to ask what do you get for Christmas if you are rich?

[ssd]

if you are genuinely rich, what do you ask for and what do you get your other half, or your kids?

I'm interested cos we went on holiday this year and seen some enormous superyachts and I just wonder, what do those types of people get their kids or each other for Christmas?

Its not a problem I'll ever have.

And of course I'm jealous, but I'm more nosey than anything else.

The vast majority of people who make their own money do so because they are very bright.

The vast majority of them also didn't grow up poor, though. Social mobility in the UK is, by and large, shit.

The DH of my closest friend earns 6 figures a month & she gets no gifts at all. Nothing on birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Valentines or their anniversary.

He, understandably, says she gets what she wants all year round by way of travel, staff, material objects, peacocks (!) horses, cars and parties, country club membership etc.

Their children have about £200 spent on them individually at Christmas.

Well, I'm not rich but I'm very comfortable.
This year my fiancé and I said let's not bother with presents as we are lucky to generally be able to get what we want (notwithstanding yachts!)
I think if we were super rich we'd make the same decision.

I'm not rich but if I was I dont know what I'd get... Cool topic to daydream about

The vast majority of people who make their own money do so because they are very bright.

This is true. But they've often had a leg-up in terms of education and/or nepotism. DH is very bright and his business does well. But he also had a fabulous private education and parents who were terribly well-connected. Those things don't guarantee a higher salary but they're certainly not working against him.

Lol at the super rich being “very bright”. I’ve met plenty of super rich who are thick as two short planks.
There’s as much diversity in intelligence among the rich as the poor (and at all levels inbeteeen). Some of the most ferociously intelligent people I know struggle to put food on the table, not through lack of effort but due to ill health /similar.

Anyway, re gifts- I know some super rich who give ostentatiously and others who just give little tokens. some, as mentioned up thread, prefer to splash out at Christmas /new year by throwing big parties rather than just buying more “stuff”.

In terms of gifts I buy, there are a couple of “super rich” (yachts and the lot) people I buy for. Obviously they can buy anything they want, so I get something meaningful- a photo book of times we’ve spent together, a framed photo, a book I think they will enjoy ...

Being super rich is something I would never aspire to.

Being comfortable and debt/mortgage free with a great disposable income is enough for me. And I am there now thankfully and it is wonderful.

If you are super rich, there is no excitement in getting an expensive gift, you could get one every day.

Sorry if I come across as a grinch, but that's the reality.

As my lovely Dad used to say, there's a cost to being rich, but at least you can be miserable in comfort! ha ha.

Not super rich, but high net monthly income and put about £12,000 a month into savings. No silver spoon, no education beyond 15, no help, just luck and me. Presents around £300 per person, one each, but top of range or unique for each one eg watercolour, best concert tickets etc. I go not for tat.

If I had 20m plus my letter to Santa would include a personal chef & I would like to add a basement with a home gym/studio & hire a PT to kick my butt.

DH has some relatives who are rich. Not superyacht rich, but rich. They give very frugal gifts but are astoundingly generous when it comes to paying for posh meals out, holidays, even house deposits. I’d love to be able to do that for my relatives. I think it’s a lovely way to be.

Really rich people are discreet.

The nouveau riche are peasants in disguise and often vulgar in their displays of wealth.

Well it's true. But for what end I often wonder.

We do not buy presents for each other even though we can well afford it. Rather have a good holiday in January and others throughout the year TBH than stuff I neither want or need.

Two of my aunts are absolutely loaded but they seem to deal with money quite differently.

Aunt 1, very high income (as does her DH), owns several properties etc... and has 3 children (who are the same ages as me and my DBs) she has no problem spending lots of money on herself and her DH and is always driving the latest car and buying a bunch of designer clothes and traveling the world. Her kids on the other hand seem to only get what they need. They do get a lot of what they want for christmas but it's nothing too fancy or expensive (basic video games and/or toys), my oldest cousin though did get a car when he got his driving license but it was a very old second-hand car that was only bought so he could get to his classes/work, so nothing fancy whatsoever. They also don't get to join in on the trips abroad as more often than not my aunt and uncle go abroad while the kids stay home, so I think they are aware their parents have money but I don't think, they actually think, they personally, are rich.

Aunt 2, husband has a business that's doing very well so they now own many properties and businesses and recently just had a baby. I think they are spending a bit more now that they've had a baby (on him) but before that it wasn't uncommon to see my aunt driving a car on the verge of breaking down even though she owns a Maserati that's the price of my house collecting dust in her garage. They do a few trips but it's mostly trip to Spain or Italy and very rarely go farther abroad. At chrismas they seem to be gifting each other very basic things and you would struggle to know how rich they are unless you knew them personally.

That being said, I once Au Paired for children of a very rich family and there it was all about flashing money, kids getting very expensive stuff: piano, designer clothes, real-life size doll house in bedroom and the like. They were quite generous with money and gifts though, with me at least, as both the mother and the grandma handed me over a couple hundreds of bucks each as well as expensive jewlery as if they were just handing me over a few coins and a bit of tat.

