To ask how much you spend on your kids at Xmas? (AND if you buy clothes as gifts!)

[Zara87]

We are putting together our budget for Xmas this year. I'm on mat leave so it's quite tight plus we have a huge family.
I'm thinking ds age 3 - spend around £200
Ds age 6 months-spend around £100 (And put some in his savings)

So just curious really as to what you budget per child? I'm fully aware as they get older our budget will no doubt have to increase significantly.
Also I was surprised when talking amongst friends that they don't buy clothes for their dc as presents as they see them as a necessity and not a gift (unless it's something the kid wants such as trainers).

I just am trying to get a snap shot of Xmases to come :-)

Last year spent very little as we were away for Christmas so we mainly bought DS (who was nearly two at the time) Cars and toys for the pool as well as books and play doh for the flight home.

This year the budget will be about £100-150 but we started buying in July. If I saw something on offer I'd buy it. This year he will be getting two Lego juniors sets, a mechanic work bench and a code a pillar as presents from us. His Father Christmas stocking will have chocolate, books and some flash cards.

We only have one DC and PIL are on holiday for Christmas this year and my parents have decided on no presents for them this year which has extended our normal budget a little.

Those of you who spend a fair amount, do you mind me asking how you do it?
I have a tiny income but having and only child who 'picks and sticks' very early in the year makes it easy. I buy whatever I can secondhand and have no problem buying a bargain in February and stashing it until Christmas. The computer kit DS is asking for is extremely expensive for what it is but by buying it secondhand in the spring (when parents who's kids haven't played much with their Christmas presents tend to sell them off) I got it for a fraction of what I'd pay new.

The Gorilla Gym (a doorway swing and gym bar) is something I've wanted to buy for ages but could never justify the cost. So when I found a cheap one a few weeks back I jumped at it. If I'd found it in the spring time, I'd probably just have given it to him straight away because it's something I think will be extremely useful in our home. The extras I've bought for it are things I'd have bought for the garden swingset anyway, so now it's amazing that he'll have them for inside and outside the house. Them coming from Santa will make them extra special as I don't think he knows that kind of indoor play equipment exists, so it will seem like Santa has brought him something unimaginably fantastic.

The toys part is a bit harder now. He collects Imaginext/Hotwheels/Lego etc. So in previous years it was super easy to get him secondhand toys because he was just starting his collection so I could buy up big bundles of sets for about 15% of their retail costs and dole them out over Christmases and birthdays. But now that he has most of the older stuff I can't do that. I have him a secondhand bundle for his birthday but he's really, really into the Incredibles Super Juniors, the Imaginext Aquaman and the fairly newly designed Lego compatible Hot Wheels. So the best I could do there was make sure to have a well calculated list made for him and my niece and nephew when the Smyths £10 off each £50 spent offer happened and ensure that what I was buying was in a multiple of £50, so I got the maximum 20% saving. Since Smyths switched to doing their offer that way, they've stopped hiking the prices in the days before, so it works out as a real saving if you work it out well and make sure you aren't buying unwanted extras to get the full discount.

however i do think its all relative to what you earn and how well behaved your DC are over the year

Again, not necessarily. Some people just choose to spend less. We have a six figure income and well behaved children but I still don’t spend (at the moment) more than £100 per child. When they’re getting what they want and are ecstatic with what they’ve got on Christmas morning, why would I spend more?

I guess that I am very aware of how commercial society is and don’t want the children getting into it too early. Therefore would never let toddler watch adverts or flick through a toy catalogue

@sockunicorn Good for you for sticking to your guns re: your daughters behavior. This is something we're struggling with (with our son) at the moment and we feel that we need to come up with some effective strategies.

@Soydora I agree. We earn probably around £500k (we're in the US so depending on the exchange rate) but we spend under $200 per child.

I think it’s probably sufficient to say that it’s afforded out of earned income rather than turning it in to a massive showing off contest about salary. Especially when you are claiming to not care about materialism.

When they were smaller we spent a lot less as things are cheaper - like I said we spend nearly half the amount on their sister for the same size of pile because the things she likes are a lot cheaper! An example of what we got DS for his birthday...

Football kit £80
Football boots £50
3 x Books £20
4 x Jurassic world toys £30
PS4 Fifa game £50
Goalkeeper gloves £20
Football £10

So £260 for 12 presents. We would rather spend a little more on quality items that he will use than waste money.

For Xmas we will get the boys a Nintendo switch with pokemon game to share so that's already £150 each, planning to get another game each for them £50 so that's £200 each for 2 presents. We will then do a stocking probably with another £100 worth of stuff such as ..

