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?

Well listening to you all I feel like a right ebeneezer scrooge lol/ I have 4 so they will prob get 150 each for my eldest 2 and the little ones 100 pounds worth each ( you can get more 4 your money 4 the little ones. Well it looks more lol). I suppose it depends on the budget of the family and on what the children want as all children different. My eldest daughter only wants suprises where as my six year old son wants the world lol. Ds tv 4 room playmobil playsets etc etc. My youngest two will be probbably more intrested in the box whatever I get them. Ha ha

I find it depressing that there are so many threads about Christmas when it is only September-I refuse to even think about it!

Clam, that's exactly it on MN.

Tis annoying, but I still do Christmas the way I want to and I stand by what I said, those who spend less, will be spending far more over the year than those who spend more once a year.

I have one child and spend about £20-£30 on her. We could afford more but I don't want to. I am really shocked at the amount that people spend.

I do spend a lot on food at Christmas though

buh-limey. Only read first and last pages of thread but I spend much less than most it seems. I have one DS and spend probably £70 at the most. DS usually wants Dr Who figures and then I get a good few little fun bits which are v cheap.
He gets pressies also from his GPs and his aunt and uncle so he does well, without it being a consumer-fest. I like it. I think it's a nice balance for us. Plus we couldn't afford more anyway!

clam I think a lot of people think like your mother - certainly I grew up in a not very well off family, and we got LOADS at Christmas - but we got very little during the year, and none of us did things like organised activities. I had name brand trainers, for example, but they were my Xmas present when I was 13 - whereas my friends just had them bought for them.

My mum still spoils us at Christmas - she enjoys it

fucking hell!!! I am gobsmacked at how much money some people on here spend!

I have two DSs aged 2 and 4. They get a main present of up to £20 each and then another £15-£20 each spent on stocking fillers and little bits. Birthdays are £20 each too.

I am a huge bargain hunter though - DS1 for his 4th birthday got a huge box of Ben10 toys, a red bike and an Iron Man T-shirt all for £13 thanks to ebay, sales and freecycle

dd1 19 was going to give her money but she's asked for a voucher towards her next tattoo.
ds 16 some money for games
dd2 15 next month. is getting her room done out completely decorated carpet and furniture so we've said that's her birthday and christmas she's made up about it.she'll get a stocking with bits and pieces in it.

muggle - I must be a right tightarse, I spend nothing except on birthdays. not even from poundland! we still seem to have a ridiculous amount of toys.

aT XMAS I spend around £60 each in total, but mainly from carboots so they still end up with too much

(though will spend nothing on DD1 as she will on;y be 6 months, so no point, she has a huge box of toys from her brothers)
a little more on stepson as he is a teenager.

I prefer to spend money on drink.

not really.

well not always.

seriously we spend on days out/camping etc rather than stuff as they have sooo much (4 dcs 3 bedhouse)

on dd about £60 i guess on present and stocking, but last year i spent less than that plus a nintendo ds.

the ds was from me though.

it really depends on what she's getting from my family. If she is getting a large gift from mum or dad then i curtail my spending a bit, like when mum got her a bike. I don't have much money to spend.

I am pretty stuck for ideas this year, she's got everything!!!

This will be the year for me when i cut it back a little bit.

Some of the kids of parents on this thread will clearly never have a pet, or any type of electrical game device, or a TV, or a laptop, or a phone or clothing with a name on, or.....

Hell, I'm gearing myself up for the phone and laptop already, and DD is 9.
I've told her she can have both when she starts high school and she can. Phone for her 12th birthday, laptop the following Christmas, and I'll save and get her fancy pants ones.

Of course I won't have them, but them I'm not a teen and have no idea what most of these things are.

When do your kids get these things, or do they not?

DD got tickets for an exhibition last year as part of her present.
Others just go to them, I save it to give a a gift.
(Dr Who at Kelvingrove btw)

I think DS will have a phone for secondary school but it will be a very cheap pay as you go one. He won't have a laptop to himself. We have one and he will share that.

I do think you can give too much. No one gave me a laptop, I bought one as an adult with my wages!

PinkElephant - we buy second hand, hardly dared admit it on this thread .

Muggle - I am certainly not buying my DS a pet (my worst nightmare), own TV, laptap etc (would love one myself - we can manage to share a computer as a family) !! I agree that a ticket to a show or exhibition is a lovely present.

Those of you who spend so much on Christmas gifts - is this your experience of when you were young? Certainly my experience is that we never got 'hugely expensive' presents, and perhaps this is why we don't want to spend a lot on presents. Last year we wrapped up an old board game of my DH's (at least 40 years old !!) - DS loved it and plays it regularly.

If my kids when they are older want TVs or laptops or labelled clothing they will get them 2nd hand or in sales. You can get labelled trainers for instance in Sportsdirect for less than £20, and TVs come up all the time on freecycle and ebay.

