Why are people offended if relatives give their DC money for Christmas?

I've given my great nieces (it used to be their parents until they reached 18) money their whole lives with no complaints. Vouchers are limiting and they get so many gifts.
I don't want to give anything that's not wanted and figure they get much more for their money in the sales and enjoy spending the money.
My adult DC's partners get Euros. They're incredibly difficult to buy for and have great taste, I'd probably get ot wrong. We discussed it and apart from stocking fillers they like having the extra spending money on the European trips I know they always take each year. Money doesn't have to be the thoughtless gift. I find those gift sets in Boots (you know the 3 for 2 type) far worse.

Don’t think there’s any thing wrong with it OP my teenager is very hard to buy for, I struggle, we have a large family and I just give them his bank details, goes towards his car fund, he normally gets between £200-£300! Same on birthdays.

I think money is absolutely fine to give. I don’t think it’s impersonal - unwrapping a gift that’s something DC aren’t in to at all is far more impersonal in my opinion.

I think that money is quite nice as a way of spreading Christmas as DC get to go to a toy shop after Christmas and pick something! So something nice to look forward to.

I wouldn't say I'd be offended but I would prefer presents for my younger DC, otherwise I'm the one who has to do the shopping and possibly wrapping, it just seems lazy of the gift giver.
Absolutely fine with teens, they prefer to have the money to do their own shopping and aren't as excited by the surprises and unwrapping of presents.

Agreed.

I started giving money instead of presents when I realised that a friend's child had been given so many toy cars for Christmas that they were donating them to the local nursery.

God knows but there are a lot of miserable posters looking to find offence on here.

I've got 7 dgks, oldest live the other end of the country, haven't seen them for years. Even the nearest, they change their minds, hobbies, hair all the time. I do ask them and their parents what they want, they don't know! One has just had a birthday, personal presents there,dgs into very expensive computer games, branded clothing,gets money buys what he wants.. late mil, because my youngest Ds was into a particular football team at 9, would buy him an annual at 16!

I gave my niece and nephews money as they got older. When they were small I always asked DS what present they wanted.

Nothing wrong with givng them money, as they probably wouldn't want what you'd buy them

I think some people just think it looks like you couldn't be arsed to buy a gift/couldn't be bothered to find out what they might like - and look around for something. Just stuffing a tenner or twenty quid in a card is a bit CBA.

I expect some people don't mind it, and I bet many of kids don't, but personally, when I was a child/young teen, I preferred presents, not money stuffed in an envelope or gift card. At that age I didn't want or need money.

I don't want to go all Four Yorkshireman, but back in the 1970s when I was a child, me (and my brother and our cousins, who all have 6-7 years between us,) were happy with a lot less than children are now.

We were thrilled to get a board game, a selection box, a colouring book and some crayons, a pair of pyjamas, some slippers, an annual, some chocolate coins, a doll or teddy (depending on our age,) and the one big present, like a skateboard or a cassette player, or a walkman, or similar gadget that had just come out (that would be maybe £50 in today's money.) We never expected a lot, and wouldn't have been particularly chuffed with someone sticking a pound note in an envelope (like a tenner in today's money!)

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I think I’m the opposite. My mil used to only give cash, still does, but to me she just can’t be bothered to choose anything since the children were born. She has a number of grandchildren with a history of estrangement there. I have the finances to buy things but id rather she picked something of her own accord to show she’s thought about gifts

Happy with money because I can get what the children actually want vs them getting something they don’t because they only see family a handful of times a year and in the past they have received things that weren’t age-appropriate, we already had it, or they weren’t interested in such things anymore.

I have no issue with people asking and I ask about my nieces and nephews unless I know they’re still into specific things.

It’s a waste of effort, time and money to me otherwise if I buy something they don’t like.

I really miss physical media as a gift, CDs, DVDs, LP, Tapes.
Console games too, so much of that is now either streamed or a download code printed on a bit of A4.

