I don’t think there’s anything wrong with giving gifts at Christmas, but when we go into debt or become overly stressed and anxious due to holiday spending, it could be time to reassess how you handle Christmas with your family this year.

Over-giving to your kids could be overwhelming them more than you think. Your child feels stress in the home, so at Christmastime, he or she can sense that you’re stressed about money or buying the perfect gift or keeping up with the Joneses. Over-giving to young children in particular can make them feel overwhelmed, which is why I recommend parents store most toys out of reach—in a basement or closet or somewhere–leaving a few accessible to their child at a time.

Additionally, gifting your child with too many gifts doesn’t necessarily make them feel more loved and can have adverse effects, making them less grateful or misinterpreting the reason for the season to be about gifts rather than celebrating the birth of Christ or spending meaningful time with family.

One therapist even claims that over-giving to our kids can increase destructive behavior, lower self-esteem, and rob children of lasting happiness because materialism fails to foster empathy in a child.