It's not that unusual for kids to get big piles of presents at Christmas. Most kids I know get a big pile of wrapped goodies. Sometimes it's over the top, but sometimes it's not. We often had big piles of gifts when we came downstairs on Christmas morning when i was younger and it was amazing. We had nothing through the year and my Mum saved hard for us to get the same (parcel height wise) as everyone else. Alright our pile including things like a new coat, new shoes and new underwear alongside toys and books which most people's didn't, but for one day we weren't the poor family in the street. We were the same.

It's alright having principles and sticking to them, but sometimes kids just want to be the same. Christmas was our turn. We appreciated every single parcel and I think that is what is important. The three of us sat in a circle and my Mum watched (usually in tears) as we each opened one gift at a time. It took hours as we'd get sidetracked by my brother's new car or my new shoes. It was wonderful though and made up for the birthdays when we had no electric never mind presents and the school trips that there was no way we could go on.

It's the ungratefulness that is the biggest problem with kids getting loads now imo. I have a friend whose brat cribbed on Christmas day that he "only" got 6 parcels. He got a Wii, various games and gubbins and £100 football boots. I'd have taken the lot of the wee sod, but he's used to getting 4 or 5 things each weekend when they are out so to him 6 parcels was 'hardly anything'.

Amazing what you can find via the intertubes! This is the one:

If he came dressed like his avatar, he'd have been fighting for his life.

We have a box of old random lego and the daughter still plays with it. She makes what she calls her 'projects'. She also has the new stuff and I do like helping her to build them, being a big kid helps.

As if. Wigan fans love me.

This year is our first christmas as parents, she'll be 10 months old. Have to admit to already starting to pick up on the sort of peer pressure to go mad. Well, we won't be. It's pointless, she'll have no idea what's going on, and the amount of toys she's already been given and even still has waiting to be inherited from relatives is more than enough for a good while yet (we've been incredibly fortunate that my sister in-law and a cousin have 2 children each and no plans for any more, which means they have been very generously choosing to clear cupboard space via us. We have literally turned up at our parents' houses more than once to find a sack of stuff waiting). I'm sure we're not alone in noticing that it's the same handful of toys she gets drawn to anyway, so what's the point in filling the house with more dust magnets?

Her gifts from us will mostly be new clothes for the next 6 months, and possibly even the next car seat from her grandparents. They'll still just be sparkly packages to her. Next year is the one I'm looking forward to, but there'll still be a sensible budget.

As for Lego, I loved it. The best children's toy bar none. Evie has masses just waiting in my parents' loft for when she's old enough. I was actually asked to sell it a while back, which elicited a rapid and point blank no. I would never even consider it, and I don't know why they'd think I would (it was someone who knows how much I prized it as a kid and that I have a daughter it is ear-marked for). I'm also 31 and have been known to buy the 3-in-1 packs as recently as last year. Why not? My happiest christmas memories are building that year's lego set in front of the tv whilst my parents went back to bed for an hour because I'd got them up at about half 6.

I had this experience last year when my son's grandparents (my parents) bought him an obscene, immoral number of presents. Literally hundreds of pounds worth. He got about a third of the way through before he lost interest totally. It upset me because my wife and I had deliberately not purchased vast quantities of stuff, but our restraint was in vain.

Oh, and, one of the mothers at my son's school was telling me about her plans to buy her 4-year-old daughter an iPad 2 for christmas the other day. Stupid bitch.

I agree. She obviously hasn't seen the reviews... stupid bitch

Can't get hold of one, well at least not a fairly priced one!!

Jingle All The Way, and the toy in question was a Turboman action figure.