Christmas presents for kids change so much as they get older

The Bride and I were discussing the other day about Christmas presents for kids and how much it changes as they get older.

Our little ones are happy getting toys for Christmas currently but we have noticed our eldest, who is getting a little older now, is getting a lot of different presents than the others.

Of course we realise that their needs and wants change as they get older but our discussion was around how the presents slowly turn into practical presents rather than toys over time.

I’m sure every kid wants to get toys for the rest of their life but there comes a time when you have too many and the presents have to start to change.

The little ones presents were pretty much all toys this year, a mixture of play type toys, books and games.

Our eldest is starting the transition away from just toys and into practical gifts with more of the presents being clothes and items they would normally get through the year as upgrades to what they have.

So not really a Christmas present in the end, more of a “We would’ve had to buy this for you anyway, lets wrap it and give it to you for Xmas”.

I guess you don’t realise until all the Christmas presents are in a pile and see all they toys and books of the little ones in their pile and see this compared to clothes, jewellery and similar in the other pile.

And so this starts the eventual transition out of toys completely and into practical gifts and also with this transition comes less volume too over the years.

So there is four transitions for presents in your life I can think of, it starts with Christmas presents for kids, moves into a more practical type of Christmas gift for a while, transitions then into just out of school/working life and then ends up where most of the presents you will receive in your twilight years.

When your little you get things like toys, books, PJ’s, games, cars, trucks, dolls, ABC learning toys, pretend mobile phones, eating utensils with knives / spoon / fork,  toys with buttons that make noise and use batteries, cartoon DVD’s and similar and to be honest you are more interested in the wrapping paper and playing with the boxes the presents came in.

This stage can last for many years, basically until you start riding into bigger bikes, have more homework than work at school and start watching ABC3 rather than ABC2 on TV, so around 7 to 8 years old depending on maturity.

The transition into more practical gifts then starts and also the lowering of volume of presents too, an easy measure of this is, as your age goes up, your volume of presents goes down.

You will have to have this explained to you so you realise as well that you can’t keep on getting toys for the rest of your life and that if you want toys you can buy them yourself when you have left home and are working and earning money yourself.

Presents for this time may include more clothes, socks, shoes, jewellery, board games, craft, bikes, scooters, non cartoon DVD’s, instruments and the like.

This transition takes place when you leave school and continue your journey into adult hood, the presents you may be given throughout this period will include, socks n jocks, sheets, dressing gowns, slippers, gift vouchers for favourite shops, kitchen appliances, various types of glasses, vases, fondu set, novels and a mixture of Lotto and Instant Scratchies in a Christmas card.

Last but not least there is the Nanny and Grand Dad stage where you will receive a few items from above, sock n jocks, slippers, vouchers, novels, DVD’s, down payments on plot and funeral, calendars, crystalised ginger, boxes of biscuits, a visit or stay over from the grand kids, gardening books / tools and more.

As you can see the transition does take place from your first Christmas to your last in types of presents and also the volume of gifts.

In your twilight years, as you have been given so much and bought so much yourself, the choices become limited for presents from loved ones and other relatives so this is a reason for the change too.

What can you buy the kid or person that has everything already?

I hope this has helped you to realise and start thinking about the general progression of less and less christmas gifts as you travel through life.

You just have to learn and embrace the fact at some stage you will receive socks n jocks or slippers.

Merry Christmas!