Soon, many parents find themselves in the middle of fights over who got the best present. There are many steps to look into for parents to remain fair in gift giving.
“I think it was last to last Christmas when my mom bought me an Xbox 360, a bench-press, and a guitar,” senior Camillo Santacruz. He is an only child so he avoids the rivalry fiasco.

“I have six siblings. Five brothers and one sister,” senior Thaddeus Sonne says.

In Sonne’s family, there is not much room to have every sibling happy with the gifts given. Sadly, the gifts Sonne got last Christmas included some socks and a CD of Damian Marley.

English teacher Spencer Elliott remembers experience, as he sat down on his chair in L-25 reminiscing of the past. It suddenly comes to him; “Hmm an example that I remember was the Christmas right before my brother went off to college.”

His parents usually give both of them socks, and/or money. But, “This time my parents decided to give my brother an additional gift that was supposed to be a secret. They ended up giving him a laptop for college,” Elliott says.

“I ended up guessing that my parents gave it to him for Christmas by his happiness of receiving just socks and a sweatshirt.” Eventually he came to realizing, “I understand now that of course it was fair but at the time I was very angry.”

Parents need to know how it feels to get a worse gift than a sibling and how it affects sibling rivalry. “I will definitely make sure to be fair in present giving during Christmas and birthdays, when the time comes,” Elliott says.

Some parents make it more obvious which child is favored. “I have two siblings. Both are older. Let me just say it straight up that my parents like me the best because I have had good grades and I consider myself the best behaved out of all of us,” senior Justin Davis says. 

However, Davis says, “Overall, my parents still give presents equally almost every year.”

Last year they all got iPods, clothing and money. “The year before that I got a new guitar and amp, but then my brother got an Xbox 360 and my sister got a laptop,” Davis says.

“I have one older brother and I love him very much, my parents on the other hand probably just like him” senior Jamie Safran says with a laugh. “We both behave equally good and bad, but yeah I know I already get twice the gifts as he does for the past four years.”
For the reason that four years ago her brother begged his parents for a car and promised that, “If they bought him a Mustang that they would never have to buy any Christmas present for him any more,” Safran says. Surprisingly, they did it and he hasn’t gotten a present for Christmas ever since.