£20 PlayStation store voucher, some books, arts supplies, sweets, board game (seen a really cool Jurassic world one for eldest), a football, lush bath bomb and other odd bits!

Like I said I don't tend to stick to a budget per child as such just buy a range of bits that I know they will like and looks like a half decent pile and make sure the piles have an even amount of presents! Christmas usually I tend to get some good deals as lots of things reduced and in Black Fridays etc so hoping I can get a good deal on the Nintendo console and come in a bit cheaper!

DD main present will be a maxi micro scooter and helmet, she will get a stocking full of things like hatchimals, books, bath bombs, lol dolls and lots of colouring bits!

Little Sister tends to get the odd treat when we are out and about in the shops but the boys don't really get toys etc anymore willy nilly so xmas and birthdays really are when they get the main stuff they play with so I don't feel bad spending a decent amount on stuff they really want! They are good kids and not spoilt, they appreciate what they get and it makes them happy. We never go into debt and only buy what we can afford.

My 15yo asked me a few days ago what the budget is for Christmas. I told him it's the same as every year.,.theyll get one big gift from us, and a stocking full of small things from Father Christmas. When they were little the one thing that they really wanted might have cost £20, now they're much older that one thing could be £500. We wouldn't go mad and buy DS the £2000 bike he really want, but it will be one thing they really really want and we won't be getting massively into debt.

I spend about 2500 on daughter.
No clothes.

I spend about 2500 on daughter

How much stuff do you buy?

Woah....£2500.

and I thought £1000 for two children was excessive

What do you buy? Presumably it's made up of a few big things like iPhones and ponies rather than the whole Fisher Price aisle at Toys R Us?

Haha! Pretty sure if that £2500 was spent in toys r us it would get them out of their financial difficulties!
What a budget! I too would love to know what kind of gifts she gets if no clothes are in that amount? Lots of technology I would assume?

£2.5k could be spent on just one or two items fairly easily. For example a high spec laptop and a bike could come in over this.

Curious2468 absolutely, or one saddle

4 kids age 10-19 but no other family to buy for. I will bring up the charge on competitive under-spending. Under 2s get nothing, older ones get sliding scale up to max £80 value for a main present (I try to make it a single item) + stocking; stocking can indeed include clothes. One year, DS's entire stocking was filled with a hoody he wanted.

Flicking thru a catalogue is genius! Argos catalog Encourages math & literacy skills. I got DS to add up how much everything he wanted would cost (£1000). Then he wasn't surprised he didn't get most of it.

I couldn't tell you how much but prolly around £300-£400. We ideally like to soil or daughter. But after watching a programme called kids on poverty. It completely changed us! This year we are setting the budget for about £100-£150. And are going to try and buy everything second hand

Oh and she is know 3

Can someone link me to the christmas bargains thread

About £50 each including a small stocking. No clothes included.

How do people get away with spending £50 ?

My daughters asked for a Lego set that is £75 alone and that’s not even her main present.

Last year I spent approx £200 on each child (2 children + step daughter)

This year my son is getting a sensory table as he has autism and that’s coming to £400 as a nice charity is paying for the rest of it. That’s his main present from us.

My daughter and step daughter will be getting a Nintendo switch, with extra controllers and about 4 games which will come to nearly £400.

They have also asked for mini instant Polaroid cameras which are £75 each. There Nan will be buying these though as the switch+games and all the stocking fillers and other stuff is more then enough but I don’t see how people only spend £50 unless there children are babies. One game for the switch is £50.

Step daughter is 10. My kids are 7&5

@Howdoyoudoit31 we don’t do heaps of presents. 1 present per family unit is plenty, and its about as much as gets played with really. if an item is more expensive, its less items (exception are bikes for the oldest - they are necessary. you gest gets hand me downs). They won’t get hi spec laptops for quite a while, you get decent ones for a lot less if you know what you are doing. 1 big item per years (christmas and birthday)
List for the oldest fot christmas:

• 1 boardgame (uncle)
• 1 hotwheels set (grandparents)
• 1 walkietalkies (other grandparents)
• train engine for his track (us)

Youngest:
books, books, some more books and a toy garage

Add on : oldest will get a new bike for his next birthday, and 1-2 other presents. his birthday party is “no gifts please”. i don’t want him to grow up expecting gifts everywhere, its not what christmas and birthdays are about. so far its working (he is 6).

We are probably going to spend about £100 on our two year old. She will get some clothes as we always got a lovely new outfit to wear on Christmas Day as children and I think that's nice.