to wonder how much people spend on their kids at Christmas

[donkeyderby]

I noticed on another thread that someone was intending to spend £200 - £250 on their kids at Christmas. I thought it was a shocking amount to spend. I can't begin to afford that sort of money.

Am I being mean and is this a normal amount to fork out?

[NemoTheRedNosedFish]

Yes we are the only people who buy for dd, nobody else.

I would never get into debt just so I could buy more - I hate credit cards and debt!

If I think dd would like some gifts that are, incidentally, cheap as chips, so much the better. But I have no problem getting stuff from ebay - but if I can't get what I'm after there, I will go into, for example, the Early Learning Centre, and get it from there.

[TheFallenMadonna]

So how would you do that then? By not getting them a present one year, just so they don't get complacent? If presents are a part of your Christmas, there will be an expectation of a present. That doesn't have to extend into long lists of Christmas demands, but I think there is a middle ground between conspicuous excess and Little Women-esque piety.

[nancydrewrockinaroundxmastree]

Children dont grow up materialistic, greedy and shallow by virtue of being showered with gifts at Christmas.

[Bonsoir]

I think it's fine to be generous to your DCs at Christmas. There is no point in buying them more stuff than they can properly enjoy and I am definitely not someone who ever fall for "the latest toy". I want DD to have a lot of fun opening her stocking (toys, clothes etc) and I want her to receive a big present from us that is age and life appropriate - this year she'll get a camera, which she has been wanting for ages (and will stop her nicking the rest of the family's iPhones every weekend to take films and pics). She has mostly had furniture for the last couple of birthdays/Christmases.

[nancy75]

oh my god this thraed makesme angry ever year!
NotAnotherBrick - who do you think you are to judge what other people spend on their children? How dare you say that what another person spends really pisses you off?
How would you like it if posters came on here sayimg how mean they think you are, how they feel sorry for your kids?
(Naturally that wont happen because this is the home of competitive cheap skating!)

Fwiw i spend about £300 on my dd because i also want her to have everything - judge away!

[NemoTheRedNosedFish]

Blimey! I can just imagine my mother shrieking -

"You should be grateful that you're getting anything at all!"

Christmas should be about magic, love, doing things for other people (my dd helps me choose a present every year for the local appeal for children who are in care) and let us not forget family and food and also presents!

Children always wonder - 'will santa come? Have I been good enough?' and are delighted when santa has been in the night.

I would be mortified if my dd either got all spoilt and entitled 'this isn't the latest iPod Mummy' or overwhelmingly thankful that
she was good enough to get a single present.

Did you guys all expect presents at Christmas - or was it a genuine surprise that santa visited / your parents bought christmas presents?

[mugggletoeandwine]

I'm past caring.
DD and I will enjoy Christmas.
Sure, she loves her big pile of presents, who wouldn't?
Does that make her a horrid materialistic child with no redeeming qualities?
No, it doesn't.

She has her moments, but she's a helpful, funny, loving, kind daughter and I'm proud to call her mine.

[nancydrewrockinaroundxmastree]

Why the assumption that just because a child gets lots of gifts at Christmas that it is all about the gifts or that the child is demanding, complacent or entitled.

Fairly shallow to assume that one follows the other don't you think?

And of course it wasn't a suprise when my parents got me a present at Christmas. I may have been suprised as to what it was. But of course there is an expectation that you receive a gift. And I don't believe for a moment that anyone here as a child didn't expect a present from their parent (unless they had the sort of childhood that none of us would like to replicate for our own)

[NemoTheRedNosedFish]

Who 'expects' a birthday card on their birthday?

Am I spoilt for 'expecting' that we might be having christmas dinner on christmas day?



I wouldn't mind but I suspect it's not the people on the lowest incomes that have the meanest attitude, I suspect it's those who dont mind spending hundreds per year on wine to glug or fags or holidays and then hate the crowded shops and can't be arsed so tehy buy their kids a frigging egg cup from poundland. Not each. To share.

muggle I will join you in not caring now...

[LaurieFairyonthetreeEatsCake]

About two hundred.
Mostly sensible stuff. Craft stuff. Crystals. Nice dress. New pjs. Books. DVDs. A wii game.

She will also get two hundreds worth of utter unsuitable crap from her mother. Everything from make up to hooker shoes.

[JingleBelleDameSansMerci]

notanotherbrick FWIW, the amount I spend on DD at Christmas is NOTHING compared to the amount I give to Save The Children, the NSPCC and Barnardo's but feel free to judge. Oh, you were...

[nancydrewrockinaroundxmastree]

muggle nice post and I agree .

We will have a wonderful Christmas - mostly because it be the first time in a while that me and the DC have been with their dad (due to him being posted overseas) - but the presents will make their faces light up and I am excited just thinking about it all.

And you know what if my style of Christmas pisses anyone off I couldn't care less.

[NemoTheRedNosedFish]

[merrycompo]

These threads never end well because those who spend hundreds get judged by those who don't
and vice versa

[nancy75]

I married a frog. If you care to re read my post i actually asked how she would feel if i called her mean? I don't care what she or anyone else spends on their kids, i just don't think i should be judged because of what i spend on mine. as for the competitive cheap skating comment, every year this thread pops up and every year there seem to be posters who try to out do each other with how little they have bought their kids, similar in style to the threads about how infrequently people wash their kids or clean thier house!

[Go]

About £100 each on the DCs, but they don't get presents from anyone except us. They are aware that we don't give or receive presents to anyone else but sponsor a child in Senegal instead, so even though they get quite a lot spent on them, we make sure they know that we try to help those who are not so lucky as well.

I think it doesn't matter what you spend on them as long as they don't think they get everything they want by making demands.

[SeaTrek]

It varies massively depending on what is appropriate/wanted.

I have probably spent more that £200 on my DS this year - which is a lot more than last year. We were going to get him something else that is more than £100 but although we can afford it we have decided that he has enough and more would be negative. We didn't get him anything for his first Christmas because we knew that the number of presents he would get from others would be more than enough. I definitely don't have a set budget or number of presents.

[Xenia]

It depends what you earn as to what is reasonable. Spend what you can't afford and you'll get in a mess. Now our children are older they have a modest budget each - either money or presents, up to them.

I'm taking 6 of us skiing which is reasonably expensive but we don't go in for particularly large numbers of physical presents.