When it comes to young kids and Christmas presents, bigger is ALWAYS better.
Just ask my 6-year-old daughter.
The girl begged, whined and wished upon about three dozen stars (from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve) in an effort to get Santa, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, ANYONE! to gift her with KOTA My Triceratops Dinosaur last Christmas.
The garganteous interactive riding toy was only dwarfed by his colossal price tag. At $400 there was no way KOTA was going to take up space in our home unless he planned to pay rent or help with laundry.
Needless to say Christmas 2009 came and went and KOTA never made an appearance.
And guess what? My kid is still alive!
Despite several threats to the contrary my daughter actually survived the crushing disappointment of waking up on Christmas morning, running to the living room and discovering that the 40-inch long, nearly three feet tall, movin’, groovin’ green dino that she loved on for more than a month was not there to greet her.
I’m not sure who was more distraught that bitterly cold winter day: my daughter or me after being forced to watch my munchkin’s face, as her eyes darted around the room anxiously looking for her beloved baby dinosaur. The instant she finally realized that Santa had not delivered that one special, big gift is a moment I will never forget.
If I were independently wealthy my kid would have gotten KOTA. I have no doubt that she would have loved riding on him and reveled in all of his realistic head-moving, eye-blinking, tail-swinging, munching, stomping, and roaring glory. But for how long? How long would she have had to feed, hug, ride and pet the battery-powered behemoth to justify spending $400?
It wasn’t like she could ride him to school.
And it wasn’t as if she didn’t get other gifts that she had to, had to, have for Christmas. She did. Lots of them. Most of which are sitting in the corner of the living room taking up space and collecting dust.
Kind of like what KOTA would be doing right about now.
Most kids want at least one BIG gift on Christmas? What’s your kid’s pick? Do you feel pressured to buy that one big Christmas gift, or do you resist?
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