To ask how much you spend on your children for Christmas?

[chubbycheeks26]

I imagine this has been done to death.

I am sick and tired of my mum telling me that I've spent too much on my 2 year old daughter, around £600. However, she's my only one and if she had siblings my budget would still be the same, just between them. I can afford it, so AIBU to spend this kind of money? Or am I being ridiculous?

I always go all out for Christmas and birthdays, they also get odd little bits through the year if I want to treat them.
No one else’s business but mine and dh’s.
They’re nice, polite kids, good manners, say please and thank you, appreciate what they’re given and are generally kind people.
If I want to spoil them at Christmas I will.
We’ve had all our holidays cancelled and refunded this year but it’s all just gone into the pot for next year so I could have gone even more crazy but it would have been spending for the sake of it which I don’t ever do anymore.

@chubbycheeks26
That wasn’t a comment directed at you, more a general comment about children these days. My own son can list all kinds of items he “needs”, just from watching fifteen minutes of Ryan’s World. But the reality is, we buy them, he opens, play for five minutes and then moves on. His favourite activity is to play with a couple of simple cars and his own cardboard ramp creations. Or create farms with Schleich animals and a handful of plastic fences.
The same applies to adults, as a mother it’s easy to be “influenced” by Instagram posts, and convince yourself that your child needs that pikler triangle, wobbel board, teepee, huge wooden playhouse, the whole grimms range etc etc. It then becomes more for the parent than the child, so they can say (or post on social) that their child has this and that etc. And the companies benefit even more from consumers marketing their products and creating content on their behalf.

@Mustbemagic okay, I apologise I took a bit personally. I don't really use Instagram or social media much so for me it's not even remotely about that. I won't buy the whole grimms range, she has some cars and a rainbow by Grimms, I got her a 6 piece as well, I thought it was just as good as the 12 piece. I did get her a pikler but not because of social media making it a must have, she loves climbing and all over the furniture so I thought this would be the perfect present for her! As for Grimms, I thought they would just be some nice quality little toys that will be timeless.

100% your choice. I would say the exact same if you were spending £6 on your DD. I've spent £1k on my 10 y/o this year, however its on things that will help her educationally, she never asks for anything and that amount won't make much of a dent in savings. Sod what others think!

@Mustbemagic

Nail on the head in that post. Its amazing how easily people can be convinced into thinking they need something because somebody tells them they do.

We have spent about £250 per child (we have 3 kids under the age of 7). But our family members have also sent over ££ for gifts so it works out to about £350 per child. My husband and I spent about £100 each on each other. We are considered comfortable financially but I do feel we might have over-spent. But this is a weird year and we aren't able to travel to see family like we usually do for Xmas so I feel like I kind of tried to make up for that by buying more gifts than usual.

It’s your money and you can afford it so your choice.

I don’t have a set budget, but I do aim to tick off everything on their lists. I limit their lists and ask them to do back up gifts in case Santa can’t get what they want. Everything else I get is a bonus. I also buy throughout the year looking for bargains so I don’t always keep track of what I spend. Some years we are financially more stable that others so it varies. A couple of years ago I got almost everything 2nd hand from charity’s shops, Facebook & eBay etc..l last year it was all new.

This year I think it’s
DC1 £230 approx
DC2 £180 approx
DC3 £80 approx

The only thing I’ve done differently this year is deliberately not got 1 thing of the big 2s lists, £130 LOL sets each as they have so many and they need tablets more for school work, so I got them amazon fire tablets for £70 each in the amazon sale instead and a £30 for DC3. DC1 had more spent only because of the price of the gifts on their list and I was able to get one of DC2s for £4 in a charity shop in stead of £40 - £60 new.

[quote chubbycheeks26]@RoseMartha can I ask how you did £50 each as toddlers? That wouldn't cover two presents, in some cases one. I would love to get my budget down that much![/quote]
I currently have a peppa mad 3yr old, but she’s a 3rd child so already has play kitchen and other stuff.

I love a bargain and spent about £80 on her this year including a £30 amazon fire tablet. I bought her 2 princess dolls (Belle & Rapunzel) for 99p each off the home bargains clearance shelf, only issue is one of the boxes was slightly split, a bit of cello tape fixed that, peppa pig fairy castle & figures off eBay £16, some other dolls, candy floss ones £1.99 of the clearance shelf, designs bear in argos clearance for £5 plus cute outfit for £2.50, peppa roller skates £2 in the charity shop etc... to open she probably has far more than her sisters but I spent so much less on her. Last year I got her a peppa bike from a charity shop for £5, it was her favourite present.

