This may come off the wrong way being typed vs spoken but I never gave out anything and kids still came over every year when I had my old layout (with ones in the neighborhood visiting multiple times). Probably because I let each and everyone operate the trains and accessories (that's the real gift). In fact, that's the reason I initially got DCS - much easier to teach a young kid to press a certain colored button for a desired response or just scroll to a certain name/number for an accessory or engine (not a comment on DCS vs TMCC).
-Greg