Christmas

[notaclue19]

Hello

Just wondering how much you normally spend on your child's best friends at Christmas?
My DD has a couple of very close friends and we are also close to the parents

Thanks x

About £10. My close friends and I always get something for eachothers children.

DS gets some little presents for school mates. Last year it was for maybe 4 of them. We went to smiggle and he picked a novelty type pen or similar to a value of £5 for each of them. Think we got a couple of packs of scented erasers from the sale table for about £2.

He then wrote silly Christmas poems in their cards and wrapped them himself, stuck about 6 bows on each one and massacred the sellotape. They were absolutely thrilled. He received back from two of them, one had drawn a picture of them both and put it in a frame, and the other got him a keyring.

I think that's what children giving each other presents should be. Something token, but meaningful and from the child, to the child, that's more in the Christmas spirit as opposed to a parent choosing a more expensive gift.

How old is DD?

Nothing. The only people I buy presents for are dh, our dc and my mum.

How old is your daughter? Mine has a budget and funds any presents she wants to buy out of pocket money.

I don’t buy anything for her friends personally. I think this year she and her friends are doing a £5 secret Santa (she is 11)

I absolutely love the idea of the children choosing the gifts
Because we are all very good friends it's a present from all of us to the children so somehow a token gift doesn't seem right for it.
I think I may have a chat with them and just check it's not putting on any undue pressure x

Nothing, to be honest I would hate if my children came home with gifts that they had been given by friends. It would have put me under pressure to give a gift back.
We had some Christmas's where there just was not a spare £10 when the kids were young and I would have got myself in a state about this.
There really is no need and if you start it before you know it there are 8 friends that are very close and need a gift.
Please don't assume that because you are close to someone that you know their financial situation. When we were having difficulties not a single person including close family would have had any clue.
My kids are older now with part time jobs so they spend their money as they see fit but we never did this when they were little.

We buy for my 2 best friends kids all £10 per child. My dd chose the gifts after some consultation with their friends so no tat. Dd2 also does a class secret Santa for £5 always a girl so usually go for a lush bath bomb at £4 which my dd loves to receive. We have a very small family as do my best friends so their children are family to us.
However in a quandary this year about nieces who are in their 20’s I still give them 20 each and toiletries

This is what chocolate Santa's were invented for! I always get a few for such kids depending on who we see over the period.