to work.

 

I like you're theme plan. I'm kind of in the same boat as baby's birthday is next week, the boys' is in February, and I've been buying for the birthdays and Christmas.

For birthdays, each child gets his own "bigger" gift and a couple of smaller gifts. I haven't done a "joint" gift for their birthday I guess I'm like you...it makes sense for a joint gift at Christmas because everybody gets a gift then, but if the boys had been born at two different times of the year would I give one gift on one birthday and say this is for the both of you to share even though you're birthday isn't until later...hope that made sense. That's just how I feel about it. The same pretty much applies for Christmas except the boys will get a couple of shared gifts, like a couple of board games and stuff.

 

I bought the girls tags for their b-day and several books for it. For christmas we usually go a bit bigger. It's not fun with everything run together. I'm kinda glad they were born early and not on their due date(dec 6) for this reason for the logistic reason.

 

My birthday is Dec 21, so I can speak from that end. Try to think of what you would do as far as amount of gifts for their birthday and Christmas if their birthday was in the middle of the summer and go with that. Just try to keep their birthday as normal and separate from Christmas as possible. And above all, DO NOT wrap their presents in Christmas paper!!! I makes the birthday seem like an after-thought.

 

All of my guys are super close to xmas. I make Birthday's special by a card, cake, party etc. While they are still little, they get one gift each from Mommy and Daddy. At this stage they are more excited about the thought of a birthday, and their expectations are low. We usually have 2 parties, one for family and one for friends, so there are plenty of gifts. Too much actually. Last year my mother threw them a party for her side of the family with about 40 guests. I asked that everyone bring a present for Toys for Tots, because it was just too much, especially before xmas. This year Ill have the kids donate a gift themselves to keep in the spirit.

I think when they are older I may throw a 1/2 year party in June instead of a friend party before xmas.

 

My boys are 4 days away from Christmas so I usually start in October and make a list. I do an even amount of gifts for the boys and my SD. I always do the same but different giftwise for the boys which is never a problem for instance, they each wanted a different DVD, transformer, Super Why action fiqure, toy story fiqure etc. Then I will do a few presents that is addressed to both from Santa which this year will be the Imaginext Dragon Castle and a new Vtech game. I usually do their birthday after I am done with Christmas and telling the grandparents/family friends things to get them for their Bday and Christmas...it's alot to come up with all at once. We usually save the big presents for Christmas and get them each a modest gift for their Birthday. This year they both wanted the new Thomas fix and spin (got it for $35) and because I shopped at TRU I brought my SD and got each of the boys the free big stuffed animal (bear, dog) they are giving you for $5 for spending over $75, I usually do this every year too. I will probably get them one more thing like the glo doodle pro so they do not have only one gift between the two of them. They will each get a glo doodle pro, a big stuffed animal, and the new Thomas track for their birthday.

 

We usually give them a bigger gift for their birthday (Dec 21) than we give them for Christmas. DS1 is also a week before Christmas, and he sometimes opts to have a half-birthday in the summer instead.

I haven't tended to have the siblings give each other gifts because it's too complicated financially. They give other sorts of gifts, like assembling things for the girls, or taking them on walks.

The bday gifts are *always* wrapped in bday paper, never Christmas paper. We have a family get-together, we have bday cake, we sing the bday song. It isn't so much the gifts as the delineation and entirely separate bday celebration.

 

I have been buying for the girls and my son already...my son's is a week before and the girls' are a week after Christmas...so I specifically know what gifts they will get for their birthday and what they will get for Christmas. My birthday is two weeks before Christmas and my mom would always just give me one or two little gifts for my birthday and the rest for Christmas and I always felt so cheated...I hated that my birthday was so close to Christmas. So I decided that my kids would get specific gifts meant for their birthday. They get an equal amount of gifts for their birthday as they do for Christmas and one big gift for each occasion.

 

my ds#2 birthday is Nov 15 and my twins are Jan 3 actually all 5 of my kids are pretty close we also have Oct 29, and Feb 25 birthdays.

I can honestly say that I have never given the closeness to Christmas any thought at their birthdays. With Jared (Nov 15), I buy him a few things that he has said he wants for his birthday and for Christmas we set a limit for all 3 boys and they can either give me a list that adds up to that limit, shop with me or be surprised OR save their money. We have done that for years so the birthday closeness really does not matter.

With the girls, we buy them things that go with the things they got for Christmas for their birthday. This year since Addison is a dinosaur and all, we are taking them to the dinosaur factory (kind of like Build a bear) and letting them build a dinosaur, afterwards we will eat at the dinosaur restaurant next door to it for their birthday. We won't buy any other gifts.

 

My two, their birthday is the day after Christmas. We usually get a gift for them to share but mainly they get individual gifts on their birthday. Most of their Christmas gifts are ones they will share. I really like your theme idea!