My DM is disabled. She can make it to the corner shop to buy milk but she couldn’t go to a retail park on the bus to buy 8 bulky, heavy presents for her GCs. My DCs love receiving money. It’s a good lesson when they’re young to know they have x amount, and you can take them shopping and they can learn to work out the value of that money.

Nothing wrong with money at all, even for young children. The amount of tat some people buy is obscene and it’s much better to get something wanted or needed!

I’ve given cash this year to nieces, nephews and friends with children much older than mine - yes it’s easier for me, but also for them.

We used to have a relative who would give me and my brother money every Christmas without fail. They would find new, novel, ways to wrap/present it every year, it got more impressive and complex as we got older. It started with coins in a pair of new socks, moving through things such as £5 notes individually wrapped in cling film and hidden at intervals in a tube of pringles, carving a small hole out of a chocolate Santa, posting the money in and sealing it shut with chocolate buttons and sealing it back in the original box. One year they picked up a cheap gimkcky table top claw grab arcade machine full of sweets and wrapped up £5 notes in foil sweet wrappers and mixed them in. By about the 4th or 5th year it became almost a game to see who could work out where the money was hiding first in the most mundane looking of presents. It was one of my favourite Christmas memories.

But I certainly don't have an issue with people giving money - the DC get so many presents (especially as we have a birthday near Xmas) money they can save/put away for later in the year is actually useful when they see something they want in 3 months but have 9 months to wait for Xmas/birthday!

I’m not!

Cash or vouchers all the way once the kids are 8/9 and start to want more expensive things!
I remember being 12ish and receiving a silk scarf from one aunt, £10 and some chocolate from another. Guess which one I preferred?!

Money given directly to the DC is great. Its their money and the implication is they can spend it as they see for.

Money given to the parents with a message 'buy Billy something he wants' is giving me yet another job to do.

I get this every year from both sets of GP, I understand my DC are too old for toys and have fixed likes. The problem is the GP want the present to wrap or at least ask what has been done with the cash and then disapprove of the gift (she bought a dress for clubbing, hes using it to pay for his teams new years eve party) or are upset that it isn't allocated to anything.

So cash is good but never ask what it will be spent on.

I was thinking to start giving money as a present. I have to go around to drop of gifts or send them without getting much in return. I don't mind buying presents but the parents won't tell what the child wants. Then I buy something and I have to contact the parent to ask when I can drop off the present. Everyone is too busy and I have to cycle or take the bus to leave a present to their backyard or they open the door enough o exchange few worlds and then I go back home. Transferring a £20 is so much easier than this whole routine.

I give cash… to be honours nieces and nephews and to any bday parties kids are invited to. Saves me time, saves them have duplicate / unwanted gifts!

Vouchers used to drive me mad. Even if there had been 100 things in Next last week that the kids loved, you could guarantee there was nothing the instant that someone had given them a voucher. My stepdad used to give the kids One4all vouchers which are particularly useless for kids. It was always a mammoth effort to spend the buggers and I would end up giving the kids cash while I tried to find stuff in Argos for the exact amount I had on the gift card

The £10 note taped to a selection box from my Gran was, however, always very welcome and the kids could spend it straightaway.

My Gran was always very proud of herself because she never gave money and always chose presents, unlike her siblings who "just give money". As a 18 year-old student faced with a mug with a teddy on it, some felt tips and some stationery with a pierrot on it, I'd have killed for a tenner and a selection box.

Younger children are easier to buy less expensive gifts for, gifts that will be enjoyed, than teenagers. I think teenagers generally have more expensive tastes, or you could say more sophisticated tastes. For example a child who is interested in art will be happy with crayons or low quality pencils, but a teenager who has developed art skills will want better quality products. Even books get more expensive. That’s before you even start thinking about the technology and brand name clothes that are on their wish lists.

Some parents don’t seem to appreciate that a gift of cash can be a contribution to a purchase they can’t afford to make in full rather than a lack of care or laziness.

My mum is the only other person who buys my (young) DC Christmas presents. I’d be disappointed if she just gave cash. But generally, and especially for teenagers, yes it’s absolutely fine.