How much do you spend on the kids for Xmas

[missrachael]

Sorry I’m sure this thread has been done a million times. Just curious, whenever I read about what some peoples kids are getting I feel like I’m not doing good enough, at all. I plan to spend £300 each this year on 4 kids, so that’s £1200 which is a big amount of money but it also looks like hardly anything compared to some !

I really don’t understand this whole spending spree at Christmas. Is it a cultural thing? I am in the UK 25 years but originally from another country, so maybe I am missing something? In my family we do 1-2 gifts per child, no gift for adults. I think this is more than enough? Why do they need to have more?

They don’t need more. But it’s a nice thing to do if affordable! Definitely consumer culture at its finest. I love Christmas, and a big part of that for me is buying my loved ones gifts, so it’s a no brainer to me to buy my most loved one what I can within the budget I’ve set for myself. I appreciate though that affordability is different for everyone, so any ‘big’ gifts she gets will be from me and Santa gifts will remain small.

This question triggers me a bit because you make Christmas about money and not family quality time. Not you personally, but everyone who starts to believe that the more we spend equals the more we love. And it's not. Yes the kids might want a ton of things and good for you if you can afford to buy it all, but what they appreciate and will remember most is the time/ tradition spent together.
Make it fun. Make it with love, make it about you as family. And they'll forget they didnt get everything they wanted. But they won't forget if your time and love was not there..
To answer your question, how much should you spend on presents for Christmas? How much can you afford without getting yourself in financial hardship. After all, you have other days to get by, not just Christmas..

Compared to who? This is ridiculous. Some people will spend thousands and some people won't be able to buy anything. It shouldn't be about what they get, most of it is just a load of crap anyway. We do one main present and it's normally something she has wanted for a long time, then a couple of smaller ones. Stop trying to keep up with the joneses. If you are looking online half of the piles of presents under the tree are empty boxes. Christmas is not worth getting in dept over - they will remember the day with their family far more than what they got each year.

We have a rule that if they ask for something expensive then they can only ask for small bits in additiion to main present. They only tend to get stuff for birthday's and Christmas these days (other than stuff that they need of course, I don't tend to buy stuff like clothes for christmas unless it's something they want rather than need). All of our family are abroad so they tend to send money towards their christmas presents too which helps massively). This year big girl (13) asked for new Nintendo console (she's had hers 3 or 4 years and her favourite game is being released on newer console only); she'.s getting F1 2026 calendar, some make up and makeup brushes. Little one (8 years old) asked for Kindle (both girls and I are avid readers and sharing my Kindle atm) and some small bits like plushies and character hoodie.

£800 each age 2 & 3

Yes and the other thing is how much you buy through the year Vs at Christmas

For example, we never get new bikes or scooters as Christmas presents - it just seems like the wrong time of year for that type of gift. If ours need a new bike/scooter, we give them around spring, often the beginning of the Easter holidays, so they have them to use over the warmer weather.

Other families will get them as Christmas presents.

Similarly we upgrade technology when needed not for Christmas - DS's tablet stopped working well in September so he got a new one last month, I wouldn't make him wait till Christmas

So our present total ££ maybe looks lower for Christmas but it's not that our kids don't have these things, they just don't get them that way

Come on, you know that this is more than adequate per child...These threads are starting to get tedious, another person who plans to spend £1200 on christmas presents but claims it doesn't feel enough. There is nothing wrong with spending this if you can afford to and want to - great, but don't pretend it isn't enough.

No more than £150 for Christmas for two reasons: 1. Christmas has enough excitement and Santa brings most of the gifts in our house. 2. DS has an early January birthday and dd is September so we do bigger gifts for birthday - especially important for ds otherwise birthday is overshadowed by Xmas too much.

This year ds gets a new bike from
dgp for his birthday which is a massive investment (he is a fabulous cyclist so we are upping his kit!). And he’s also getting a motorcycle experience day from dh and me.

Dd had a very expensive school trip last year as well as a lot of new and expensive art materials so we feel it balances out. I’m also taking her for an alpaca experience day!

This year is about £60 per child plus a stocking of £15 to £20.
Kids are 10 and 13.
Last year was a lot more because there were specific expensive things (a bike and a digital piano). They know it can't be super expensive stuff every year though.
This year the 13yo hasn't asked for anything and the 10yo has asked for things like slime and a nerf gun, so there's no need for us to go crazy this time.
It also allows a little more for extras, like going ice skating.

Oh, and in response to people asking how to keep costs down with teens, for us that's not an issue because the 13yo has no interest in fashion/trends and is actually incredibly hard to buy for because he doesn't want anything. So we've not had to deal with wanting particular clothes or trainers etc yet. I'm sure we will when the youngest is a bit older.

I have one child and am spending around £250 this year. She is 5. I have a spreadsheet so I’m on top of my Christmas spends but I think I have overdone it this year because I picked up bits from Vinted a few months back - by the time I put them on the spreadsheet I’d already overshot a bit.

