how much do you spend on presents at xmas?

[NordicPrincess]

how old are your children and what do you buy them? how much do you spend?

I think that's right in the main - people spend what they feel is within their budget for the most part. But then there are phrases like "didn't spend much" referring to a budget of £hundreds rather than £tens, and yes, it's all relative, but it suggests that those spending less are actually not buying "much" for their children, when actually they are - their kids are probably as happy as those getting £xxx's of presents. Or mention of "couldn't get anything they wanted for under £"huge sum"" - which kind of implies that once you're 13+, unless you get an iPod/Pad/laptop/mountain bike, you're not going to be having happy Christmases with the £40-50-60 presents that some parents here are choosing. Which obviously isn't true. Money has a value relative to who we are and what we earn and relative to the society we live in and the world we live in, and hundreds of £'s is actually a lot of money.

Blimey shocked at some of the amounts. I must be really tight. I could afford more but I think kids are spoilt at Christmas.

I spent about 50-60 pounds per child plus stocking fillers. They get lots of presents from family and I hate the greed. Mine are very materalistic at 8 and 5!

Gulp. I struggle as it's birthday 2 weeks after Christmas but I just loooove buying presents and as single parent I can buy exactly what i choose...

I spent about £150 on christmas and £100 on birthday, then I do a half birthday in July and buy him one big thing then and a day out as it's a bit 'feast or famine' having everything over a 2 week period.

If I was short of money I would cut back as I have no problem telling him no (but he is only 2!) but I think I always would try to find him something he will really like as I know him best. His micro scooter from last year is a great hit.

Any ideas for 3 year old this year???

I've said this before (but under a dif name :) ) I do think that there is a difference between people like me with little ones and those with teens. I can quite see how a main present for a teen , a couple of items of clothing and a stocking could easily be £300.

I think I wouldn't mind spending more if it was something they really wanted/would like as it is my 4 year likes anything new so I don't feel like I have to spend a lot.

Still saying all of that the stocking prob cost £20 and other presents (book, doll etc) another £20 ish so prob £50 quid all in (I do bargain hunt). For my toddler, well he'll just like the parcels so a few clothes and things he needs and a few toys/books.

DH and I buy a token pressie 5-20 quid CD/chocs/bath stuff and 20 quid each on my parents and sibs more on my DHs family as they are much more into Christmas and I don't want to be mean and spoil it for them.

I do think it's true that the amount people spend isn't just about christmas. If my DH needed a new phone I would expect him just to buy it, not to wait for me to get it for him as a present (hence why it's fine to buy Dairy Milk for Christmas).

The only thing my DD really wants is roller skates, at 4 I assumed she is too young, is she???

Inchhighprivateeye - Thank you for your post - it has really made me sit here and think about 'why' I spend so much money on my son.

When I was growing up there were 4 of us and after my Mum and Dad divorced, my Mum didn't have a pot to p**s in. She had been a SAHM for years and then all of a sudden she had to work full time. She worked very hard, but did stuggle and was an amazing Mum, but there was never much to go around, but she did her best. I always used to tell myself that I would never be in my Mum's position, so I have worked my backside off to be as independant as possible and earn a very good wage. I now find myself in the position where I am divorced and am a single parent. Its not my son's fault, so I suppose I over-compensate for the fact that his Dad (although he loves him) very rarely buys him anything and I suppose that I remember back to when I was a child and how my Mum struggled to buy us the basics.

I do know that I need to cut down on what I spend and I am starting this year.

To those who asked what I have spent a grand on - for his 5th birthday, I got him an adventure playground for the back-garden, which cost £700 and then I bought him 2 football kits, goalposts, a stack of lego, books and an atlas. The adventure playgound was well worth the money as he is too young to play out with the other kids where we live, so I just have a load of them in the garden instread. It has been well used.

The one thing I will never understand is why some people go into a vast amount of debt for Christmas and still be paying it off the following Christmas.

I will only spend what I can afford and in the past it has been a couple of quid when we were fnancially crippled. I am a bit better off now and can afford more.

I really do understand that some people need to go in debt due to their circumstances, it is the completely over the top stuff that I find unnecessary.

