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 :-)

@RoseMartha

I never said people’s kids go without if you can only afford £50.

I just asked how people do it as like I said mine wants a Nintendo switch which is nearly £300 alone.
It’s xmas and she believes in the magic that Santa will try his best to get the one thing she wants. I want her to believe

We have 2 dd's, an 8 year old with severe Sen, an almost 10 year old. We usually manage £300 per child, this year has been really hard financially but luckily we started saving early with park Christmas and managed to save £600 in total on a pre paid master card. I will probably end up spending a little extra before Christmas on PJ's for my girls [santa]

We spent about €1000 on ds last year. He’ll be 3 in April. We spent €500 on his birthday. I buy him a nice new outfit to wear on Christmas Day but it’s not a present, clothes are a necessity imo.

@LorelaiRoryEmily what on earth do you buy to get to €1000? Is it a lot of items? Expensive items? Does that include Xmas experiences like seeing Santa etc?

I'm not being goady/rude, I'm just genuinely curious.

£2500 for your child... Woah

Am assuming your kids are older, I can't think of £2500 worth of stuff you could buy a preteen!

I always think these huge piles take away from the experience. Takes bloody forever to open them and it's often overwhelming for the child.

And frankly it's shameful to be buying piles of unneeded / excess stuff given our consumerism is literally leading us to the end of mankind.

@nellyelora, kind of a mixture to be honest, some expensive things and lots of little things, we bought a tractor and trailer that was €250, 3 Melissa and Doug animals that were €60 each, he got a couple of smaller tractors that were €50 each, a cattle truck, about 16 schleich animals,between €3.49-€20 each and then there were all the bits and bobs, books, games, a train set table that was €100, some personalised bits from the Disney store, stickle bricks, jigsaws.... we did a santa experience too which was fab and we’re doing it again this year, that was €60 for the 3 of us.

babbscrabbs I did say that if they choose more expensive presents, their piles are smaller. I hardly think I'm leading us to the end of mankind by treating my children to things if I can afford them

@babbscrabbs - I used to have piles at Xmas and it never took away from the experience of Xmas. I loved it and love Xmas.. What child doesn’t love sitting there and opening presents.
What exactly is having a big pile taking away from ?

It’s xmas and it’s once a year. No chance am I going to feel bad or shameful like I’m leading us all to the end of man kind

This want/need/wear/read thing - we don't do it but I've always wondered - what actually do the followers of this think falls under 'need'? Because clearly clothing is covered by 'wear' and you could argue that they need books except that's also already covered by 'read'.

We spend I would guess around £120-£160, all in (all presents, stocking fillers, wrapping included but not pantomime etc, I don't include clothing). They are 4 and 3. We now have a baby and won't be spending much. I guess probably £50ish. She will have to have a stocking and a 'main' present though as if we didn't, the older two would be asking 'did Santa forget her' etc!!

That would be £120-£160 each, not combined, for the 4&3 year olds.

blackberry for ‘need’ I quite often do something educational or something like nice pens or craft materials. Another one I’ve seen is something cool/something for school/something to wear/something to share

My children are adults now but still at home. I don’t have a strict budget but it turns to be around £250 each. £100 of that will be their main present. My older will always choose a gift, my younger mostly asks for the cash to put towards some more expensive tech or flights for a trip.
I still do them each a stocking but I fill it with stuff like shower gels, shaving stuff, deodorants, pants and socks. All things they would need to buy through the year but no longer need to as they have a small stash so their money can be spent elsewhere.
I also buy clothes often gym stuff for one, nice shirts, tees and trainers.
Games also knock a hole at around £50 each.

200 each on DD 11, DSS 12 and DSD 16 they are at that age where they want to go out and but their own computer games ans clothes. 2 of them like cash (DSD enjoys shopping and picking things out for himself) and DD likes to actually open gifts so the lounge still lokks a little bit magical at xmas! xx

We don’t have a strict budget. The amount varies year to year depending on what seems perfect for DD.

We never buy clothes as gifts unless they are frivolous purchases that were vetoed on the regular clothing budget.

I think that if you have a large income and can afford it, it’s very easy to spend ££££s. For example, we bought our DS a hoverboard, at £130 it was the cheapest one. The one I’d have liked to buy if I could afford it was £350. It was a better model, looked better, was a named make etc. If you apply that to other things, you could spend a fortune (if you had it to spend). Branded trainers, designer trainers. Nike is a branded trainer to me, Gucci is a whole different level. I can understand how people end up spending £1000s.

For the Want/need/eat/read, the "need" is that I do things that are useful and often developmental, but maybe a little bit nicer than normal or something they wouldn't expect from me. And the same with an element of the "want" as well.

So craft consumables that get used up - crayons, nice pencils, good art paper, ....over time the quality improves as the skills of the child improves. Or it might be a better set of tools like decent paintbrushes rather than the small child versions. Or proper craft markers rather than regular felt tips. That sort of thing.

Fun things that work on skills they need to develop - like a nice lacing game when small to work on fine motor skills. Games that are not just fun but need some application of logic or working on numeracy (how many hotels do you have and how much rent to do I owe you (monopoly)? how much is this word worth (scrabble)? how can I eliminate things to check my guesses (cluedo)? etc). Things that allow an imagination to flourish - lego bricks, magnetic building or meccano, circuits. Or to build their knowledge of STEM etc like chemistry sets, binoculars and a nature book, compass and a magnet, ....

It's not about making learning dull or making the stockings/Santa all about boring things, but giving them some things that will help to develop specific skills, as well as plain old fun and games.

And while a need might be "a hoodie", a want might be a specific type of hoodie, or a fun surprise would be a cool design they don't expect or a brand they like but wouldn't normally get or whatever. I don't see anything wrong in clothes being Christmas presents. Especially if they are part of an overall bundle of things.

@Pinkyyy @How You might not connect the culture of gross consumerism and consumption to environmental damage but it's definitely a contributor.

I can only go on my own experience re: big piles but I've seen children from more than one family with huge piles just tear through present after present, not really acknowledging the actual gift or the giver, for hours on end while everyone sits around watching it, then tantrum and/or beg for more presents to open when the piles were finished. That's what I mean by taking away from the experience.

About £50 each which includes 1 main gift and a couple of stocking fillers. I don't spend much as they get so much from other people, they really don't need it. Plus we don't have much money at the moment.

FWIW I had piles of stuff when I was
younger. I didn't really appreciate the gifts and was a bit ungrateful tbh

I would rather buy my child one thing that they want than many that just get thrown aside.

They're only allowed to ask for one thing from Santa, so it's usually something that they desperately want and are really happy to get.

this year i went a little overboard on my son spending about £785 (he's16) but my daughter has moved out so something made me spoil him.

€1000