Christmas spend

[TheTrollFairy]

How much do you spend on nieces and nephews at Christmas? And is this the same amount that you spend on children who you are friends with the parents?
Obviously I know that income will dictate some of the amount that you spend. I get anxiety around how much I spend which I know is stupid but I can’t really help it.

@Brimful
I've got lots, more than happy to give to them to you.

Spend around £250 each on children (older now) and around £20 /£50 each for boyfriends/girlfriends.About £50 on their Cousin .And around "£20 to £30 for smaller cousins 5 and 6

About £15 on our niece & nephew. Roughly the same on our 3 godchildren. Currently those are the only other kids we buy for.

Dd about £50 + a stocking.
Ds it’s his first Christmas this year and I’m just doing him a stocking. He’s having dds old toys wrapped up.

These aren’t set in stone, we’d spend more or less if they wanted something specific. But we’re not exactly rolling in money so we keep it fairly low key.

I don't buy for my grown up nieces/nephews or my friends' kids or I'd be broke :D But my brother's kids I buy for and spend usually around a tenner on each. This year though I spent 20 on each because I wanted to get the older one something particular and like to be fair between the two of them.

My own kids are only 3 and 6 so it varies wildly how much we spend. I bought my son a camera this year for putting on his helmet for skiing/sledging/ice skating/biking which cost about 30 quid, still need to find my daughter something..

Up to £10 on best friends dc.
Token gifts for nephews and nieces lindt reindeer etc. Used to spend loads, they're all older and I've cut back a lot. I still spend lots on adult dc and dp.

£5 - its not a huge amount but I dont have a huge amount and I'm not taking away from my own kids to spend more on other peoples kids. Its the same amount we spend on a gift for my DS friends if we attend a party.

Examples of gifts in that price range have included books, jewellery, make up, teddies, cushions, stationary etc... all in characters/themes that they like.

I dont buy for my friends kids as we all live far apart (some in other countries) and don't get to see each other in person often.

My siblings and I have had a £15 limit on kids presents for years. Also only buy for kids and not adults. I have a pact with friends to only buy for kids birthdays and not Xmas as well. Keeps things manageable.

For my own dd I spent around £300 that includes stockings and Christmas Eve box, don’t know if I’ll stick to it though I’ve always been crap at sticking to budgets unless I really have to. I’ve no nieces or nephews but for my godson I spend around £50-70. I don’t really buy for kids of my friends I have enough cousins under 10 I still need to buy for (very close to their mums my aunts) and a very big extended family I have to buy for (my family have always bought each other) on the young cousins I spent about £20/£25 each and about £15/£20 on the adults in my extended family. My family is known for going ott at Christmas though.

I have one grown up niece and spend £30-£40 on her and the both of our children have a £150-£200 budget. I spend ages making sure they have exactly the same amount spent as each other and amount of gifts. They have the same in the Christmas Eve boxes and stockings.
It sounds extreme but I was treated differently to my brothers as a kid and it really bothered me

DH has a large family with 16 neices/nephews. Years ago (when children started arriving) we all agreed to one do give a present per family (flowers/chocolates/board game/etc). Makes it much easier and not ridiculously expensive.

We have one nephew and spent £15 on a set of novels for him.
For our kids the budget was £50 each (includes stockings and Christmas Eve boxes) however it’s probably more like £70 for the oldest and £25 for the youngest. I overspent on my oldest because the little one has lots of gifts from last year that will make him more than happy!

We have an adult step niece and her 2 children to buy for and spend about £25 on her and her husband and about £20 -25 per child . I only buy for one other non related child and spend about £30 on him but I see his mum regularly whereas I never see the step relations ( we buy for family politics reasons ) . Our dc are now adult but I’ve never had a set budget for them and I’ve also never price matched as I think it’s swings and roundabouts over the years .

£20 each. We have 4.

Spent about £35 on DN this year- she's 12 now, so it's not as cheap.

Friends children (god children) about £10 each on the elder 3 (7yo and 2x 2yos)- 2 books for eldest, book and toy for toddlers. Baby less than £5 on a book set.

Our kids- it's come in at less than £50 each plus stocking.

About £20 for my sister’s daughters. I think that’s plenty to get them a lovely gift. This year it’s matching onesies and Harry Potter Dobble to share.

£10-£15 on nephew but I’d spend up to £20 if I found something he’d love.

£5 on SIL’s children as DH doesn’t talk to her and I haven’t seen them since last Christmas. I don’t really know what they like.

£5-£10 on friends children (6 in total).

We don’t have a budget for DS who is an only child but he has many, many expensive hobbies so it quickly adds up!

That’s £20 each for my nieces not in total!

We have one niece that we are very fond of and spend around £50 now she’s adult. We I’d a sweet White Company fluffy onesie for her baby but no idea how much that cost as it was in with other things.
We don’t buy for our nephews as their parents asked us not to some years ago. I thought that was rather sad, but it’s what they wanted.

My nephew I spend about £20. My OHs two little cousins we spend £10 each and my best friends daughter I get her a pair of pjs and a tube of sweets. My best friend does the same for my kids.

My four kids (aged 8, 4, 3 and 5 weeks) I set a budget of £600 for all four including stockings. I haven’t spent the full budget and I’m not going to. The kids have all for roughly the same amount of presents (minus the baby, he’s got a play mat and two little toys). Our budget changes depending on what we can afford each year

One set of niece/nephew get £30-£40 each. The other set get nothing.

I've spend £950 on one of my DC and £50 on the other one.

I don't buy my friends kids presents but instead buy presents for my single mum friends so they they get a stocking - usually spent around £50 on them.

Nieces and nephews get £15 spent at xmas, £20 for birthdays, they're all preschool age. We spend around £50-80 on each of our own children (2 and 5 years old) for birthdays and xmas.

Forgot to say I don't buy my kids friends presents at xmas or birthdays, we started when the first few friends had babies but it got too hard to remember. If we happen to be seeing them around their birthday we'll give a token gift up to a fiver

It doesn’t matter what you spend.

This year is the first year I’ve had a niece or nephew so I’ve gone a bit OTT and spent around £65 on her but this won’t be happening again!

Friends: I have one family we are very close to where we all by buy for each other- I would normally spend about £25 on each so £100 total. The other family we buy for- we have mutually agreed to do no gifts and take the children out for a nice meal together in January instead of add to the amount of ‘stuff’ around!

For my own kids it really depends on finances and what they are asking for- this year is expensive as my son has asked for an expensive gaming console which we have got him but I never ever just ‘spend’ to make up the same amount on tat, DD knows she will get less than her brother this year because she had an expensive phone for her birthday. It all evens out in the end and I do keep a rough record.

We are also trying to do more ‘experience’ type gifts rather than material ‘stuff.’

I used to spend £30-40 per niece/nephew this year I’ve cut it down to £10. Way I see it is their parents buy them a lot of things, they don’t really need a ton more stuff off me and my family. I have 7 so it’s saved a lot of money too.

My own kids (forgot to add) have whatever we can afford there’s no budget. This year I spent £800 on the two of them but one is older and has autism so his interests are very expensive.

I spend around £20 on nephews and nieces and around the same for their birthdays. I spend a little more on one as their birthday is Christmas Day. Spend £15 on my God Child. 6 children in total and my own. Stopped buying for other children.