It really doesn't matter if one family spends £15 or another spends £1000. The thing I love most about Christmas is us getting together and enjoying our own traditions that we have built up over the years as a family with some that I bought in from when I was a kid and some that DH did with his family as a child.

No set amount - depends upon whether they need anything big like bikes/new skis etc really. If they do then something like that would be a main present and we'd nominally have spent more that year. But it's on things we'd probably have had to buy anyway, just defined as Christmas Presents IYSWIM.

If there's nothing major like that, then probably about £200 between the two of them.

Lucy88 I think you have hit the nail on the head when you talk about how this links in to your childhood. To get a bit psychobabbly about it, I think sometimes when we buy stuff for our children, we're really buying for our own 'inner child' - the child we used to be, as if that will somehow make our own childhoods better. But of course it won't.

But maybe I am just an old meanie. My son would like one of those £100 Lego sets, so I've told him he could have that and nothing else, or a smaller set and more presents. He's perfectly happy with a £30 set, I don't think he's storing up future angst on that one LOL

mine will have what they want within reason,i dont set amounts.
dd -13 wants clothes
ds1-15 just shrugs and says whatever??
ds2-12 xbox 360 and nothing else.
ds3-6 football kit,boots ect,kung zuh stuff
so im guessing approx £500 for the lot.
but they do get £70 cash each from mil,£50 from my parents and lots of other gifts from family.

we don't spend loads becuase we can't - but because we don't want to. We spend about £40 on DS, maybe less. We have said as he gets older (he is only 3) and if there was something specific he really really wanted ( and we deemed it worthy!) then that would be different. He is an only too, so not got loads to buy for! We just don't believe in spending loads of money - and DS STILL had a living room full of presents last christmas! We tend to buy a lot of things second hand too.

We had no money when I was little but had a fabby childhood. Last minute late afternoon picnics with a frisby etc.

I remember a few years ago a friend sharing some childhood memories with me and every single one revolved around something she had been bought, mine were all to do with having a good time with my family and involved no purchases and I am grateful for that. We never had bikes or anything like that, (though I did want one!) and although I could prob hardly tell you anything about the presents I got, I can still remember the excitement of putting my special pillowcase out on the landing and all 3 of us piling onto mum and dads bed in the morning and the smell of turkey and my dad making us all a drink.

I suspect the links with childhood are very powerful. My mum spent a lot on me at Christmas in relation to her income. But we were ignored and got very little for the rest of the year. We never did any kind of extra curricular class, even though I really wanted to and we never once had a family holiday. I can just remember Christmas being about presents and nothing else. You opened your present and then were kept out of the way of the adults. Presents in our house are almost incidental to Christmas. Dd gets a small something that she opens after dinner - so about 4pm and a stocking the night before.

My son has been asking for a DS for Christmas for the last 2 years. Unfortunately, I just can´t afford it. For his Birthday I got a second hand game cube from EBAY instead and he is happy enough. I will budget about £50 max for his present and £10 for everyone else (my dad, step mum, brother and SIL). Lucky for him, my son is the ONLY child in my whole immediate and extended family so he gets spoiled rotten not only by doting grandparents and my bro(who is more than happy for the excuse to provide/play with scalextrix sets) but also my uncles and aunts who all are waiting impatiently for my cousins to start procreating, no signs of it yet! So I will get ONE good pressie for him, and everyone else will get the little stocking fillers. which is just as well because he wont be getting a present from his dad, as usual.

Boy1: DSi, game, lego, board game, new top, PJs
Boy2: Kidizoom camera, lego, thomas engine, board game, new top, PJs
Stockings with pants, socks, toothbrush and paste and a few £1 bits.

Godchildren: Hardback books for under 1s and board game for older one, nb niece book and pram toy.

Mum/MIL: smellies
Dad/FIL: book tokens

DH: book, dvd, camera, jellybeans

All comes to about £350 maybe?

with the kids I tend to do the same number of parcels rather than cash cost as they don't understand that and I spread it over about 3 months.

All in all I think we seem to be about average amongst the people I know