Im starting xmas shopping early.

Whats on your lists for this year.

Trying to find some ideas something diffrent for a 8 year old boy, 5 year old boy, 3 year old girl, and 3 year old boy. 

I don't even know yet. :/ I have my stash of money set aside and virtually no ideas. Why can't kids write Christmas lists in September?! LOL 

Wow you will be so prepared. I can't even think about Xmas with Halloween coming up! 

Haha I start early so I can beat the people who are running around like their heads are cut off. lol. I am a little OCD when it comes to planning. I love holidays. But I rather get all the shopping before the rush. 

I've bought both girls all their "fluff" gifts, not the big items. My oldest (6) has a very impressive imagination- she wants a paradise beach house (uhuh) a robot person who.can help with her homework, and do chores, and a meep(from fineas and ferb) like a real one not. Toy, Hah. She believes Santa can make her these special toys, I've been slowly been saying Santa doesn't always give you exactly what you want, and there are tons of girls and buys he builds for, so scale it back a bit. (failure on always getting exactly what was on her Xmas list, which was much more reasonable at 4 and 5. When the most complicated thing.was. a pink transformer, which her godfather took apart aNd painted with model paint) 

My kids birthday is in November (turning 2) for that she got an easel, tea set, a new Leo for gymnastics, a DVD, some clothes, & a play kitchen (her grandparents)
Christmas she is getting a Minnie VW bug power wheel, leap frog reading tablet, hot wheels (she loves them), a toy guitar, 2 new Leo's, clothes, new bedding, & probably a few more things
My 14 (turning 15)year old niece (same birthday as my kiddo) is getting meet and greet passes for metal fest 6 (11-24)and falling in reverse (12-1) for her birthday. An iPod touch, new clothes, Pokemon cards, & books for Christmas
My 4(turning 5)year old niece (birthday also in November) is getting a leap frog tablet, draw on me bear, and a princess doll for her birthday. A chest full of the princess dresses, clothes, & a bunch of nick nacks.
I totally used layaway and thought ahead(like last year) and saved for this year. They all also might go to Disneyland for their birthday too. 

^^ Holy moly that is a lot of toys! 

Penny I was thinking the same thing. lol. We usually do 1 big gift and some small thing, something to read, and something to wear.

But this year we are basing everything off our roadtrip so things they can take in the car so we are doing DS/leapfrog game system, Dual DVD players, Legos, DVDs, and I cant think of anything else. 

I just did my christmas shopping at Kmart yesterday, I mainly got my daughter clothes and shoes, I also got her a checker/chess set, a coloring set, and tshirt coloring set, then I may get her a big gift, possibly and ipod or a dsi but it just depends on the money lol The layaway shopping at kmart was really expensive but I'm glad I did it now. 

Walmart also has layway. 

They do not do layaway with clothes or shoes ONLY electronics and toys and furniture??? Each item must cost no less then $15 I found this out the HARD way yesterday. Very disappointing, I'm boy cotting Walmart for a few months now. 

Yeah, All the stuff we are buying is over $15 and we are buying electronics and toys so it works for us. I hate Kmart they never have anything worth buying. 

Penny. I am Santa for all 3 kids. Plus they never had a Christmas. And they don't get anything all year. We cap it at $300-400 per kid for both days combined
Note Kmart you can put anything cost doesn't matter. Toys r us only big items. Walmart has odd restrictions. 

Kmart got bought out several years ago by Sears. So they mainly carry sears brand. I went there yesterday, not only do they have nice clothes for girls size (7/8) but they have nice clothes for women and jr.'s. They also had many movies for kids that I could get my daughter and a great toys section. Because Sears and Kmart are sister companies now Sears also does a layaway. They too sell, electronics and other things.

BooksRbetter
You hit it right on the head about Walmart. They have many odd restrictions to what you can purchase. I'm a BIG Walmart go-er but after extremely poor customer service and being told by their own Representative "wrong" things about their layaway program, I'm a disappointed customer. 

Mines easy...GIFT CARDS for everyone except the broke college kid who will be home from school. That's going to cost me a plane ticket at least. 

Books, it's cool. You seem very prepared and probably score massive deals early. 

I really have no idea for this year. My 2 have their birthdays in January and they're teenagers. 

Not sure what we're going to get yet, but I saw something on Pinterest that I thought would be a great idea to start this year (we have 3 & 4 year old boys)... 4 gifts each - Something they WANT, something they NEED, something to WEAR, something to READ.

We saw it more as a way to help shape their mentality towards Christmas and gift giving times moreso than a way to save money (although it obviously will do that as well). I guess we'll see how it goes this year :) 

Something they WANT, something they NEED, something to WEAR, something to READ.

This is what we try and it never works. lol. Also we usually do 1 big gift and they give a gift to eiether a child they dont know or to a child in a childrens hospital ect. 

Something they WANT, something they NEED, something to WEAR, something to READ

I've been doing that for about 5 years now. We also put out one smaller gift plus a filled stoking from "Santa." I try not to spend more than $150 per kid, although with them getting older and being into more expensive stuff it is getting harder. They have plenty of things and they get what they need throughout the year so I don't think they are missing out on anything. I'd rather Christmas focus on what it actually means (to us) rather than on the meaningless fluffery we've added.