JEEPERS.
Some of the amounts on here
WOW.
I think I've been underestimating the cost of a child!!

and we have a cat, which a lovely MNer gave us for free and costs us a grand total of £4.50 a week on food and cat litter.

Hmmm this is a very interesting thread. When my girls were younger (now they are 10 and 6) I didn't spend too much but I do go a little mad at Xmas. I only spend £20 each for birthdays.

Last year DS who was 9 got a mini laptop for £200 and games for her DS etc. Younger got a dolls house and a bike, however both sets of parent's give us £50 each so this helps enormously.

I also wrap every teeny tiny thing so the pile looks nice and also I save all year for Xmas in an Xmas club.

This Xmas DD1 has asked for a bike (approx £80)and some books, a DS game and a PS3 game (the PS3 is DH's).

DD2 has asked for Harry Potter Hogwarts (bought for £99 although I paid less as had been saving my tesco vouchers). They will both have presents like dressing gown, slippers, nighdress, bubble bath, books etc.

To the person who said children don't appreciate, my children do. They are good savers and they have toys going back to their first birthdays. Everything is well taken care of and they look after games/jigsaws etc.

They also now and then give away toys to less fortunate, or sometimes sell on ebay and save the profits.

As we are going to Florida next year, they understand that there won't be as many presents this year as Santa only brings some and Mum and Dad buy the rest.

I've enjoyed stepping off the consumer treadmill and getting closer to my 'inner hippy' We've been paying off debts this year and have very little money for luxuries but (at the risk of sounding like a 'poor but 'appy' cliche) it has been brilliant. DS and I have done lots of craft stuff, lots of time at the beach, discovered local farms and historical sites, etc etc etc and our focus has come away from shopping/owning things as a 'leisure' pursuit and more towards what we can create at home. DS has also enjoyed discovering bargains for 30p at the local charity shops and it really is true, even for an 8 yr old, that just as much fun and play is had with those as with a huge toy for £50.

In fact I have been thinking that £70 quid for his xmas budget is way on the generous side

Generally a couple of hundred quid each DC. I have friends who scoff and spend much less at xmas but buy toys and 'stuff' all year round and therefore spend much more overall.
We don't buy anything outside of xmas and birthdays other than art supplies and (few) music / sports classes. I like to keep spending to 'occasions' so that DCs have sense of anticipation, excitement and appreciation. DS is getting more this year to buy electronic drumset which is very expensive but he's been playing for a few years. Never buy lots of tat, just 2 or 3 'good' items. Neither DC are materialistic and seem confident in self.
Pre-schoolers are much cheaper to buy for, you can be smug when you can buy a ton of stuff for 30 pounds.

Dont neccesarily agree that pre-schoolers are cheaper. My mum still to this day sticks to a £20 budget with me and my sisters for birthdays and Christmas and we still feel spoilt. Last Christmas I got a pack of 6 books, a gorgeous cardigan and some smellies amongest other bits - all things she'd picked up in outlet centres and sales.

I have a £5 budget for my mum, but last year got a £20 M&S cardigan in the sale for £4.20 - so added some chocolates to that and still came in under a fiver! But I'm lucky that I love to bargain hunt and have the time!

Well I don't spend anything much over the rest of the year. I don't have it. Why would I have it (money) during the year if I don't have it in December for Christmas?
In the year it's totally essentials only. At Christmas it's whatever I feel I can go overdrawn for which isn't much at all...doesn't help that Dd's birthday is on Boxing day.

Ragwort, yes, my parents always made a much bigger deal out of Christmas than any other occasion and bought us a lot of presents. I am the same with my children. I love Christmas and love to buy Christmas presents. I do think of it as being magical and Christmas mornings are by far my happiest memories of my own childhood.

I don't think of Christmas as being about family, I think of it as being about children.

All that said, we are in a bit of a rough patch at the moment financially, and Christmas may be a bit leaner this year so I don't know if DS will get what he has asked for.

Is buying an 'in' phone, or laptop really extravagant for a teen?

I thought it was the norm, which is why I plan to do it.

How else would they have one?
(unless they earn it doing jobs at home so you pay for it anyway, and pay for them to do jobs, which in my home you do anyway because you live here!).

Now that's what I call bonkers, making kids do jobs at home to earn money.
You do jobs because you are part of the household, I am not paying you for living here and doing your share.

Ah well, it's different for each family, but DD will have whatever phone she wants for her 12th birthday, and a laptop the Christmas following that.

£200 main present plus £100 small presents for 3 DCs and £2oo for 2 GDs.

Now the DDs are older they buy me expensive presents which is quite nice.

I guess extravagant is different for every family but in this house we don't buy anything because 'it's the norm' we do things we have thought about and considered and want to do. I don't think it's any kind of good example to a kid or teen to simply allow them to have things because everyone else does.

Each to their own of course. But better that you do things for YOUR own reasons than because 'it's the norm'. I want my ds to be strong enough to be able to stand out against the norm when necessary.