Mom Shares What Her Only Child Got For Their First Christmas, Splits The Internet

Christmas is a joyous occasion for many families, who tend to use this chance to enjoy quality time together and maybe treat their loved ones to a gift or two.

It’s no surprise that kids often receive quite a few of them, especially when grandparents are involved. This TikToker went viral after she showed what her baby’s—who happens to be an only grandchild—first Christmas looked like. Needless to say, Santa was rather generous.

Not all people are equally enchanted by the idea of getting every loved one a gift for Christmas, not to mention multiple ones. But for some people, few things are more exciting, which is why they might go crazy during the holiday season; and quite a few people seemingly do.

Statistics reveal that Americans, for instance, spend nearly a thousand dollars on holiday shopping on average. Even though that’s reportedly nearly the same amount as the median pre-tax weekly salary, if people can afford it and they want to spoil their family and friends a little, why not do it?

Such thinking often becomes especially favorable when it comes to family, and kids in particular. Showering the littles ones with love, attention, quality time, gifts, or any other expression of care and fondness, on Christmas—or any other time, for that matter—is something many parents, grandparents, and other close people can hardly resist.

A 2023 survey revealed that nearly one in five parents are planning to spend more than $200 on gifts per child. Roughly 15% of them are looking for something for more than $100 to $150, and the same number hope to find something for more than $25 to $50 per kid.

Needless to say, it doesn’t have to be a huge expensive gift for a child to be happy with it (the viral video of a boy receiving an avocado is a great example of that); it doesn’t even have to be a palpable one. But at the end of the day, it’s up to the parents to decide what their bundle of joy might like best and what they themselves can come up with, find, or organize.

But why is it that some people enjoy showering others with gifts more than others? Or even more than receiving them themselves? Also, what makes a good gift-giver? These questions are difficult to answer as there can be many reasons for each of them; but some experts believe it often relates to a sense of sociability and accomplishment.

An expert in the psychology of gift-giving, professor of psychology at University of Worcester, UK, Daniel Farrelly, told BBC that humans are an extremely social species, which is why we want to get along well and cooperate with others. One of the best ways to do it is gift giving, and Christmas is an excellent occasion for that, the expert suggested.

Presenting someone with a gift can benefit both of the involved parties as in addition to the smile on the receiver’s face, it can make the giver feel good, too. Another expert studying the psychology of gift-giving, professor of business administration at University of Pittsburgh, US, Peggy Liu, pointed out that for some people on a similar mission as Santa, giving gifts can bring a sense of accomplishment and make them feel good about themselves, which becomes a motivating force to continue to do it.

Liu also emphasized that some people are better at giving gifts than others, as they tend to be more attentive, organized, and are typically on top of things in life, in general. Bearing that in mind, it’s not that surprising that moms seem to be the best at giving gifts, according to last year’s survey. It revealed that more than half of the 2,000 surveyed Americans seek the title of the best gift-giver in the family, one in four of them saying that their biggest competition is mom.

It is unclear if all the items in the TikToker’s video were gifts the baby received from their mother. (The bib and the audio suggest that the grandparents might have been involved, too, and their gift-giving habits are often a whole other story.) Be it as it may, the video sparked varied opinions, which netizens shared in the comments under the mom’s post.