Giving and Angel Trees - are people greedy?  

In the past, I would pick tags with kids my daughter's age, like the Christmas I was pregnant with her, I picked two tags that were for infants and I bought little soft rattles. The year after she was only one, so again I picked two babies and got them little soft learning toys. Last year we got art sets for three year olds, I mean these are not expensive gifts, just something fun that the kids might enjoy opening, especially if they aren't getting much. I don't think something like this should entirely make up for their parents, just be a help so they don't end up having nothing. I don't think any child should suffer by having no Christmas.

If I had seen any tags asking for something like pajamas or an outfit or a toy, something not $80 or more, I would have done it. It just really disappointed me after looking at 10+ tags and they were all asking for game systems, mp3 players, cell phones, laptops....

Exactly. Also when I was a kid I would have been thrilled to have THREE gifts to open, even if one was clothing and one was shoes because it is just cool to have several things to open instead of just one. Also, some of these kids don't really have many clothes, so you'd think they would be happy with an outfit.

Like I mentioned too, the economy was so dismal this year, we even cut back on things we bought, and I hit the black friday sale and other sales in order to manage.

This was the first year that I gave in and went to the black friday sales. I knew I had to so that I could get more for my money and I also did a lot of online shopping and saved quite a bit. Most people are having to watch everything that they spend since no one knows when the economy will start to pick up again. I just wonder why no one bothered to help put some affordable stuff that the kids would like on there with the expensive gifts so that someone could of known what else they could have gotten them. I hope that next year will be a better year.

What is crazy is that because so many of these tags included 3 high priced electronics as 'wants', people were NOT taking the tags and buying ANY gifts at all. This is why I think the greediness is hurting people.

I also heard on the news that because of the economy, food banks and places that served meals to homeless and needy people had even LESS food to help anybody out.

I think it is lousy for someone to buy something that isn't even decent quality, but these kids need to think about the value they are asking for. I don't think that people should never donate, but donating means you are giving of your surplus, not taking from your family to care for someone else. It is just shocking to look at a tag from a 7 year old kid who thinks someone who doesn't even know him could afford to buy him a $300 Iphone lol. I mean even if I COULD I don't think I would. I wouldn't buy my own kids Iphones.

I know with Toys for Tots they HAVe to be new toys, I don't think you have to wrap them but they do need to include the tags or be in the packaging.

The kids don't ask, the parents do. It's up to the parent to make the decision of what the kid wants and what should be asked for.

I see, that makes it even worse, the parents should not request such things, they should be asking for things like hats, sweaters, socks etc.
thank you for enlightening me.
Happy New Year

If it remember right it is one toy and one article of clothes per child. It's up to the person buying the items whether or not they want to do more.

the PARENTS are the ones writing those gift requests for the angel trees?! i didnt know that!
we didnt go the angel tree this year either cause the 3 tags we did look at wanted bikes and a Sony PSP thingy!

that kind of pisses me off the learn its the parents. i can understand how a kid would write down the ultimate "want" in hope..but for the parents to do it when they KNOW that its part of a charity collection and not some Secret SugarSanta that its coming from!

My daughter's job adopts a family every year. One of the kids wanted a bike. My daughter found one at a second hand store. Electronics can be found all over the place in pawn shops,etc.

I'm getting the impression some think that poor and needy kids have no right to ask for a toy and should be grateful to get whatever. Might as well tell them Santa doesn't like you.

The PARENTS are the ones asking for the expensive electronics?? Really? I would never say these kids don't deserve a christmas but look here, MY kids get like one or two big gifts, like my son wanted a new skateboard and a new cell phone (he broke his accidentally) and my little one wanted a quad and a trampoline. All the kids got other things too, clothes, jammies, books, gift cards, other toys, movies. I would never instruct my kids to ask for really big ticket items, I'd ask them to be reasonable!

Oh, and Irishidid, it isn't that I don't think they deserve toys. All kids deserve toys, but there is a big difference from a reasonable toy and a PSP. I'd honestly rather buy a kid a pair of shoes if I find out they don't HAVE ANY SHOES, even if the shoes they are asking for cost $50 just like a used game for a PS. It's not just the money, trust me.

I agree and I'm shaking my head over some of the reactions.

Definitely, I think a doll (or a barbie or whatever) is perfectly reasonable. I don't think a kid should only get socks or a coat - but if they NEED socks or a coat, that trumps them asking for an XBox 360. I'm sorry, I just found that one extra unreasonable, given that I saw it listed on at least 5 of 10 tags I looked at this year.

I also see nothing wrong with a bike, a scooter, rollerblades, or sports equipment, even if it is more than $50-60. I wasn't a greedy kid though, never was.