I was shocked as the most I have received from my rich relatives must have been 10 bucks at christmas (from Aunt 2).

So overall I would say that most rich people don't tend to do gift as much as poorer people (I come from a very poor background but I still think my brothers and I were overall more spoiled at Chrismas by my parents than my cousins by Aunt 1) which I think is due to the fact that they can litterally afford everything they want all-year round so there is absolutely nothing to excitedly wait for on christmas day or birthdays.

So far, DH is going to get some gig tickets, and a funky tie and cuff links. I’ll probably pick sth else if I find sth he might like.

I don’t know what I’m going to get but nothing fancy this year. Some years, we do expensive presents but it depends on what we feel like at the time.

Even if we were a lot richer - the superyacht sort of rich, I don’t think I’d fancy anything particularly this Christmas. Just seem to have too much of everything already.

We are considered wealthy, my husband is getting some trainers that he likes and maybe a nice belt, he’s buying me an oil painting ( old and battered) that I saw last week and probably a bottle of no.5. The kids will get half a dozen nice things and a stocking , we don’t make a fuss over lots of presents!!

So overall I would say that most rich people don't tend to do gift as much as poorer people

Definitely true, by this thread. I can't believe I (young single parent, low paid PT job, full time uni student) am spending more on my kid than millionaires. I'm open mouthed

Not saying my amount is right or anything. I reckon if I was a millionaire though I couldn't help myself to fill the front room with a pile of presents. Guess that's why I'm skint

Not nearly superyacht rich, but rich. DH usually gets me art or first edition books, I usually get him rare wine and antiques.

When the DC's were younger we spent a couple of hundred pounds on each of them, then maybe £500 when they were teenagers. These days we spend a lot more as we tend to buy them experiences eg. this year one of my DC's is getting a spot on a zero g flight.

My dm had gone through nasty divorce and was living in vastly reduced circumstances, she got her very very wealthy niece a beautiful cushion for Christmas when we were invited and a few other bits... Niece gave her hastily wrapped boots bubble bath. Dm had been to hell and back. Wealthy niece gave her dsis who again had been through trauma, some actual cracker toys for a big bday.

Pass... It's smoke screens though depending on person and if they were wealthy before affects how they view it. Eg going on about bargains and saving money but happily buying brand new porcshe that looses thousands the second it's been driven off garage forcourt. Or earlier cousin mentioned, priding her self on parsimonious gift to family but flying in interior lighting experts, from round the world and fixtures from Paris... But going mad over teeny expenses... It's tiring to listen to the crap tbh. You want to scream shut up!

I would much prefer the art, wine classic jewellery route and these things are investment and can be passed on, and experience stuff great too.
I can't afford to buy all year so we just go for it at Xmas

Not super-rich, but we tend to do things rather than but things. We spend about £150 on each child- a main present, some smaller ones, and stocking presents, plus books, many many books. DH and I buy token gifts for one another, and sometimes he buys me art.

I'd quite like someone to give me a pair of peafowl though

buy things. Grrr

The wealthiest people I know don't celebrate Christmas because it's too commercialised. They're v religious but boycott Jesus's birth because other people celebrate the day for other reasons!

If I was super-yacht-rich I'd keep an eye out for threads like this & identify all the non-rich people & pay a PI to track them down & buy them a fancy car or something... As it is, I've just guesstimated how much I've spent on DH & the DC & am horrified that it must be over £100 in total with all the stocking presents. Am wishing I'd stuck with the "Father Christmas is a game some people play but not something we do" line. It worked fine until last year when I caved & asked if the DC wanted to play the game! Rule #1 is, obviously, don't tell anyone it's a game!

I worked for an eye wateringly rich guy. He was definitely in the token 'old brand posh' gifts. Brands like Fortnums,Penhaligans, Charbonnel & Walker. His wife wasn't interested in new jewellery and had inherited family heirlooms. He bought expensive gloves or a nice purse. She once bought him an engraved keyring. They mostly looked forward to the very expensive holiday luxury holiday they went on after Christmas and before New Year. He was always very generous to me, cash bonus and nice posh gift. Closed the office for a good two weeks. One year for Christmas, I sponsored him a dung beetle at London Zoo. He was delighted and took his teenage daughter's to pick out the one that looked most like him. The girls text me lovely photographs from the zoo. I think it was Scott Fitzgerald who said the rich were different.

I used to have a super rich bf whom would give me anything except his time - complete workaholic. He was a bit flummoxed when he asked me what I wanted and I said ' your time' . He didn't value his time as much as I did. Oh well, he's happy now, beavering away and dispensing jewellery to girlfriends he schedules in:)

I have a few uber rich friends. They don't make a fuss about Christmas at all, might go racing or have a lovely party. Depends on age and what stage their marriage is tbh. Or which marriage - second partners seem more demanding by all accounts.

I'm uber poor, so as long as everyone gets on and has a nice day, and I get a book to read in peace that's not from the library ( public of course) I'm happy.