Christmas Toy Ratios with older kids to babies

This Christmas represents a first for my wife's side of the family: a newborn. When we got married, the boys were 4 and 8, so the "baby" stage with Christmas just had never happened at all with her side as she didn't have any children from her previous marriage and her sister had not been married or had kids. Well, all that has changed with her first baby who is approximatel7 9 months now. So, as everyone readies for this first, I am also readying for the firsts with the boys.

This will be the first time where they will have to "share" the toy end of things with anyone else. Sure, they've had to share between themselves, but this has still resulted in a bag of toys that most kids would die for. As expected, their nephew will be getting a ton of gifts, but there has been one thing that will be done differently this year as an entire family--we will be just getting gifts for all of the kids, and none will be exchanged between the adults (do I count? Sometimes that would be a solid NO. So I think I should get a gift. NOW.)

I remember being an 8 year old single child who got tons of gifts in every family gathering on both my mom and dad's side as well as my stepfather and stepmother's side. When my sister happened along then, it was a total shock to my system, and while I was spoiled per se, going from being "the" focus to having everything shift to a baby can make Christmas a bit traumatizing in the expectancy sense. I am not by any means saying that the boys should get the ratio of toys that the baby should get, but I will say that I am very glad we are doing it this way so that there is still a focus on them. I really don't think my youngest would care, but perhaps the oldest would have a little bit of sting, since he's already had to endure "sharing" with his younger bro. Even when we celebrate birthdays, the one with the non-birthday gets 1 gift. Are we too soft with this?

Either way, I'd love to hear if anyone has had adjustments to their gift giving with having older children all the way down to babies from an immediate family standpoint to blended families to extended families. I personally am more than happy how things should be!

TAGS: Baby Toys, Being A Dad, Being A Parent, Christmas Gifts For Kids, Kids, Toys
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