Train Table Trouble

Growing up, Halloween always seemed to inaugurate the holiday season.   It seems somewhat appropriate that my children are born at the front and tail end of the "holiday" season.   Charlie is greatly anticipating his third birthday.  I didn't really do parties for his first or second birthday, but I'd like to do a little birthday party with his friends.   We'll probably do something casual at the botanical gardens near our home. 
When you ask Charlie what he wants for his birthday, he always answers, "train table."  So, do you get the gift that your child wants or what you want to give him?   I've wrestled with this for several weeks, and I finally decided to make his birthday dreams come true.  Unfortuantely the world of toddler train tables is saturated with different incompatible train sets.  For instance, Thomas the Tank Engine has four different train track sets -- none with interoperable pieces.   Last summer, at a garage sale, I found a $10 train set for Charlie's 2nd birthday.  It turns out that $10 train set would probably go for $75-100 on craigslist.  The brand is Fisher Price Geotrax, and it is a great, albeit expensive set.  Am I vested in Geotrax because of my $10 purchase, or do I go and order a whole new set and train table?   I even showed Charlie a bunch of pictures of different trains and train tables and I asked him to help me find a good train table present for Aldous.  In the end, I decided to stay with Geotrax (mainly because they shipped DPO to NZ) and ordered this train table this weekend:  http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11682995&prodFindSrc=search .

With all of this talk of Charlie's birthday present, it got me thinking about Christmas.  For several years now, I've wanted to abstain from gift-giving Christmas.   It sounds so bah-humbug, but I think it would be a radical stance again the hyper-consumer emphasis at Christmas-time.   Maybe this isn't something that we want to do every year, but we'd like to do it this year.  Appreciate thoughts from family...    That being said, we would also like to be better gift givers with birthdays.  We have plenty of opportunity to practice in the months surrounding Christmas time (Charlie, Nana, Maria, Me, Emily, Juliet, Nate, Gran, Liam, Ashley!).