For anyone curious, this looks like:

6 cuddly toys (we love plush toys in this house)
A huge bundle of Hatchimals off Vinted
Littlest Pet Shop set
VTech Magical Fairy Fox
Pokemon Monopoly
Pokemon book
Plastic mini Yoshi set
Magnet Blocks
Mini Squishmallow set and keychain
Mariokart game for Nintendo Switch

It doesn’t go far!

Well aren't we the Xmas scrooges.... We spend about £100-£150 on the kids and each other. We are also pretty wealthy in general terms, so not for lack of funds. We tend to spend a lot on food and drink, and going out of dinner etc.

If someone needs a phone or some tech, then fine, but we would generally get that during the year, maybe for birthday, or even a no day!

I used to buy a lot of their toys from charity shops because kind people donate all sorts of toys and books and bubble bath items. Luckily toys are no longer needed. To my way of thinking people are spending a lot on presents.

Probably around £1k.
Bought headphones and a few smaller pieces and will be giving money for him to buy clothes and put away in his savings.

I cant even conceive of the idea of ever having £5-600 available just for spending on gifts 🫣 I assume people are saving all year or putting it on credit cards, but it still blows my mind.

My 3yo has her birthday two weeks before Christmas and we’ve spent £100 on that (all playsets, action figures etc, £40 was on one giant Batcave set 😂)

But for Christmas we’re spending £50 on a bike and that’s it. Between mine and DHs family, she’ll gets loads and tbh most of the time she ends up overwhelmed. Last Jan I put half of her stuff away still in the packaging where she’d not even played with it and got it back out in the summer for her when she was bored one day.

I assume lots of people perhaps don’t have lots of extended family or certainly not any that would buy their DC a lot of gifts so they’re doing the bulk of the gifting.

I didn’t expect it to be so much but it’s about £250 on my 4 year old. It’s a couple of big brio pieces to add to his train tracks, some new magnatiles to expand the collection, a rocket ship toy he has specifically asked for, and then some odds and ends like books, new playdoh, and a board game. He’ll have a stocking as well with a couple of Yoto cards, some sweeties and a new train. I’ll probably find some silly little stocking stuffers to add to that for fun.

£250 sounds like so much to me but I don’t think it’s a huge amount of presents. Everything is just very expensive.

Can I ask just out of nosiness what this is spent on?

My 4 year old’s presents came to around £250:

One large and one medium sized brio piece to expand his train set
One rocket ship toy
One smaller box of magnet tiles to expand his collection
A few books
New play dough
A board game
Stocking with a couple of Yoto cards, sweeties, trains, a few pocket money type toys

In terms of parcels to unwrap that’s 6 + I think 3 or 4 books and a stocking.

@Disintegration1985 we save 2k per month as a household in general, Thats not including holidays and saving for the dc. And I have other pots that I save into sporadically which I tend to use for Christmas etc. I don’t really buy my dc toys etc throughout the year. It’s only birthday and Christmas. They will get gifts from grandparents and aunts/uncles too yes.

Ofc so they got
Bike
Gabby's dollhouse with rooms
The new DJ furby
Peppa pig train set plus all the whizkid adds ons
Bluey ultimate lighthouse, supermarket plus a bluey hamper with PJ's, dressing gown etc
Puzzle books
Magnetic tiles
Marble rush
Rainbow high dolls head
Doll plus cot and accessories
Little tikes storytime projector with books

Ofc so they got
Bike
Gabby's dollhouse with rooms
The new DJ furby
Peppa pig train set plus all the whizkid adds ons
Bluey ultimate lighthouse, supermarket plus a bluey hamper with PJ's, dressing gown etc
Puzzle books
Magnetic tiles
Marble rush
Rainbow high dolls head
Doll plus cot and accessories
Little tikes storytime projector with books

@Yourethebeerthief

We have one DD. She's done a Christmas list from the symths catalogue and there's a few other bits I want to get her that she needs. I totted it up to about £450. Some of her requests will be given to family members though.

This doesn't include the stocking which I tend to buy bits for when I'm out and about so don't really have a budget or know what I spend. Luckily only so much can fit in a stocking.

I spread it out over November and December so it's not too noticeable in terms of expense

Bikes would really ramp up the cost of course. We got the story dream machine a couple of christmases ago, it’s a lovely toy.

Sorry, see this has already been asked and answered

what does that look like?

I can't actually imagine what I'd spend £800 on for my 3 year old though we don't have much house or garden space.

Big gifts I can think of:

• yoto + cards £100
• bike £300 if going frog/isla
• outside climbing frame/ swing set upto £600
• £100/200 new clothes/ shoes
• £100 dolls and accessories

All of those in a year seems a lot but I guess I've answered my question!!

£300 each, including stocking gifts. Their dad will spend the same.

We tend to do a lot during advent and have lots of extra little treats too, so that adds to the total cost of Christmas

Do you do a big clear out each year? That's so many new toys!