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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Christmas gifts for our children

97 replies

Searbear · 20/12/2018 06:38

Hello I was wondering how much to spend on children for Christmas, I understand in most cases there is a budget, but what is the right price? considering how costly things are now days, it just seems to hard to feel like you have done enough

OP posts:

crazycrofter · 21/12/2018 08:24

We did our usual pre-Christmas tot-up to make sure we’d spent roughly equal amounts on our two. Both lists came to £189 i couldn’t believe it!

fleshmarketclose · 21/12/2018 08:36

I don't have a budget as such I tend to buy something they want, some books and stationery, a game and a nice stocking. Sometimes the something they want is expensive and other times it's pretty inexpensive.

Isadora2007 · 21/12/2018 08:47

We don’t have a budget really and kids don’t all even get the same spent. Christmas is about treats and surprises and I love to buy things I know they’ll enjoy. One of our children works very hard in particular in elite sport so I feel she really deserves that little luxury so this year she is getting her hearts desire (a “hover” board) but she thinks she will get some money to start saving for one. Can’t wait to see her face.

Notso · 21/12/2018 09:56

@Thirtyrock39 while my kids get a lot of gifts from extended family none of them are what I'd class as big presents and often from DH's side they are things which are unusable eg clothes too small but bought in July sales so cannot be returned, chocolate with nuts in for allergic DC, fake branded things.
We seem to get a lot of duplicate gifts too, one year we had three new versions of guess who, we already had the original.

TheBigBangRocks · 21/12/2018 10:06

Needs, clothes and books are bought when needed here. We don't do parenting essentials for Christmas. It's a time for fun and a gift should bring enjoyment and pleasure.

BumbleyBum · 21/12/2018 11:44

I’m not sure if I count as a pp who spends a lot, but their grandparents have got them clothes and merlin/zoo annual passes.

Original poster

Searbear · 23/12/2018 11:40

I thought the rule was something you need, something you want, something you wear and something you eat? LOL

OP posts:

Original poster

Searbear · 23/12/2018 11:43

i personally dont do something want need wear eat, for me that is so ordinary , and it never works out that way , i try to make christmas about fun and stuff they usually beg for all year around but we say ''wait for christmas or birthday'' things they need and eat and wear we usually buy all year around ..

OP posts:

BatCakes · 23/12/2018 11:52

@Searbear that little rhyme is just pious and depressing

Original poster

Searbear · 23/12/2018 11:55

it humors me that so many make comments about lower class, I wish we were middle class or upper class, I dont do any buying from a magazine and get stuck paying it off, I dont even have a credit card, I think i have spent about 300 $ for each child , and we are LOW low low income ... i dont buy myself nice new clothes, i buy everything second hand for myself ,, i make Christmas everything i wished for when i was a child, my mother passed away when I was 6 .. so i want Christmas to be with a mummy and daddy who love each other, get the camera out when the children run in the room and see all their gifts, i buy and sell things to make money ,, do markets .. anything we can to get by ,,, just a side note 300 NZ dollars not pounds lol .. bless you all .. no matter our class .. i could easily friend a lot of you upper ..middle class ladies .. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, I was pleasantly surprised by this thread as it was my first post and I was delighted at the response

OP posts:

AlbusPercival · 23/12/2018 11:55

I have a middle class lifestyle now, but was born working class.

It shows, DS has a fuck tonne of gifts but they are from the charity shop, grimms and babipur.

Yura · 23/12/2018 12:04

1 gift per close family unit (one from parents, one from each set of grandparents, one from uncle). So 4. Childminder usually sends a book per child as well, so 5. one of them more expensive (from us), the others £20 maximum.

Yura · 23/12/2018 12:08

oldest will get a coding robot from us, last year he had a scooter. so £60 to £140 from us, and around £60 combined from rest of family. all in all £200 maximum. youngest is only 2, so more £40 all in all (his present from us was £6)

mumof2sarah · 23/12/2018 12:13

I say you spend what you want. I didn't really think of a budget, I wrote down what the girls really wanted/I wanted to surprise them with and then bought bits every week, mine have ended up with around £120s worth of presents each which I'm very impressed with. When I've seen things in the sale I've got them and also had a few 3 for 2s etc. My SIL has spent over £500 each on her kids without even realising and she's actually regretting it already just said it's so much money and feels there's nothing to show for it. I was planning on doing that 5 present thing with something you need/something to read etc but it didn't end up like that lol x

mumof2sarah · 23/12/2018 12:16

should add there main presents were £70 for DD(14) and £40 for DD(6) and the rest of the bits are wrap ups/books and clothes. My aim next year is to get it to around the £60 each range. I feel tight when I see what other people have spent but they don't need anything and I prefere it to be more about spending time TOGETHER x

Drogosnextwife · 23/12/2018 12:33

We spend a lot on Christmas. That is more down to dp than me but I go with it. We don't get into debt, I don't use credit cards. I save money though the year (only a small amount because it's always needed for something so never gets to a great amount). We have spent around 500 maybe more on ds10 and around 350 on ds5.

