More Fun With Surveys

Christmas in our household is probably a typical combination of joy and stress. We are not Christian, but try to emulate some of the Christian values that are supposed to be the hallmark of the season- compassion, giving, celebration of love and family. We don't do Santa Claus, but I do like to try to get my kids something special for Christmas. This year, I know they want an X Box 360. Also, they want cell phones and a membership to the health club. On the one hand, most of their friends have cell phones and gym memberships that are just given to them, not as part of a Christmas present or for any special occasion. On the other hand, I don't think I can afford all three, and through the course of a year, cell phones or a gym membership add up to be quite an expense, I would call present-worthy.

I decided to see what they are wanting the most by making a little written survey they could both fill out and then Husband and I could discuss what to get.

Please rank 1-3 what you would most like for Christmas:
__ X Box 360
__ Cell Phone
__ Gym Membership
Comments:

Instead of getting comments, I got questions and complaints. "What Kind of X Box 360? I don't want the Arcade. You can't get the Arcade."; "What kind of cell phones? Would they have full keyboards? Unlimited texting?"; "Would you take us to the gym whenever we wanted to go?"; "Don't you think you should just give us cell phones and the gym membership anyway? Don't you care about our health and safety?"; "Who's room would the X Box go in? How many games would we get with it?"; "I don't want a cell phone like yours. Yours sucks."

So I simply changed the survey a little:

Please rank 1-4 what you would most like for Christmas:
__ X Box 360
__ Cell Phone
__ Gym Membership
__ Not only do I not want anything for Christmas, I would like to help
children less fortunate than myself and donate my gifts to charity.

So they decided they would be happy sharing an X Box 360. I am going to try to get them cell phones though, to put in their stockings. Sucky cell phones like mine, but I do care about their safety, and they really are good kids who are not too greedy most times and do appreciate what they have.