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How many presents / budget is enough for each ? Without being too mean or ott?

At Christmas each chiild gets a stocking (£10), a present from us (varies) and a present from Father Christmas (varies) (in recent years this has come to between £40 and £110 each), plus some bits to share (board games etc). Two years ago we had booked a family holiday so that was their 'shared gift'.
Birthdays my DC get either a present or a party from me and a present from their Dad. SCs get stacks and stacks of stuff at their Mum's, and a present or party here.
All of this is plus grandparent gifts etc, so they do pretty well.

Brilliant thank you , I have definitely been overdoing the gifts :-/

I agree, I have 4 dc. £10 stocking and £30 main gift. Birthday a big party every other year from age 6 with a limit of about £100 and a small gift usually a top or outfit for the party, non party year a few friends for tea and a gift for about £30.

All DCs are in same month so both Christmas and Birthday are tight, but definitely around the 30 pound mark each, I've bought DS really expensive decent shoes for the past two years (he was turning 1 and 2 )

DC's get 1 present each for birthdays (about £30 each). For Christmas they get a £30-£50 present and a £10 ish stocking. We don't go overboard because they get so much from family and we live in a small flat with no storage

Wow im stumped I can't believe all these years I have to admit DP has been right ! I've always bought them about 5-6 gifts each at Xmas and birthdays and to top it we too have all children born the same month ....

I think half the problem is I was an only child so my mum bought me a lot so ive always felt I should do the same :0

Probably about £50-100. I try and make it a big ticket item, eg bike, scooter. But once you've got all of these and are handing them down, it gets a lot harder. For Christmas I try to think for the year, eg, get art supplies and colouring books, stuff I know will last for the year.

We have no family in the uk. As our dds get older and the more we have (4), the less presents we get from our families at home poor dd4 has received only I present for her birthday from our next door neighbours. Even our present, the seat for the micro scooter (about £25) is still sitting in the cupboard waiting for nicer weather. I feel the need, as they get older, to compensate for the fact that we have no family here to celebrate their birthday with them.

For Christmas we spend about £50 per child, and they all get stuff along the same lines, e.g. a board game, a Wii game, a series of books and some bits & pieces in the stocking.

For their birthdays, we spend between £40 and £60, usually on one big present or contribution to it, and we do ask for their input on what sort of thing they'd like.

I have all of them in jul/ aug which is hard as summer hols. DH prefers to buy them clothes or things they need rather then things they want .

I'm definitely over doing it
Our children have their birthdays spread throughout the year, but Christmas can be expensive. Our youngest only gets 4 or 5 things as he doesn't need/want anything.

Christmas:

We draw names. Everyone is getting a little gift for someone else. That's usually around 5 pound per gift.

This might be shocking for, I think most of you to read. But we're originally from the Netherlands.
I remember our first Christmas over here and how unbelievable busy the shops are over here. It was weird and also fun celebrating Christmas in a different country for the first time. It's the same party, but we barely understood what was happening around us.

A friend brought Christmas stockings for the kids. So funny the look on my husbands face when he looked at them.
What's this? What do we need to do with this?

Christmas is a special family get together holiday. But we don't really have father Christmas.
We barely do anything with presents. It's the nice food and being together. Doing a family game or watch a funny tv program with each other.
Some lovely decoration and nice lights in the house.

On presents on Christmas we don't spend more then 5 times 5 pound = 25.- pound total.

On food:
Our food isn't that expensive. Oliebollen is a very traditional meal/snack to eat on Christmas and new years eve.
It's flour, raisins, milk, yeast. Put it together and let it rise for about 2 hours. Heat the fryer and take a spoon full at the time and fry them for about 5 minutes.

Then some nibbles and meat like duck, rabbit or turkey.

BIRTHDAY'S:
One simple present. Usually around 10 pound.
A birthday party. What we'll do depends on who's birthday it's and what he'd like to do on his birthday.

HOMESCHOOL:
We teach our kids at home.
We find it important that they not only study, but that they stay motivated to keep on learning.

When they finished something. For example my 6 years old need to read 30 books and then we'll celebrate his achievement.
He's nearly there, just a couple of more books.

What we'll do and how we'll celebrate is up to him. It's his party! He'll also get a big present. Between 20 - 30 pound and sometimes more.

Sylvia

Me and dh are of different opinions when it comes to Christmas and birthdays for our 3 dc's. We come from different families after all.
I prefer to just get a few gifts at Christmas, 1 main gift (bike, scooter Nintendo ds etc) and smaller gifts that I know they'll love like Disney figure/soft toyss, bubble bath, new pj's, a DVD etc. Dh goes way over the top and we end up spending about £150 on each child. Christmas morning there are presents everywhere, nowhere to sit as the sofas are full, and usually the floor too once the paper starts being torn off.

To me, this isn't what Christmas is about and in all honesty I don't think my children appreciate it as much as they would of they had less stuff to care for. (hope that makes sense, they are grateful but overwhelmed. They have so much stuff in their rooms I don't think they can remember who got what for which Christmas and who from!

When I was little I got 1 main present and 5 or 6 other little things - 1 of these was always chocolates. Other things usually included a new hairbrush gift set, pyjamas, necklace, board game, book etc. my main present was usually second hand too as we didn't have much money. I knew exactly what I had got, who it was from and appreciated and used everything!!

When my dh was small him an his brother got in excess if £500 spent on them! From motorbikes, to new pets (lizards one year, a dog the next, etc). Beyond ridiculous! But considering this he has reigned himself in somewhat when it comes to our dc's. His parents however still spend around £250-£350 each grandchild at Christmas, plus usually £100+ on us (each!). It's totally excessive! They are not rich and are in so much debt they miss mortgage payments and turn to is to bail them out.

For birthdays it's my influence. As we have 3 children they take turns to have a party, which I always do in the village hall (£8 per hour). I do all the food and serve jacket potatoes and hotdogs at the hall (food = £40). Gift bags/favours - anything from a bag of party tat to a small toy/sweets each. £20 . There is usually a bouncy castle too, £50.
Total party cost:- £120 at the most.
Regardless of who's turn it is to have a party the gift is usually in the £20 region.

I know I've waffled on but I had to I explain how things are in this house

Loads

<<realises this is in larger families topic>>

I was about to reply, then realised I already had... over two months ago.

But have you changed your mind now threebee?

No, budget still the same. At least we know we're being consistent.

Gosh
Last year I started buying in September and probably spent about 400 altogether on my two boys. As a previous poster said I grew up as an only child and got a lot. This year we also have dd although she will only be 8 months old at Xmas. I had been worrying about how to pay for xmas, seems I just don't buy as much!

We have started buying a token gift for DS1 (7) and DS2 (5) and instead asking them to suggest an outing that we might not normally do... we have a two year old too so they also get to decide if he gets some lovely grandparent time or gets to come along as he just doesnt have the patience for a day of activity. This will obviously change though.

Usually the gift would be £20.

At Christmas we get PJs and usually bubble bath, a dvd and a board game to share and usually a new book. They then get one larger present from us, these havent stretched to bikes etc yet. We have very generous GP, uncle and aunties so they get so much. They still get excited about their PJs every year.

We have birthdays in three consecutive months, we always have a party but this has to date has been at home so max 6 friends with sandwiches and party games.

Next year they will be having a joint party in a hall.