Do you love to see what other Mom’s purchase for their kids? I do. It is how I get my best ideas and I thought it would be helpful to hear what my kids have received and what actually was a hit or a flop. I love hearing reviews from other Moms what they think are hits and misses versus just looking through a catalog or watching commercials.

I even ask my neighbors and Moms of my boys good friends what they are purchasing to get ideas. I definitely spend way too much time researching. Maybe I just need to relax since they never look at me and say, “Wow, you must have spent so much time deciding that this would be the perfect gift for me. Thank you!”. It is more like, rip and tear through the packaging as fast as possible and 5 minute later they ask…”Is that it?” and their Dad and I freak out that they aren’t appreciative.

Let’s get back to the dream…the perfect holiday gifts.

Here is the list of what my 7 year old boys actually played with in 2015. This is what they received last year and my take if it was a hit or a miss. If you click on the name of the item it will send you to my affiliate link.

1. Connect Four – This game has actually seen the light of day many times versus being in our game closet collecting dust. It is one of my favorite games too so that may be why it comes out a lot since I will actually play it with them. HIT

2. No Stress Chess – never used. I think we got this out to look at it and it has lots of instructions and we never actually played with it. Big Fail

3. Chopsticks – My boys actually like sushi and were struggling with regular chopsticks so I found these in a magazine and purchased them. These are fun stocking stuffers. The boys love them and use them whenever we have sushi. HIT

4. Spirograph – Used once. This is way more difficult than I remember but maybe I was older when I used it? I love the idea but my boys didn’t seem that into it. I will definitely keep it for my daughter as she like to draw more than the boys. MISS

5. Guess Who – another game that I loved as a kid. This one was played with a bunch the first couple months of the year but hasn’t been out of the game closet in a while. Maybe I need to break this out. I like it so would give it a thumbs up. HIT

6. Illustory Comic – This is such a great idea but actually starting the book seems scary because you want to make it perfect. It is a fail for us but maybe if I wasn’t such a perfectionist and just let my boys draw and write anything on it it would work for us….deep thinking now…maybe I just let go and let them just do it and maybe it will actually get done. MISS

7. Art Set – for one of my boys this is a big hit. He loves it and gets it out on his own to do some projects. My other boy has never used his once. This was such a steal of a deal for such a nice set that I have no regrets since my daughter will probably love it. HIT

I will definitely keep track each year of what I purchase and which gifts are hits. If you haven’t seen it already check out these posts:

Favorite Advent Toys that Kids Love 

Toy Review – Gifts my 3-year-old received last year and what she actually played with

A couple years ago Santa had been requested to only bring educational toys that had been well researched. Everything had a purpose and was going to be used for a long time. Christmas morning came and everything went well and we had a great morning until….we went to their cousins house. Santa had brought not only some educational toys but also tons of plastic junk from Walmart. I could see it from my boys eyes….the cousins house looked amazing compared to ours! I know we should only worry about what happens at our own house and not at others but having a direct comparison in two 5 year old boys eyes was not good. From then on Santa has done 90% well thought out educational toys and then added in a little pizzaz with plastic packaging and wild colors and “just because it looks cool” toys. I consider the toys that are in the wild plastic packaging the “decorating” of the event making it all look festive.

I enjoy researching and finding great gifts for my kids that they will actually use. The real reason is that I do not like to waste my money on items they will only use one time or are just pure junk. There are several websites that are great for finding gift ideas. Here are my top 5.

1. Cool Mom Picks – this website/blog has some great gift guides. I just typed in 8 year old boy into their search area and it pulled up a great list.
2. Modern Parents Messy Kids – another blog that has gift guides but I like how these gifts are broken down into categories like “best toys for getting out energy inside” and “best toys for construction/building”. I have especially been looking at the guide for toys for quiet time to help my 3 year old play independently.
3. Fat Brain Toys – this is a guide that usually has the latest toys and is divides by all sorts of ages and categories.
4. Pinterest – this is a no brainer but I have to mention it in my top 5. You can find just about any sort of list or category here. Everyone is so creative, I like gift guides done by men for men, it is very helpful to get a guys perspective sometimes.
5. Uncommon Goods – I like this site for gifts for the people who have everything. Great for a gift they have never seen before like animal footprint flip flops or stop motion animation kits.

My tip for ordering online. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL CYBER MONDAY!! I made a big mistake last year and made my list and sat and waited an extra 2 weeks to try and get the deals that it seemed everyone else had found in previous years. When I went to order that Monday quite a few of my “must-have” gifts were sold out. I almost had a stroke…here I had made my decisions and lists a few weeks prior and just sat and waited and now the items were gone! Plus my other items were not any lower in price. Never again.

Do you have any places I should look at to get ideas for gifts? I’d love to check them out.

Tip #2 – Don’t make any purchase for the kids without making the Master List

My Christmas prep completely changed a few years ago when I realized I had 2 kids and needed to try and make things at least look equal and now with 3 kids it is even trickier. We still sorta lump most of the boys gifts together since they mainly ask for big tickets sports gifts (ex. basketball goals, soccer goals, etc) but there are definitely individual gifts as well. I had been trying FlyLady’s house cleaning system for a while and when her lists came out at Christmas it was perfect for me.

Instead of random purchases all fall and then ending up with 8 gifts for one kid and 1 for another and just scrambling the week before buying random things, I first transfer all my ideas I have stored on my phone to the lists. Then I can see where I need to edit and save some ideas for birthdays or need to start brainstorming to come up with some additional gifts.

Here is a picture of my list for the boys from last year. I did not purchase everything on the list, this is a place to put everything you think may be a good idea so you can then edit and add items. I only purchased the items with checkmarks.

And from 2013.

I have lists for Britton too and I also have a page for all other people on our list.

All my lists are saved each year so I can go back and look at what they received. It is almost like a memory for a baby book. 🙂 I have the lists back to 2011 and the toys were so cute and much less expensive back then. I am planning to go back through these lists and give a recap for Hits and Misses of toys so you can benefit from our experience with the toys.

Next week with 8 Tips for Easier Christmas Prep, I’ll talk about my big mistake of waiting until Cyber Monday last year to make my purchases. I’d love to hear if you use Master Lists?