What’s your Christmas budget?

[Ticktockk]

I’m interested, having read the thread by the poster who is sad that she is limiting herself to £200 per (adult) child.
We’re pretty well off but I wouldn’t spend more than that on my young kids each. Am I a total miser??

Up t0 700 on your DS but only 20 pounds on each parent! 🤣🤣

It's definitely not! My jaw is on the floor at all the posters spending 700 pounds per DC!

@Retrogamer According to a study from the University of Missouri, your spend is the healthier choice for your children. Not pitiful at all.

According to a study from the University of Missouri, as adults, such children are more prone to credit-card debt, gambling, and compulsive shopping.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/when-kids-call-the-shots/201511/3-good-reasons-not-to-give-kids-too-many-presents

Usually around £100 per child, but they're hoping for tablets this year so I've spent £130 each. Probably £30-40 on stockings.

Close family (parents, siblings/in laws, neices and nephews) are £25 each, but with additional photo albums each year for parents. Token gifts of £5 for some aunts and uncles.

Godchildren and friends' kids are either a £10 voucher each, but for some we have an agreement of a day out (or we swap cinema vouchers and all go together in the new year).

Total budget including food of around £1,000. It doesn't sound much individually but it all adds up and I'm careful with spending. DH and I don't buy each other much, just a stocking with a £25-30 budget to open with the kids.

Thankyou il have a look

Kids are adults now and we have just taken them and partners on a £15000 holiday on the other side of the world. Christmas will be a gift of about £100 to our 2 children and £40.00 to their partners.
we done buy gifts for our parents or siblings as we all agreed a few years ago that it’s wasteful as we are all comfortable and buy what we want when we want it. Instead we donate to our individual chosen charity.

I’ve been buying presents for my siblings, nieces and nephews throughout the year. If I see something that I think someone might like, I get it and put it away. I’ve probably spent about £30 pp- £150.

I always get a holiday for DH (and me 😁), and he does the same, so we’ve got skiing and a trip to Madeira to look forward to early next year- cost in the region of £1500 for both, but we’ll drive to ski, so there will be a bit more added on.

I take the kids away somewhere too (they’re adults). We don’t really do physical gifts, other than a secret Santa. I have a big birthday next year, so I’m paying for a holiday for them for that. That will be spendy, but it’s a special year.

We go to an Indian restaurant for Christmas lunch; we pay half, so that’s £200 for ten of us- it’s not licensed, so people bring their own alcohol, or buy their own soft drinks.

I do spend £100+ on my friend- she’s very easy to buy for!

And my grandson- I pick things up when I see them, so I’ve no idea. My DIL doesn’t like too much though (I don’t blame her!), so half of it stays at my house for when they visit (he’s only 2.).

Looking at that list, it seems a lot, but we would’ve done the holidays anyway, and we aren’t big on physical gifts.

You are buying for 76-85 people? That he’ll or utterly pointless? I’m so relieved my neighbours do not do gifts. I expect you end up with a lot of cheap wine and chocolate - do you regift? I never encouraged my kids to buy presents for their friends - dd Insisted one year, wanted the whole gift giving excitement- spent all her savings and when she looked at the utter tat she had received in return she was quite upset, it wasn’t quite the warm fuzzy feeling she’d expected. Good (but expensive) lesson for her!
If it makes you happy, you can afford and you aren’t buying useless tat who cares.

DC 22 & 20 will get around £400 ish each, last year though I bought DS a Macbook for Uni and DD had one when she went. I do usually try and restrict it to a few hundred.

DM around £100

DS 21st Birthday is between xmas and new year so have saved hard for that this year, going to give him 1k like I did for DD.

Food budget around £200 but that will be for Xmas day and then DS Birthday will have 5 family members around to celebrate. DM will buy the meat as she is with me this year.

I save every month throughout the year to afford a comfortable Christmas, single Mother middle earner with a lot of outgoings!

ETA have a large family with lots of nephews and nieces but we do not buy for them nor siblings which has worked out much better over the years.

We're in our 40s, no kids.

We don't need to set a budget as such, but like to buy eachother a little pile of quite simple old fashioned gifts, so only spend about £150 on one another. I'll get DH boxer shorts, socks, some interesting beers, a giant toblerone, some Bulldog skincare products etc. No new ipads or jewellery or anything like that.

I'll spend £100 on my mum, dad and sister combined. None of us particularly want anything.

£250 each on DS and DD
DH and I shared present of £200
£30 each on DSis and SILs
£60 on DN
About £90 on friends kids
About £100 on food, should be 6 of us for dinner plus the snacks etc. Usually just buy a turkey crown

I think between £150 - £250 for 4 DC between the ages of 13 and 20. They generally get one big ticket item and then more small things. I refuse to buy tat so it's generally stuff they need but maybe a little bit more indulgent than they'd usually get so really nice shower gel or pants rather than standard stuff.

