My husband and I purchase Christmas gifts for our nieces and nephew this time of year. We usually don’t send them anything for their birthdays, only because we usually forget or remember too late. Best case scenario: we sometimes remember to send them money. But, the holidays are that special time of year when we make sure that most family members receive something special from us. The adults are usually easy to shop for, a book they’ve mentioned over the past few months, some items they really need, or a family gift of Omaha Steaks or Tender Fillet (this company is really pricey in comparison as we found out!). However, finding meaningful gifts for the kids is challenging.

One reason we find this task difficult is we don’t have children of our own. We’re out of touch with what kids want and we wait until the last minute (or week before Christmas) to find those gifts. Another reason it is difficult finding that special present is we don’t see our nieces and nephew very often. We live in different states and see them maybe once or twice a year. Children’s interests also change frequently; my niece was really into horses last year, she may not be this year. Our almost 17-year-old niece is a little easier to shop for, we can usually send her money and she is thrilled. But the 4-year-old and 8-year-old still enjoy tearing open real presents, not opening a card with money in it.

What my husband and I found this year while shopping, is that many toys are geared towards younger children, at least at Walmart. The selection of toys seemed too childish for my 8-year-old niece. The toys also appeared to be made rather cheaply, meaning they won’t last more than a year or two. So this year we settled on a gift we feel that our niece could use, an art easel with a chalkboard, whiteboard, and large roll of white paper. We feel satisfied with this gift, at least it is promoting creativity.

On the other hand, the gift we choose for our nephew was a last minute, “What are we gonna get him?!” present: a hot wheels trike. A gift he will only use a few times and will soon grow out of. We aren’t completely thrilled with the gift we selected for him, but we were in a panic and that trike was on an end cap!

As soon as we reached the registered, we realized that both gifts were quite large and shipping was going to cost a pretty penny. Yet, we couldn’t take the gifts back to the shelf, so we just sucked it up and factored in the additional cost. I’m sure when I sit down and total up our Christmas present cost, it will be close to $500 or $100 over my original budget. Drats! Note to self: start earlier next year!