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 ?

1yo £50 (but 2 of his presents were free as I took advantage of ELC 3 for 2 as the 3yo wanted some add ons to his wooden train track).
3yo & 5yo, £90ish each
7yo £120
8yo £200, but that includes a ds that they'll all end up sharing, if you take that out it's about £110.

With the exception of the 1yo they've all ended up with the same amount of presents too.

Stockings come to about £25.00 each, they include an outfit for the day, a book each, tube of chocolate buttons, hair bobbles for the girls, small paw patrol figures for the boy (the girls have been told no in Claire's the last few times, the same goes for the boys, & they've really been coveting Chase & Skye), bubble bath & Christmas mug/plastic beaker each. They're the only gifts that come from Father Christmas.

I'd say that's quite a lot per child considering their ages. We can afford it though & it's things they will play with for a good few years, Lego, Geomag, Puzzles & so on rather than one hit wonder toys.

£80 each but we have also booked a Santa sleepover for us all at Lego land next week

About £900 per child but they all like designer clothes so it adds up quickly. I love to spoil them one day of the year so I don’t mind and save all year to do so 🥰

Loads. Teenage presents aren't cheap and I like to spoil DD with some luxuries.
Minimum £500 and it's still a small pile.

Normally the budget is £250 each, we have 3 but now they are getting older they want more expensive things so this year we have spent around £400 each but I put money away all year for xmas so there's no debt.

Mine are tiny. I spend about £200 each.

About £300 each child. Aged 8 and 10. It's a rough figure as I spread the buying over 4-5 months plus I buy alot in the sales so very rarely pay full price for it.

They have about 25 gifts each. Approx 5-7 gifts would be clothing that they normally get if it wasn't for Christmas.

Then a few practical gifts: pens, paper, toiletries etc

Then about 10 toys each: Lego, Playmobil, cuddly toy, science kit, game etc

Some years they might have a main present ie bike, dolls pram, tablet etc

About £200 which includes stocking and advent gifts. Could spend more but really what we've bought is more than enough (and no big tech items yet which always ups spending)

We've spent @ €400 each on our two dc. That includes Lego sets, Playmobil, k'nex, @ €130 on books alone, a scooter, various craft gifts, jewellery, art items, some things to wear and some things for their rooms. It's certainly not piles of plastic tat that won't last five minutes, do posters really assume that those spending larger sums are buying hundreds of items in the pound shop ?

It's a lot of money but we're fortunate to be able to afford it. We could of course spread that spending over the year as I'm sure some of the "I wouldn't dream of spending that much" do but we don't want to.

We buy good quality items with lots of play/entertainment value. Lots of their gifts over the years have 'built' on things they already have and when they do eventually outgrow or lose interest in something it's either sent to the charity shop or passed on to a younger cousin.

We all think how we do Christmas is the right way so when we see others doing it so very differently it feels wrong. It's not of course, it's just different to what you do.

About £100 each on DD10 and DS9. Really can't afford more with things to pay for like clubs, activities, school trips etc They get plenty from family and friends. Main gift for DD is some vans and for DS a skimboard. If they want big item e.g switch, bike they buy from money given to them

How many of these bloody awful, boring, xmas threads do we have to put up with. Bore off.

MrsGollach

Although I agree there are a lot of these threads, the clear title meant it was pretty easy to avoid.

No one thinks people spend money in the £ shop but I know if I spent hundreds on one of my DC all the clothes would get worn infrequently in favour of just having favourite clothes, she has mini UGGs and trainers and an iPhone 5c already, a TV in her room and a fire stick already. I honestly don’t know what I would buy that is useful that she doesn’t already have through her birthday or Christmas’s past. Concert tickets or something perhaps? (Which I buy for all 3 of us if they come up anyway). But physically wrapped multiple gifts - I would struggle. Overall DC get presents from me, their father, both grandparents, aunt, uncle etc so I don’t feel pressure. If I don’t buy them a particular thing I just pass the info on to a relative

Depends how much money I have. When I've been flush I've spent more than when I had to tighten my belt. There's no set rule.

Well over a grand on 1 !

We have one ds, he’s almost 3, we’ve spent €750 so far, have a few more bits to get. We save for it too and I love buying him presents

Wow I thought I had gone massively overboard this year spending £175 ish on each (age 12 and 8) but I’m feeling better about it after reading this thread.

@MrsPinkCock haha I agree, at least it spreads the cost though :)

We are totally the opposite, hardly spent anything:
Dd1 (3) about £30 total (by the time I've done her stocking. Dd2 (8 days old) nothing.
But they both already have bags of presents from family. Also dd1 is a November baby and is still overwhelmed by all her birthday presents!

I wouldn't spend 400 but each to their own and certainly if their finances allow for it.

I don't agree with overstretching or getting into debt over Christmas or birthdays.

We tend to buy what is needed for development and a luxury would be one present only. More so as I don't want to run the risk of having spoiled children.

We are only spending about £30 each on our 18 month old twins.. however we are spending £100 a month on their swimming lessons between them (we know this is a LOT but logistically I can’t take them to any leisure centre classes in the week and actually we love all going together at the weekend!)

DD16 £400
DS11 £200
DS8 £200
DD6 £200

They rarely get anything throughout the year and only have presents off one other family member.

Eldest is having a laptop for college work etc which is why she is having more sent on her this year. The others are all having one main present (phone, tablets) and a few smaller items like clothes and art stuff.

We can afford it and only spend about £30 on birthdays

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.