Thentherewascake · 23/12/2018 12:51

I am working class, so I spend a few hundred pounds per child

I genuinely don't have a budget, and everything I buy will hopefully be used.
No clothes until they are teenagers, they find that boring.
No books, because they are treated as a necessity like food in here. I want all my kids to read, so they go to the library and we buy books all the time, they are not a treat. Other people spend a fortune on sky and other and find it a necessity too!

One big present - whatever is needed that year, could be a bike, a tree house, a computer for the eldest.
Some bits they have asked for: legos, playmobils, cars, barbies. Expensive but they last for year.
A few things they will like, I like the idea of surprise and some bits (jigsaw, games), stockings are full of chocolate. They must have around 10 presents each maybe? I prefer spending more on things that will be used, will last for years.

We also spend a fair amount on Grotto, Panto, Christmas parties, Christmas fairs, Things to do during the Christmas holidays.

I would never spend more than we can afford, it's all bought and paid for by the time we get paid in November, so we are not broke in January which makes the new year a lot more pleasant.

CantSleepClownsWillEatMe · 23/12/2018 12:53

I have a middle class lifestyle now, but was born working class

Snap Albus . Although being Irish I don't have the OBSESSION with class or how to demonstrate ones MC credentials on an anonymous forum so often seen on MN .

IMO people should spend whatever they're happy with but should also try really hard to avoid taking a teeny, tiny amount of information (such as 'we spend x') and imagining that this tells them anything at all about another posters parenting, their priorities, their child's behaviour and so on. It gets so boring and in all honesty it's a real shame that on MN Christmas has become just another opportunity for some posters to feel superior, engage in virtue signaling and take pleasure in making snide comments towards strangers on the internet.

MrsStrowman · 23/12/2018 12:58

I wasn't planning on getting DS anything this year, he's only three weeks old, but then we were in town and there's a lovely little toy shop that does nice wooden toys so I got him a couple of things that realistically will sit on his book shelf for the next six months 🙈. He's got new winter PJs too and that's it from us. There are presents under the tree from various relatives though, Christ knows what they've bought a tiny baby. I know PIL have bought him two of the next size up grobags as he won't be in his grosnugs for long and they saw some that go with his nursery, which is useful and means we won't have to buy any, but there's also a Christmas box with his name on from them, a small stocking from his great grandparents, a lovely book from his great aunt and a few other parcels from great aunts and uncles. I know my DB and SIL have got him an activity mat because my mum stopped me buying one last week. I absolutely hate plastic tat so I'm dreading future christmasses and birthdays....

whatnametouse · 23/12/2018 13:10

Grew up working class so was used to piles of presents - some rubbish some not

How not WC so kids get what they want (within reason) - we are lucky to not have to budget. However I do have to buy them other things to wrap as I can’t do a pile of say 5 presents - they have their main gift then books, pjs, clothes, games, a few sweets etc etc.

I have managed to stop my mum buying rubbish (Sales stuff that don’t fit, general crap) by letting her have a bank account that she puts the money in along with birthday money (from aunts etc as well). She likes taking the kids to the bank to put “sweet money” in - the kids can use this for a holiday when they are older.

Armchairanarchist · 23/12/2018 13:18

I couldn't give a damn what anyone else spends. I try to give DC a wonderful Christmas as I have a life limiting condition and don't know how many I'll have left. There will be a stocking and around five gifts each. No plastic tat or games but things I know they'll love. I spend around £500 each and none of it is on credit. I'm working class.

FlippinNora1 · 23/12/2018 13:23

We are somewhere on the scale between that pious little poem and present mountain.

The only thing I try to keep in mind is the quantity they get. Too many presents and they get bored opening them. Or they get into a present opening frenzy where they don’t care what the actual gift is

explodingkitten · 23/12/2018 13:53

I'd rather have a few well loved items than a load of plastic cheap tat that breaks the first time it's played with.

I don't do the want, need, wear, read thing religiously but I keep it in mind to have a diversity of presents. I don't find it depressing at all, we all love receiving and reading books in my family even though I buy throughout the year as well. And the "wear" present should be fun, so spiderman pjamas or a harry potter scarf type of thing.

ScrumptiousBears · 23/12/2018 14:07

This year I think we've spent around £200 each in total.

BlytheSpiritsSpirit · 23/12/2018 14:13

My DC like the pious poem, actually. It gives them a good starting point on what to ask for, although we don't stick closely to it - ds 'needs' Lego desperately, apparently. DD is taking drum lessons so her need is an electronic drum set. She's only been taking lessons for a short while so I didnt want to splash out until we were sure she liked it.

Next year our eldest will be in college taking art and graphics design so I'll expect she'll 'need' a good quality laptop.

Not sure why these presents are so depressing - my DC are going to be very happy!

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