£150 for DH
£50 each for PIL and BIL/SIL
£50 Niece
£50 DM
£30 my dsis and dbil
Generally £20 each for other nieces and nephews but we're just buying a family escape room this year to do together.

I save £100 a month for Christmas and birthday presents so end up with a Christmas budget of around £600. £100 goes on the Christmas food shop, £300 for relatives (4 nieces, sibling, parents) then up to £200 for DS.

If there is money left in the pot after Christmas then it goes to the holiday pot and I start the birthday Christmas one afresh in January!

Not at all. I think the best decision me made as a family was to do secret Santa for the grown ups and set a guide price. It means you put a lot of thought into the one thing you buy for another grown ups and the magic isn’t gone at all. We spend less than £50 on my daughter (1 gift from Santa and 1 from us) and we ask family to not buy her more than 1 gift each. My partner is French and Christmas isn’t so consumer oriented there - or May it’s just his family - and actually I have really adapted to this way of thinking about Christmas. It’s lovely and actually I find it a lot less stressful financially. We are lucky we are both reasonably high earners but with costs rising it is a relief not to feel pressure to overspend on Christmas too

Grown up kids, so spend around 100 on each.
Around 40 each on parents
50 on DH and he spends the same on me

Food doesn't cost much more, maybe 50 at a guess
We're vegetarian so a vegetarian wellington or similar, potatoes to roast, sprouts, parsnips, gravy, a dessert, and cheese and crackers. Some crisps and nuts.
A couple of bottles of wine will last the season for us as we don't really drink. Some non alchoholic schloer as well.
Bearing in mind we won't be buying our normal food for that day so save money there.

Yeh it's purely a little token gift. Don't know why it's funny🤷🏻‍♀️

I aim for 600-700 but if I had to I would spend 800, it really depends on what the ask for. Last yr ds asked for a PlayStation so that was 500. I probably spent 800 on him last year all In.

I read these threads and don’t know whether to laugh or cry 😩

My DC are early 20s,1 still at Uni
We spend around 300 on each them
DH and I much the same
My sisters and nieces and nephews about 100 each
And that’s it
I love Christmas and enjoy shopping for lovely things for people I love,and I can afford it
If I couldn’t afford it I would cut back

Agree! I’m so glad that now our DT’s are in their mid 20’s we have an extended family secret Santa at£50 limit. We could afford to make it a £500 limit but feel it’s unnecessary.

It’s the same as anything though, people will spend what they want to/can afford to. It’s no different to anything else. My dc don’t get toys or big gifts throughout the year. Birthdays and Christmas only. The only exception is a bike. When they need a bike it is usually bought in spring time so they can get use out of it over the spring/summer etc. the only things I buy over the year is clothing.

A long time ago I realised that everything I bought for everyone on my list, was a token. They all have much more money than me! My kids are probably the exception to that so I suppose that's were my money goes. Then again it's only about £100 each but not including their stocking.

My husband and I may or may not buy each other gifts. We have a chat about it, around now. We haven't bought for each others siblings for years. The family stops buying for nieces and nephews when they are adults.

I do buy and make gifts for quite a lot of friends, godchildren, etc
I buy for in-laws and my dad... probably about £20 each

We don't have a lot of disposable income, save all year around, but have a lovely Christmas

I am spending around £150 to £175 on each of my 3 Dcs this year. Last year it was double that but they got a gift that lasts years.

£100 on dh (he will spend about the same on me)
£120 on food (if I had my way it would be £40 on an Indian takeaway but dh likes Christmas dinner)
I have also booked breakfast with Santa for dc3 and we are planning a boxing day trip so maybe £80 then.

We have cut back a lot this year so if I can cut it down I will do.

Same in my house.

We usually manage to do the whole of Christmas for around £300£350
We do lots secondhand or free toys off our local Facebook page. We also make gifts like art prints or personalise things.
We don't go crazy on food or host. Don't drink alcohol. Only buy for our family not extended with the exception of £20 for 2 nephews.
Small chocolates or biscuits for teachers at school.
Food £60-100 don't get a turkey not big on Christmas dinner
Keep stockings around £20 or under
Youngest is 3 so its very easy to find free or secondhand gifts we keep an eye out for the other two as well.
Middle £30-50
Oldest £20 on some drawing pens/art stuff. Then their main present which is also a family present too. We don't have a family computer so this year my eldest wants a gaming pc. This will be more than we usually spend on christmas all together. Around £500 but a real one off. Middle child will also be over the moon with this too.
We will probably look to pay it over 3 months and use some savings. My eldest has also saved all their birthday money towards it.

Certainly no massive present piles here and never have been. We always aim to get everyone at least one thing they really want. I think when they are all teenagers we might have to save more year round for bigger ticket items. They don't get gifts all year round aside from secondhand bikes we have managed to get frog bikes and the like for £50 when they come up. Also don't have much family so it's minimal gifts from anywhere else.