12 Days of Christmas, 12 Days of Gifts for Children

In 2020, I decided to give a series of gifts to four of my littlest family members (my cousins’ children) in order to make the holidays feel a little extra special - two sets of two children. I originally wanted to do 25 Days of Christmas, like an advent calendar, but realized very quickly that it was too challenging (and junk-inducing) to buy 25 gifts. So I jumped down to the second-most-Christmas number, 12.

In my two years of doing this, I’ve learned a few lessons I wanted to share with you (and remind myself of before I really start buying for this year) in case you wanted to do your own 12 Days of Christmas.

The first year I did this, I chose to do the first 12 days of December. I realize that’s not the intention of the concept of the 12 days of Christmas (which is supposed to be the 12 days between Christmas and New Year’s, aka the lead up to the start of Mardi Gras season), but when you give four young children gifts at Thanksgiving, waiting all the way until December 25 is a lot. The second year, I couldn’t do my drop off until Christmas Day, so we did a more traditional “12 days of Christmas.”

The first year was the year that I tried to get all the way to 25 gifts. I went through my house to find what I already owned and then went to the Five Below website and ordered as many items as I could find that were a reasonable price, sent them to my house, and then assessed them when they showed up.

I realized very quickly that if I just ordered any-old-thing under $3, they were going to be left with a lot of things that one might consider to be junk at the end of the day, so I ended up paring it down. (I gave away some of the extra items on my local Buy Nothing, Sell Nothing group.) I also realized that many of the items I had bought were meant for folks a little older than the humans I was buying for. Lesson learned for year two.

I chose my favorite 12 items, packaged them in two separate bags (one for each household), numbered which gifts should be opened on each day, and dropped them off at my cousins’ houses for the fun to begin.

I wrote a little message on each package to give them a hint of what was inside, too. For example, start here or something to play with or something for your tree.

Year two, I decided to take a different approach. I started my search for items much earlier so they were all from different places. After my search, here’s what I came up with -

I’ve been told both years that the gifts have been a hit. Actually, there was one year that the hot chocolate was opened on the perfect day, right after some sledding! Here are my lessons learned and best advice from two years of doing this.

My Best Advice for Planning Your Own 12 Days of Christmas Gifts

1. Buy some toy gifts, some food gifts, and some other gifts.
   There are so many good treats for the holidays, as well as types of sweets to try. Plus, this means that you aren’t buying anyone quite as many things to keep around the house. My favorite things that I’ve bought to date have been bird seed blocks, stamps (if you buy the 1 cent ones just for fun they’re actually way cheaper than stickers), and hot chocolate.

2. Look at the year ahead to see what’s up and coming.
   I decided for last year that I wanted to highlight Philadelphia in the gifts because my upcoming wedding would be in Philadelphia. This is how I ended up buying a book about Philadelphia, stroopie waffles, and Tastykakes. If there are any big upcoming events you can use it as a theme for the year.

3. Shop throughout the year.
   I always try to keep an eye out for items to buy during the year. I look at items on sales racks (especially after the holiday season for the following year) and items when I’m on vacation. The one hard part about this is that many food items have expiration dates that are very close to the purchase date, so just be careful! (Tastykakes somehow only seem to last for a few weeks… maybe they’re not as bad for you as I thought they were.)

4. Consider buying larger kits and splitting them between however many people you need to.
   Last year I bought some holiday crafting kits at Target that made 12 items and split them into individual bags so that each person could create 3 crafts. This was a great way to “buy in bulk,” but still make sure that people had individual gifts to open.

5. Go through your house to see what you already own.
   I don’t know about you, but I definitely have some stashes of things around my house. I went through to try to figure out what I might already own that they would like. Some things that I found in my house were ornaments that I had picked up on previous trips, crayons, journals, stationery, and stamps.

6. Gifts can be for any number of people.
   If you buy a large item and it’s going to one household with two people in it, they can both share it. If you buy one item that comes with many pieces, they can share it when they open it. I usually try to have as many “twos” for two people as I can though so that each person gets their own gift to open.

7. Plan your budget out before you go shopping.
   The first year I did this, I thought to myself, alright, I need all low priced items so that I won’t break the bank on this since I’ll be buying 48 items. For the second year I realized that some gifts could be low cost and some could be high cost. For example, I bought a children’s book about Philadelphia for each household and then found out after the fact that there were free coloring sheets online to accompany it that I went ahead and printed.

8. Write a heartfelt message.
   As a greeting card person, I always feel like the best part of a gift is the message that comes with it. I’m not sure exactly what the future holds, but I hope that one day, all of the kids will have a stack of letters from me through the years that they can go back and read one day with a mug of hot chocolate. Or a few years after that, maybe a tumbler of whiskey.

I’ve had a lot of fun with this through the years, and I’m excited to keep it going this year. I should probably start shopping soon. I’m also debating getting each person their own caboodle and putting all of their gifts inside to open after they open the caboodle. I’ll keep you posted!