Calling all the last minute shoppers!!!! It’s the most wonderful time of the year and I’m so excited to share our favorite items for both boys and girls in our Holiday Gift Guide!I always look forward to shopping for our littles as it’s always so much fun to see how much they’ve changed over the coarse of the year and what their interests are each Christmas season.
This year we decided to keep Christmas simple. Last year was a big year and since our kids tend to gravitate towards specific actives we thought it was best to keep a tidy budget and gifts simple. We love finding items that help spark the kids’ imagination and encourage them to pretend. We typically give some sort of building or block set, books, something to cuddle like a stuffed animal and something to do that gets them moving. On my Instagram page I shared exactly how we did everything this year and for us it’s kept everything very simple and not stressful at all.
We decided after learning what the kids really wanted for Christmas we would set a budget of $100 per child and split that budget into 5 gift categories: Something to Do, From Santa, Want, Outside Time, Read. None of our gifts were purchased from a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale, we simple created our list on the Notes app on our phone and put each item into a Christmas list on Amazon and watched the items as they went on sale. Our budget did not include stocking stuffers, as we try to shop for small items throughout the year and get things we know they’ll need for the upcoming year such as socks, toothbrushes etc.
K’s List: Our Generation Doll, Our Generation Accessories, Roller Skates, Kids Made Modern Jewelry Jam,
O;s List: Play Makeup, Baby Doll Accessories, Melissa and Doug Modeling Dough Tools, Mrs. Peanuckle’s Tree Alphabet book, JellyCat Octopus
Kensington has had her eye on an American Girl doll for a few months, but because we’re keeping a tight budget, we going with the Our Generation collection from Target. I think this is a wise decision that Kensi has also agreed upon for such a doll. It’s a great way to gauge if she loves this type of doll and also allows her to build her clothing and accessory stash since everything fits universally. We’ve agreed if she loves her doll and still wants an American Girl we can ask for it for her birthday next summer.
Finn’s birthday is at the beginning of the month and has requested Power Rangers and anything Grinch for his birthday and Rescue Bots and dinosaurs for Christmas. He’s pretty simple and I love that he knows exactly what he wants! It makes our lives so easy!
Olivia is the hardest one to shop for this year. She’s not into the typical 2 year old stuff, because she’s constantly keeping up with Kensi and Finn. She loves dressing up, playing with baby dolls, Calico Critters and all the tiny little piece type of things because they’re ‘so cute mama!’ This year we’re definitely getting Olivia this adorable JellyCat Octopus because every week when we go grocery shopping she requests to see the octopus in the seafood counter. The Whole Foods guy knows us by now and always engages in conversation with her and points out other fish for her to see, but the octopus always steals her attention!
This idea of shopping kept everything organized and really simple for us and we love how we can adjust it year to year based on what we set as our budget along with the kids interest. We hope this can help your family keep things simple and help you avoid the drama that can come with the frenzy of unnecessary spending during the Christmas season!
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