Buying Christmas presents for our four kids has never been this difficult.
It’s not that they are getting older and pickier — or that their tastes have become more expensive. And it’s not that my wife and I don’t know what they want; after all, they gave us lists. It’s that every gift costs more, sometimes way more, than we had budgeted. And, even when we’ve found something, we’d be hard-pressed to get it shipped to us before February.
Over the past two months, we’ve found that toys are anywhere from 10 to 20 percent more expensive than we had expected, which tracks with findings nationwide. What’s worse, we can’t find much of anything our kids want. Our 13-year-old son asked for a Fortnite T-shirt. Out of stock. Fortnite-branded Nerf toys? Nowhere to be found. Animal Crossing Amiibo packs? Forget about it. Even the LED fidget spinner one of my younger kids wanted is unavailable before Christmas.
Inflation Is Ruining My Family’s Christmas Gift-giving
Buying Christmas presents for our four kids has never been this difficult.
It’s not that they are getting older and pickier — or that their tastes have become more expensive. And it’s not that my wife and I don’t know what they want; after all, they gave us lists. It’s that every gift costs more, sometimes way more, than we had budgeted. And, even when we’ve found something, we’d be hard-pressed to get it shipped to us before February.
Over the past two months, we’ve found that toys are anywhere from 10 to 20 percent more expensive than we had expected, which tracks with findings nationwide. What’s worse, we can’t find much of anything our kids want. Our 13-year-old son asked for a Fortnite T-shirt. Out of stock. Fortnite-branded Nerf toys? Nowhere to be found. Animal Crossing Amiibo packs? Forget about it. Even the LED fidget spinner one of my younger kids wanted is unavailable before Christmas.