Decide Once Gifts
I so desperately wanted gift giving to be my love language, but it just isn’t. So last year, I saw Haley Wynn talk about decide once gifts over on Instagram and I knew that was THE KEY to simplifying the gift overwhelm. I decided at the beginning of 2023 what gifts would look like for our 2 year olds friend group (littles turning 3), what new baby gifts would be (I had lots of pregnant friends last year!), what our previous foster kiddos birthday and Christmas gifts would be along with going back to our Christmas gift plan for our biological kids (want, need, wear, read, Santa gift and a stocking- this is what we did every year while fostering too). So we did the same thing for 2024… here are our decide once gifts (sorry if you are one of my local friends and I just spoiled what your kiddo will get ha!):
Our kid’s friends (mostly turning 4 this year): a magazine subscription and Spot It (paid link) game! Magazine subscriptions can be found for really good discounts, I always check different ones to decide which one would be best for each friend depending on what kind of things they enjoy. Some of my favorites we have gifted over the last couple of years to kiddos: National Geographic Kids, Highlights, Ranger Rick.
Baby's turning one (almost all of our 3 year olds friends have younger siblings turning 1 this year): a hooded bath towel and a set of bath toys!
Previous foster kiddos birthdays (for the most part): a magazine subscription or gift card.
Previous foster kiddos Christmas: pajamas! (Every year, we got new PJs on Christmas Eve growing up and I loved that, we always looked forward to it. It is something small but something we can budget and do for all of our previous kids.)
Nephews: a magazine subscription and then something small that they will enjoy (football cards, card game etc)
Other decide once item that I will talk more about coming soon, at the beginning of every month I sit down and write out who we need cards and gifts for that month. Then I take my kids to the Dollar tree and we pick out cards for the entire month (birthday, holidays etc). It is something simple and budget friendly that I can involve my kids in doing to celebrate others. Then we have a big signing party and get everything signed and addressed/stamped all at once!
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