Buying for Nieces & Nephews

[nicolewi]

I may have posted this last year. Was that on TB? Anyway, in your families, do aunts/uncles buy for your kids? 

On DH's side, we used to buy for all the kids, but now that there are more we just do godparents buying for godchildren. 

On my side, I have four kids and my brother out of state has two. They won't be here for Christmas but I was going to ship something for them. Other brother has no kids yet. I feel kind of bad that no-kid brother has to buy for six kids, plus two on his wife's side. I'm considering saying just do the godchildren thing, but then at a small party two kids get gifts from him and two do not. The baby doesn't care yet, but my 7 year old does. 

How does your family handle this? 

[expectantsteelerfan]

My family doesn't have a lot of kids (my 2, my brother has one, and dh's cousin has 1), but what we've done is that once the kids are old enough to care, people who used to buy the parents gifts now just get gifts for the kids (or for the family as a whole). So dh's brother and sister don't get me and him gifts just for us (or if they do, it's something small), but get gifts for our kids or a family gift.

[cjcouple]

Yes it we have small families. I have 3 on my side. My sister only has my 2

And I have 5 on dh side.

We do not do adults.

[gastro]

Yes, we only have Dhs side as my sister has no kids. Most of the kids are older (high school) though so we usually do $100 bill in the stocking. When they were younger we did actual gifts.
DH has all sisters so we usually send them off together for a spa day.

[lexus]

On Dh's side we only buy for kids and his parents. They live out of state and between his two brothers there are eight kids. two years ago dh and I started sending family gifts to his brothers. It was getting to be a lot to buy and then ship gifts for so many kids. Plus, as the kids get older (two teenagers) there isn't much within our budget that they will want. We hardly ever see them or even talk or Skype so we don't have any first hand knowledge of their interests either. We were simply exchanging lists.

[dizzycooks]

I have 2 nieces and yes, we buy gifts for them. We no longer do any adult gifts so I don't mind spoiling the kids a bit. The part that bugs me is that I only see these children on birthdays and holidays though so it feels very manufactured.

[quesyrah]

I only have 3 nieces and nephews. We decided a few years ago to only buy for kids under 18. So I just buy for my 6 and 3 year old niece & nephew because my oldest niece is 28.

Truth be told though, I'm closer to that sister and kids so I'll probably buy for them even after they turn 18.

we both come from smallish families and DH is an only.

[Deleted]

We just have 1 nephew close in age to ds so heck yes, I am spoiling him BUT we see fam regularly and they live close so we know everyone well.

[mamaalysson]

My family is small - I have one brother and my kids are the only kids, so everyone buys for everyone, with the vast majority of gifts for the kids. DH's family is bigger, but there are still only four grandkids. Everyone buys for everyone, though we are trying to phase out gift buying/giving for all of us adults.

[nicolewi]

We decided we're doing godparents buy for godchildren (basically one kid per adult) and we're drawing names among spouses & siblings. That means we'll do the same thing on both sides of the family. That'll work for now! Thanks, all.

[scorpio72]

We draw names on both side of the family.  There are just too many kids and they really don't need that many gifts.  One side has 5 cousins the other side has 4.  We draw names each year so each kid only buys one present for another kid on each side.  

We buy gifts for the adults on DH side but not on my side.  

[momin2013]

Our family is pretty small, so it's not too complicated. We buy for my brother's 3 kids, and he and his wife buy for DS. That's it, no adults buying for each other, etc.

[honeydew1894]

My side, we have 2 nephews only. We give them toys bc they are 2 and 4.

DH's side, the kids are teens. There are 4 of them and we just write checks.

[Deleted]

My brother/sil have 4 kids, Dh's sis and bil have 2 kids and that's it. So we buy something for each and they each buy for our 2 kids.

We used to do all the extended family and buy for all the cousins kids and adults and all that nonsense, but we put an end to that. Way WAY too chaotic.

[Katiedid]

I have one nephew who's first Christmas is this year! I'll be buying for him. My kids have been the only kids in the family so it'll be fun to spread the wealth around for once. I feel for my brother and sister-in-law. They have 6 nieces and nephews but no kids of their own. I'm going to start buying for their dog!

[jensriot]

We don't send gifts to nieces and nephews and none of our siblings send to our kids. We only receive and give with family if we are spending the holiday together. We live so far away from everyone and there are 13 cousins including my kids on DH's side. My parents send gifts and my ILs send money for me to get gifts for the kids. It has worked out for us so far and takes some of the stress out of holidays and birthdays.

[lexus]

Nov 17, 2015 18:19:48 GMT -5 jensriot said:

We don't send gifts to nieces and nephews and none of our siblings send to our kids. We only receive and give with family if we are spending the holiday together. We live so far away from everyone and there are 13 cousins including my kids on DH's side. My parents send gifts and my ILs send money for me to get gifts for the kids. It has worked out for us so far and takes some of the stress out of holidays and birthdays.

I'm so jealous! Dh is horrible about remembering dates so I took over gift buying for his family. He would get the kids stuff for their birthdays and forget to send it in time or just forget to buy something before their birthday came up. This would be awesome.

[jensriot]

Nov 17, 2015 18:31:43 GMT -5 lexus said:

Nov 17, 2015 18:19:48 GMT -5 jensriot said:

We don't send gifts to nieces and nephews and none of our siblings send to our kids. We only receive and give with family if we are spending the holiday together. We live so far away from everyone and there are 13 cousins including my kids on DH's side. My parents send gifts and my ILs send money for me to get gifts for the kids. It has worked out for us so far and takes some of the stress out of holidays and birthdays.

I'm so jealous! Dh is horrible about remembering dates so I took over gift buying for his family. He would get the kids stuff for their birthdays and forget to send it in time or just forget to buy something before their birthday came up. This would be awesome.

It is! We do send cards or call to da happy birthday/holiday/whatever. It's a bunch of time on the phone on Christmas, but I'll take it.

[erbear]

My sister and SIL both give my kids gifts, and we give gifts to all of the nieces and nephews. Now that my kids are older, they love to pick out things for their cousins.