Dear LPG,

I have been reading recent posts on your site, and some others, and  I have noted what has been written about the children we have brought into this world to continue the work that our generation will hand down to them.   With this in mind, and when looking at how few shopping days there are before Christmas, my mind has focussed on the little one’s Christmas presents and what to buy this year.

In general I think that most of the pre-teenaged children who experienced their Christmases before and during the war years were quite happy with an apple and a book.  But now, when I look around todays younger ones are very difficult to buy for as they often have their own tablet or iPad by the time they are ten and there is so little left for us to buy them as presents.  There is the option of getting clothes but will you choose the right make? I can’t keep up with who prefers Nike trainers as opposed to Reebok or Puma.

So we give them gift vouchers or hard cash, which makes them focus on such stuff so much earlier in their lives.  They now tell you what they want, or how much money they need for Christmas instead of appreciating what they are given.  They basically use their presents as another form of income. 

To me, it is more important to see the reaction of a child when they receive their Christmas gift, so I try to find something relatively cheap that will make them smile on the day, while I give their parents, my children, money that I hope will get them what is necessary.

I think that it is true that it has all become so commercialised that the true meaning of the present giving bit of Christmas has been spoiled in the process. 

UR, Lee

LPG has found some comments that have been offered from parents with the same dilemma…

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