How much do you spend on your children at Christmas?

[Lilybetsey]

A FB thread about a woman who plans to spend £400 on each of her 5 children for Christmas got absolutely ripped to shreds.

My children are teenagers and I have spent about £300 on them, or main presents .. then I do an advent calendar each - usually things I have picked up over the year, costs about £100 each I think .

Doesn’t seen massively excessive ? What do you spend ?

Bloody hell though the amount of money some people spend is making me feel so bad for kids at other end of spectrum who might not even have a hot meal this Christmas

We’ve spent around £125 on DS. He’s only 14 months and I can’t think of anything else he needs!

About £100 each. Ds1 has Nike trainers £70, book, football & and a Ralph lauren T-shirt (£16 at TKMaxx ). That doesn't include stocking but they are small items so rarely comes to more than about £25/30 (chocs, magazine, socks, boxed deck of cards, phone cover & spare gum shield plus tangerine and maybe something else small).
My Dc are lucky that they have quite a few generous relatives so tend to get bigger items such as bikes, games consoles and a fair bit of money from others.

125-150 per child.

Somewhere between £40 and £50 each. I don't have the money to spend £100's.

£140 this year. We’re skint.

. All of you spending less than £100 what do you do if your child asks for something like an xbox

They don't really ask for stuff for Christmas and if they did it would never be something so expensive. So dd who is 17 and in my opinion a little spoilt has made some suggestions which includes new bedding and a desk from ikea.

My 17 year old did get a nintendo thing many years ago - I can't remember how much it was and I think we bought it for her birthday.

I don't think anyone should feel ashamed to say that they spend £1k or £20. You buy what you can afford and it's no one else's business. I feel sorry for families that are so stretched. Just because someone might spend £1000 doesn't mean they're children are spoiled,and to say about explaining to them the meaning of Christmas is frankly quite rude. We are all in different positions money wise so you do what you can. I would guess that my parents would spend about £100 ish when I was younger, I'm 43 now. £100 doesn't get you much in today's day and age especially when you're children are older. I remember what it was like to not have the cool gear at school, the fashion trends. Sadly these things are quite important, I know it's materialistic but you know what school can be like if you don't "fit in". I'm not going to apologise for buying my daughter good things,I don't go into debt. I probably spent about £1000 this year at a guess. Wouldn't normally spend quite so much but my daughter really wants an iPhone 6s and Apple no longer are making them and her birthday isn't until May so have got it for her for Christmas as well as her iPad I had already got.

These posts are ridiculous , people earning 25k will spend different amounts to those on 50k .just spend what u feel is appropriate for your situation.

I don't this is about earnings. I earn around £50k and DH works too; I still would not spend the amounts quoted on here and certainly not every year.

I’m not sure there is a direct correlation between income and present expenditure - I know families who earn less than us but buy more (and dearer) presents.

Maybe we’re just mean? Or perhaps we buy things as the need crops us through the year rather than saving everything for Christmas?

The wealthier people I know aren't the ones who spend most on presents. In fact probably the opposite.

it's all relative. The wealthier people I know have horses, so the kids might inherit from cousins books, legos and so on, and have very little gifts for Christmas, but any equipment they need is not seen as a present.

Some people don't buy much for their kids because the children genuinely have everything already.

On the other hand, If I didn't buy toys for my own kids, or only spent £50, they would have nothing.

Bloody hell though the amount of money some people spend is making me feel so bad for kids at other end of spectrum who might not even have a hot meal this Christmas

I'm sure that many people on here, regardless of what they spend on their children, also make donations to help out those less fortunate. We donate to a few charities and food banks all year long and I will make sure we give a little extra at Xmas.

We spend a lot on our children and I don't feel bad for that.

It's hard to generalise. I don't tihnk we spend much (£100 a child) given our income but then during the year the children get all sorts - university fees and rents paid without student loans so that alone is £16k+ for each student child. New lap top when they went to university not as a present. In other words if you are better off you might be buying them a new iphone (the older ones) not as a birthday or Christmas present.

Even when we used to earn about £100k between us (nearer 1/4 that now) we rarely spent more than £100-150 per child. If they want something big that granny doesn't buy. they know to pool resources, save or wait a bit longer.

I'm surprised by these answers. I must be in the minority. My dc are no means greedy and yes they know the value of money. Throughout they year they will earn small amounts of pocket money, maybe a pound a week which they will save or spend.

However at Christmas they write maybe 5 or6 things off Santa. This year one would like a ps4 and the other a bmx. Those alone come to almost £500. Then there's replacing craft stuff, games and few toys and sweets....

My question is...do your dc get big ticket gifts all year round or wait for Christmas?

loiswilkerson1
All of you spending less than £100 what do you do if your child asks for something like an xbox?
You just don't buy it! Tell them they need to save for it from their own money. If we haven't got that amount to spend on them then they just get what we can afford. Buy second hand.

All of you spending less than £100 what do you do if your child asks for something like an xbox?

Yup , second hand

It would take my dc 4 years to save up for a ps 4 at £1.40 a week.... sometimes they don't even get that. It's 20p a day for good behaviour. But they are only 8 and 7.

They believe in Santa and would never dream of expecting us to buy such expensive things on a 'I want ' basis . That said they don't get piles of stuff. They appreciate everything they get.

Some people just do Christmas different so I find these competitive spent the least threads tiresome . What does it matter how much anyone spends or how they do Christmas?

Second hand ps4 are only around 50 pound cheaper and you don't get the warranty or a new one.....

We don’t do Christmas lists as a family. It’s always a surprise. That way they don’t have silly expectations that we feel guilt-bound to live up to. We don’t make a thing of Santa in general. It’s just a nice story.

As a child DS rarely asked for much so he always got what he wanted and a bit more.
He hasn't changed. This year we gave him money towards his car insurance and he will be getting a token gift, under £50, on the day.

I've probably spent £1k on my two DC aged 6 and 2. That includes a Nintendo Switch with games that totalled about £400 by itself.

I could have got more but I have to stop myself.

£100 for under the tree presents, plus £25 each for Christmas Eve treats and stocking fillers.

At what age will or do you stop spending hundreds of £s on your children's xmas presents? Do they expect similar for their birthdays too? The amount is crazy, we earn over 100k but no where spending the average on here!