Children's expectations tend to increase as they get older. It's your job not to spoil them. If you are spending £600 on loads of presents at age 2, you may want to keep things in check or you could have a ten year old demanding new laptops/phones/computer games adding up to thousands. In my experience, the more gifts children receive, the less they appreciate them.

@chubbycheeks26

I don't understand how people do it for £50!?

Mine is a bit more than £50, but I have a formula for kids

1 set of pyjamas
1 set of clothes
1 toy/video game
2-3 books

A family game between them all
A charity gift between them all

Thats the main presents. Occasionally I may add something else to it but generally thats what we do. We have other family who gift the kids toys, so they end up getting several.

I usually spend between £50 to £100 per child. My two year olds are closer to £50, my 5 year old is closer to £100 because he's got a video game this year.

I don't understand buying loads and loads of toys. However my kids aren't big toy players and are outdoorsy kids so ymmv

@ForestNymph Wow, I love your formula! Might borrow it!

[quote swansongs]@ForestNymph Wow, I love your formula! Might borrow it![/quote]
Thank you! We have 3 dc, its easy to get carried away and buy loads of tat the kids will look at and then discard, and its such a waste. This way we keep it meaningful and affordable, there isn't too much clutter, it just works for us.

i reckon I easy spend 200 each on my teenagers, and i think dp has bought them some bits too.
Its an expensive time of year

About £400 each. 18/16/12. I work hard and so does my DH and save for it. So i really dont care what anyone thinks.

Mine is a bit more than £50, but I have a formula for kids

1 set of pyjamas
1 set of clothes
1 toy/video game
2-3 books
Just goes to show how different we all are as I can’t imagine buying PJs and clothes for anyone under 10 and expecting them to be excited about them as a Christmas present . With the obvious exception of football kits , riding stuff etc .

That wouldn't work for me at all either. 1 toy for Christmas is not something I would be happy with. Over the years they had bikes, scooters, archery sets, basket ball hoops, and the usual legos/ hot wheels/playmobils you can guess the list

but on the other hand it wouldn't occur to me to buy a video game for a 5 year old.

What I struggle to understand is the competition over Christmas, and the judgement.

People guffawing because you are buying too much or too little, why do you care? Are you so unsure you are doing the right thing?

If you are happy with certain rules (like one thing to read/wear/play or whatever it is), fine. It really doesn't work for me, but why should anyone care.

I usually set a budget of £100 per child, including stockings. Slightly less this year as I lost my job.

They have so much stuff anyway, plus I think they often enjoy the smaller things more. I'm aware that will change as they get older!

This year over 1k on two kids

I’ve spent about £250 on my 2 year old, her main gift is a balance bike that was £100 then some other presents. I shelled out £50 on the Little People Frozen castle last week because someone recommended it ok here She gets a lot during the year too but this has been more for outdoor play - sandpit, slide, car, scuttle bug etc. We won’t do this as much as she becomes more aware though, I do want her to appreciate the value of money and understand that gifts are for special occasions. This year has been strange though!

@HitthatroadJack

That wouldn't work for me at all either. 1 toy for Christmas is not something I would be happy with. Over the years they had bikes, scooters, archery sets, basket ball hoops, and the usual legos/ hot wheels/playmobils you can guess the list

but on the other hand it wouldn't occur to me to buy a video game for a 5 year old.

But they have two sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles etc. So they end up getting 4 or 5 toys at the very least. What they don't get is 4 or 5 toys from us because why do they need to when everyone else buys toys?

I've spent around £1500 On each of my 3 dc this year and I know they will love and appropriate it. They like us have had a crap year, holidays, days out, trips all cancelled so I thought why not.

@Juk3 genuinely curious what you got them for £1500?

@An0n0n0n a 2020 addition IPad pro each with a decent case which was a large chuck of their budget. The older 2 (11-14) got the keyboard add on as well, dd14 also had the apple drawing pencil that came out recently, jewerelly, perfume and lots of art supplies including £50+ set of pens. Ds 11 had a big mecano set, a smart watch, couple of Xbox games and an elite Xbox controller. Dd8 has the new Lol omg house, 8 lol omg dolls, the lol camper, the lol car, several arts n craft sets, a large Lego friends set and the smaller accompanying sets plus a new scooter. Then they all have a large sack from Father Christmas that I spent roughly £100 or just over which includes books, stationery, board games, jigsaws, art sets like bath bomb making, candle making, sewing, knitting etc (ds has craft sets to he likes sewing so has one of them but then his are more like making rockets to blast off, exploding volcanoes etc).

Lucky kids!!