“This year we won’t overwhelm the children with too many Christmas presents” Husband and I have been saying this for about the last 6 years with limited success. Our house is already bulging at the seams and I’m constantly battling with the clutter – and losing. The sheer quantity of toys, games and books accumulated by my sons is such a huge opponent, that when I try to confront it, I’m left cowering in a corner. In addition to my fear of trying to fit more ‘stuff’ into a house which is already out of my control, I’m also conscious of not wanting to spoil my children with a ton of toys and games. Several relatives asked me to buy the childrens’ presents on their behalf and although this added to my workload, it meant that these items were guaranteed to be age appropriate and things they really wanted. I tried to achieve a balance of practical and educational, as well as the obvious fun gifts. 
This year I think we came close to getting the present giving right. So what were our top gifts for a 9, 7 and 5 year old? CLOTHES Father Christmas realised this year that as they’re growing so fast a new top, shirt, jogging bottoms and gloves would be useful. As long as I don’t torcher them by making them actually go into a shop and try them on, they do enjoy receiving new clothes. I can confirm that they were a success as it took approximately a week to persuade 5 year old to part with his new trakkies so I could put them in the wash. 
BOOKS My 9 year old has a passion for books – I usually find around half a dozen in his bed each morning. He was absolutely thrilled to receive series 10 of Beast Quest for Christmas. He’s loved reading these since they were his first proper novels in year 1 and I’ve been a bit slack about adding to his collection. Not surprisingly he’s also read his Minecraft Annual from cover to cover, but that’s another story. My 7 year old received the Horrid Henry Fact Book Set (Paperback). He has a thirst for knowledge and asks numerous questions about hard subjects such as science and history, so anything which takes the pressure off me being expected to know everything can only be a good thing! Both the Beast Quest and Horrid Henry books were an absolute bargain. 
SKYLANDERS The boys all had the Xbox game Skylanders Swapforce on their lists. We’d resisted letting our 5 year old have it for his birthday as it’s a substantial gift which, although only a 2 player game, our boys happily share between the 3 of them. Putting aside all the negative connotations of screen time, the handy thing about computer games of course is that there is a huge amount of play value for a very small investment in space. We have the Xbox version but it’s also available for the Wii, 3DS and PS3. They love Swapforce and apparently it’s even better then Skylanders Giants!
GAMES I was really pleased with Turbo Scrabble. It was fast paced and fun to play for the older boys, although predictably there were some squabbles about who hit the electronic button first. Apart from the educational play aspect, I also like the way that everything including the cards and instructions are designed to be packed away and stored within the game itself. Too many games have packaging which is just designed to market the product and becomes redundant once opened leaving you with nowhere to store the component pieces. so I do appreciate it when the design has been well thought out.. SWEETS Not one from us, but one of the first things they opened was a tin of ‘Sweet Shop Sweets’. Not surprisingly they were extremely welcome (and completely consumable – hurrah!). And you have to have sweets at Christmas, don’t you? 
So those were some of our favourite presents from Christmas 2013. I think we managed to factor in lots of happy faces and future fun as well as some educational and practical gifts to keep Mummy happy. 
Do you feel like you got the balance right? What were your top presents tho year?
