I heard Master Frugal last night talking to one of his friends about Christmas in our house and it really made me smile. He was telling them about some of his favourite Christmas presents from over the years! Some of the memories he has of his favourite presents surprised me a little bit though…
I know how lucky my two have been over the years and when blogging was at its peak I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed at times with the number of presents we were able to give them thanks to the generosity of brands who sent us gifts either to review or lots of times to say thank you for working with them throughout the year. One year, we were sent not one but two Wii U consoles in the weeks before Christmas – both completely unexpected and by different brands and another year we were sent everything from the Top Ten list of toys on children’s wishlists for that year.
We shared a lot with family and friends but there’s no getting away from the fact that Christmas often involved way too many presents that it should have done for two children.
I had a bit of an epiphany after a few years of this though and started to lean towards experiences rather than gifts which meant we shared more of the presents we got with other families and I said no to some things that I would have accepted in the past.
As daft as I know it sounds, we had more fun with less presents and I spent more time choosing presents that I knew they would love and really get a lot of enjoyment out of.
One year, I bought him one of those cars that climb up walls which cost me around £20 but was hands down his favourite present of the year and genuinely gave all of us so much fun on Christmas morning as everything stopped while we tried it out. I remember sitting in a pile of unwrapped presents with tears rolling down my face as he tried to get this car to drive up the wall. It was such a success as a present and it makes me very happy that he remembers it as one of his favourite presents over the years.
(Also – I am that parent who takes the toy out of the packaging before I wrap it and make sure it’s ready to go with batteries in and anything else it needs before putting it back in its box and wrapping it up. This is my top tip for an easy Christmas morning!)
He also told his friend that I bought him three things every year without fail – a packet of Top Trumps Plop Trumps are his favourite back ever apparently), some kind of stress ball and a stretchy little yellow man that you throw at a wall (honestly, they cost about 20p and they’re so much fun). I was pottering about downstairs when he said this so I said I’d not bother this year now he was almost grown up and he was outraged. His exact words were ‘it wouldn’t be Christmas without them though Mam’. 😂
I love that his memories of his favourite presents over the years have been the ‘fun’ presents that I’ve carefully chosen knowing he would love playing with them rather than the big ones we were sent or the gifts like Xboxes and bikes.
I messaged Miss Frugal afterwards to ask her what her favourite presents were and she told me hers were her Furby, Spirograph and a kit to make homemade bath bombs.
This year, I’m stalking my favourite site for fun kids presents, Wicked Uncle and trying to find something for each of them that will add to their Christmas memory bank of favourite presents. It’s harder now they’re a bit older but I’m going with the thought that you’re never too grown up for a fun Christmas present that’s going to make you smile.
So far, I’m leaning towards the Grow your own hungry bug-eating plants kit for Master Frugal and the colour in world map pillow for Miss Frugal as she’s talking about saving to travel a little bit next year.
Have a look and see if you can find something fun to make some amazing Christmas memories with your families this year and don’t forget, they don’t need a pile of presents to have the best Christmas. Just choose wisely! 😂
This post is in collaboration with Wicked Uncle which is super exciting for me as I’ve used their site for Christmas presents every year for a while now. I love working with brands I already love and this is definitely one of them.
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