I'm "stealing" another discussion...

Wow, i'm glad you "stole" this discussion... very interesting and heartwarming family story... there was actually a period in my family's christmas when we the children were not given gifts because my parents couldn't afford to buy us any... we didn't even have a christmas eve dinner and we had to go to some relatives to be able to eat a christmas feast... Well those were the dark days... but now... everything is like A okay... that gift your son gave you must be one of your most valuable possessions...

I have never had a totally gift less Christmas.This year money is very tight. Our daughters birthday is on Thanksgiving Day. I took 20.00 out of our food budget. i went to Dollar General and bought her a throw blanket for snuggling on the couch 5.00 a shower gel and frog scrubby set 3.00. Some headbands and and a new brush 2.00. A cute little journal 2.00. I spent 12.00 there. Then I went to Wal-mart I bought her new slippers 4.88 and a huge chocolate bar 1.25. I think I did a pretty good job for my money. I will be doing the same type of frugal shopping for Christmas this year too.

christmas in my home country is not as strong as where i am now as the majority of the people in my country is muslim... i think i hardly ever get a present from my parents during christmas and i don't give my parents present as well... we don't have thanksgiving dinner as well... i know it sounds bad to you... usually we just eat out together in a restaurant during christmas... that's about it...

Last year, we didn't get anything for our son for Christmas. We couldn't afford it. He got some stuff from his grandparents, so that was nice. Otherwise it was a pretty sparse holiday. This year probably won't be much better.

I would never do this to my children. I have never had this happen to me either. I have done the "you better be good or santa won't bring you anything" but I never actually did anything about it. In fact the last year my first son still knew about santa I was telling him this and he said yeah well I am also bad and he still gives me present. LOL

I don't think I could take presents away from my son. Not like that anyway. Taking it awat for a week or something as punishement is one thing, but not leaving him giftless on Christmas. Our Christmas budget is very small, but we will get things for him and skip each other. We all understand that, it's more important for us to buy for him.

How funny, and how sad. Did you ever figure out how you made him mad? If we could only express ourselves as eloquently as adults as kids do maybe communication would be better. The fact that you still have and display it all year long sends a terrific message to him, I am sure.

Lol i can't believe he threw it away. I've never not given my kids presents for christmas. ofcourse my oldest is only 5 so its not like she could do much to make me not want her to have presents. I think that they will always get atleast something for christmas.

I have never had a Christmas where our gifts were taken away, but one year we did choose not to get any gifts. We had seen a program about refugees and children in third world countries and we were very effected by it. So we all talked about it and decided that instead of spending money on gifts, since we had so much more than the kids on the show, we would give the money to charity. So, we all decided that we would buy a set of goats for a family. I think it was a family in India but it could have been some other country. I don't really remember which country it was, but we took up a collection in the family and bought a set of goats. We got a cool thank you card from the organization that was our gift that year. My parents still filled our stockings and left us these great letters from Santa telling us how proud he was of us for choosing to give our presents to poor children. He left each of us a baby doll and a full stocking. It was a pretty good Christmas. I just got my World Visions catalog. I was looking at the cost of goats today. I think back then we got two goats for like $35 today a pair of goats is $150. I was actually thinking of buying a pair of goats. I may go the chicken route, $50 will buy a family 4 chickens.

Why bother returning them - just put them away and make the child earn them back. Kids must have done something pretty bad but still.. i dont' think returning them was proper. Just made the kids mad and have ill feelings toward parents.

I have never taken away Christmas gifts, and I could never imagine doing that. I do know someone who took away birthday gifts from their child. I just think that is really hurtful. I could imagine letting the birthday or Christmas go on as usual, with the understanding that the kid is grounded from the toys for a certain period of time. Even that would have to be a very serious offence to push me that far. That is a sad story about your son. I'm glad he took it back out later. I can imagine a kid that age doing that. Great discussion!