I try really hard to find gifts that my kids will love and to get them as cheap as I can find them. I shop year round actually, not just near Christmas, which helps because I always have things hidden away. I am a bit of a toy grinch during most of the year, I'm not the kind of parent that caves and just buys toys or games or other stuff 'just because'. Because of this, we DO buy the kids big things like game systems, stereos, mp3/ipods, digital cameras, etc. My kids though are happy when they get the big thing they want and excited about all the other stuff they get as well.

Wanting too many things surely disappoints anybody. I don't usually have many things I want, this year it was a tossup between a gps and a roomba. After I get the roomba I have no idea. Unlike the kids, I don't really want an Xbox 360, a Wii (although so many people tell me I should want one lol), I already have an mp3, a cell, a computer, a camera....

There is a point when you kind of have everything and all you can do is upgrade anyway. It is impossible for me to shop for my husband adequately because he already has everything on earth that he wants. Literally. Men seem to be really good at this and it makes them a pain to shop for.

Oh yeah! Happy Holidays to you and your family my dear friend!

Thanks Opal! We did have a good Christmas out here... got almost 2 feet of snow the week before. It is just appalling that there seems to be so much greed. Kids expect their parents to go into debt or something to buy them what they want because their FRIENDS have it? I don't know, that is just my guess. When I was a kid growing up, I knew we had limited resources, heck, I had four siblings. If I were the ONLY one perhaps we could have taken a vacation every single year and I could have a bike and PS3 and my own computer and and Ipod and all the stuff kids ask for, know what I mean? When you have lots of brothers and sisters and your parents don't own the world, you have to set your sights a little lower.

I have wonderful memories of Christmases with my family, of course we didn't get EVERYTHING we always wanted but it was never about that in the end anyway. The gifts we got were given with love and they did try to give us some of the things we really wanted. This year we bought our older daughter a plane ticket to fly home for Christmas because she really wanted to come home. As a result, I did not buy her as much as I normally did because the plane ticket was expensive, but I did get her some things because we didn't want her to have nothing to open.

I think some people are very unwise with their money WHEN they have some, which may explain why they are always in the welfare line wearing Timberland boots. I don't even have a pair of those boots! I have a friend who literally gets a hole in her pocket whenever she has any money, which means it is gone almost as soon as it's in her hand. I tried to help her once by paying her to do something for me, but she didn't spend the money for the purpose she gave me for earning it.... so in the end it didn't really help her at all. I was disappointed because I was really trying to help but it didn't work out the way I had intended.

I don't think people who make bad choices constantly have earned the 'right' to be greedy, if there IS such a thing. Does anybody ever have the right to be greedy? Isn't that one of the seven deadly sins?

You know, you're right about that. When I was a little girl I really really desperately wanted a horse. I did understand why I couldn't have one though and now i REALLY understand it, because not only are they expensive, it takes a lot of work to even just take care of one lol. I don't think any kids truly understand something like that until they are older.

One thing that really surprised me too were kids who were 16 and 17 with tags on the tree. When I was that age, I worked odd jobs and part time and I had my own income to supplement and buy myself things I wanted. Is there some reason why kids who are 16 and 17 are not doing that? I could have earned the money to buy myself a game system, a cell phone, and an Ipod long before Christmas.

Well, over here they have 'angel trees', toys for tots, and other programs that essentially get donations of gifts for needy children and even families. One year an organization I belonged to adopted a whole family and we collected grocery items to provide them with a special dinner plus food for the rest of the month, some gifts for the kids, some furniture, stuff like dishes, towels, lamps, bedding, curtains. It was mostly need based, I mean we got them shoes, new coats, backpacks and school supplies for the kids, gift cards so they could purchase some things they needed, a gas card. We certainly did not buy them an hdtv, an xbox, and disney passes, know what I mean?

Helping when someone can is admirable and even preferred but people need to realize not everybody who looks like they can help actually can. I have been approached by people at gas stations and grocery stores asking for money, asking for gas, asking for food. Occasionally I have helped somebody, like the guy I bought some tacos for. He was so grateful and he kept thanking me, the guy must've been starving. I felt horrible, but I also was glad I had been able to help him. I have run into people who beg for stuff too and then get MAD when I offer to give them food. They want MONEY. I don't as a matter of course give money to strangers.

To me, someone needy is below the poverty standard, someone who on their current course will soon not have a home, clothes, food to eat, a job. Someone who just cannot 'afford' an Xbox does not automatically qualify to me as 'needy'. When was an Xbox ever a need? LOL! I might venture to say a phone is a need, but not a video game system.

I donated several times to the folks outside the dollar store getting donations for the homeless. I don't see any harm in that, and they also accept food donations there for the food banks. I can afford to do things like that, it's a small thing but small things are still valuable.

My faith in people isn't completely ruined, I will probably look next year but it might take me awhile to find something I consider reasonable as far as a tag and/or gift.