To ask how much you spend on DC at Christmas?

[sleepfortheweek]

Would love to know how much other people spend on their DC at Christmas...do you have a budget or just buy what you can/what they ask for?
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About £100 for my 8 year old.

It will be far less for 2 year old, just some things from charity shop or ebay.

20 year old £50. He’s got a good job and can buy himself things.

We can’t afford to buy for each other or anyone else.

I know that sounds unfair but different ages have different needs. I found between 4 and 12 is when they get most excited about christmas and that’s when the things the like cost more.

I feel shit. Especially for my 8 year old. She is so lovey, never asks for anything. I wish I could get them all what they want.

And in laws spend about £50 each on them. We have no other family.

We don't go all out at Christmas. With my family it was agreed £10 limit for each child and £20 from my parents. So I buy for my nieces and nephews but £10 each. Money can be clubbed together for a child or a joint present between siblings. PIL do £20 for each child and my SIL does the same so £40 from that side only, £60 from my side. We take that into consideration when buying for them. We don't buy for the sake of buying.

At home we don't have a set amount but have never gone for the piles of presents. They would always get some books and clothes. We usually get a new board game. As they have got older then of course the more expensive items started such as Xbox 360 and later gaming computers that cost £1k each. They now buy games using the Steam platform which is incredibly cheap compared to Xbox/Playstation. However, we can afford it, have never gone into debt for any of it and made sure my children understood that schooling and education were important so that they could afford these things for themselves when they have left home.

They are mid-late teens now, their attitude is what guides us, they are helpful, polite, do chores, their rooms are tidy, they work hard academically and are generally lovely to be around.

I guess it might be closer to £15. But it's not hard. They only have a handful of things in, mainly from Primark/The works/b&m/poundland.

I reckon about £200 including stocking. Could afford to spend more but don't want to.

Last year I got my four months old baby something just because I didn't want his older sister to think that the baby is less important. It was just clothes that he needed anyway but I wrapped it up and she got to open it.

I don't have a set budget but usually try not to go beyond £100 but then they get a few gifts from friends and family as well. Also if she needs anything close to Christmas (stationary, clothes) I tend to give it to her as another present as she loves to open stuff.

She's got too many toys anyway (and the younger one plays with her old toys) so this year I want to be more selective.

I have no extended family, no grandparents besides my mum so I get them a fair amount.
I save as much as I can throughout the year and then get what I can second hand or on sales.
My shopping is all done for my youngest and it was about £800 for 2 of them.

This year my youngest have bikes, new tablets and toys which blew my £600 budget so DP and I will be eating more cheaply than usual but it's just to keep within monthly budget.

My eldest used to get ridiculous amounts but that was me as a single mum compensating, I don't now but he was never ever entitled. Now he understands the younger ones require more.

The kids are told santa brings the gifts they request and the rest is off us, the kids go to school in a poorer area so I'd hate another kid who got fuck all to think santa delivered my kids bikes when they got fuck all.

It's so personal and of course people here will think because I don't have much savings I should only buy my kids a spinning top and a satsuma but they have outgrown previous toys so yeah, new stuff it is!

I don’t have a budget, but I appreciate I’m very lucky to be in such a position.
I get whatever is on their lists and get a similar amount of gifts for the youngest 2 children who are too young to do lists. I don’t check how much I’ve spent but I do make sure they all have the same number of gifts as that’s obviously what children will notice and not the price.

Budget for nieces and nephews is £50 each but again I will try and make it look equal so this year one niece wants an our generation doll and one nephew wants hot wheels cars. The cars were £10 so also got them a track so 2 gifts for £50 and got the niece an outfit for the doll.

I agree with this but I hope I don't sneer. I just buy my kids things when they need them so Christmas has never been a big thing for us. I did enjoy the peace and quiet of a shared big lego set from Santa when they were younger though (they liked them too!)

About £100 each including stockings. They're both little but there's nothing they're really asking for so it's dolls, craft stuff, books etc. No tech this year. They get gifts from other family members too.

Probably around £200 per kid. No specific budget though. But as twins, I do try and make sure they both have the same amount of gifts, and that I've spent roughly the same. I also shop throughout the year though, and buy things as I see them. I've already got their stockings sorted and a couple of the bigger things.

I keep an eye on spending but the number of presents is my main concern tbh.
I've got 3 year old DS one main big gift and two decent medium gifts, all on sale for a total of roughly £140 (would have been about £250 if all full price). That's alot of money but he doesn't know that, I just wanted to get him a small number of good quality gifts I know he will love.
When he's 14 and has no doubt developed expensive tastes, I don't want him used to massive "piles" and then shocked when he only gets one or two things.
He's also got a 1st December box (before any pearl clutching about "tat", it will contain Christmas socks, X2 new Christmas story books as his old board books are moving on to the baby's Christmas box, and x1 Christmas magic colouring book, so I don't accept that this is an outrageous business which will destroy Christmas) and a stocking which together take my total spend up to around £230.
I could spend much more but I don't think massive piles of gifts are much fun for young kids, plus we all need to live in this house and I can't have it completely taken over by toys and then there's no space to actually play!

Around £450-500 each. Never set out to spend this much but it adds up. They are 7,5,2. My partner is having an E scooter this year and a pair of trainers he collects so will be an extra bloody £700 or something. Me I'm happy with a load of Lush Bath Bombs. Chocolate and Pjs .

Probably going to be considered a Scrooge but we have no plans on buying gifts because it is not necessary. Our sons (7 asd, 5) both have birthdays near Christmas, they have more than enough toys, and they are happy with what they have.

We will be donating toys and clothes
instead.

I have a 2 year old and we hardly buy her anything for Christmas because she gets so much from family. We do buy toys etc throughout the year though instead, mainly because she grows out of toys quickly at her age. This will likely change as she gets older, I imagine we will focus more on Christmas and birthdays.

We spend £500-£1k on each child
About £100 each on nieces, nephews and our adult siblings.
£200+ each for my mother & father

Income is high six figures.

I haven’t read the thread - it will probably upset me! Our budget will be around the £30 mark each - although I’m likely to cave and increase to £50 the week before with guilt feelings! Gifts will be mostly second hand so it still looks a decent amount. That will include everything, big presents and stocking fillers. Ours will be 6 and 3 so we can get still get away with toys not electrical items/cash which helps!

Perfect amount.

This is us. Never really spend much on Christmas. We tend to go for funny/cheesy presents, lots of pants and socks. DD's would be very unhappy if they didn't get their annual gifts of pants and socks. We wrap them individually too, so they get 10 presents..... but of small value. Even when they were small, they just got one big present like a play kitchen, plus then a small stocking of socks and pants, books and smellies. Bigger tech presents have been "family" presents, the Wii, when it first came out, was a family present which we all played on the holidays for fun together.

We do just buy stuff when wanted/needed though. Phones and laptops get replaced when they break, although DH usually just hands his down, and gets new for himself!

Special presents for 18th and 21st. We have paid for holidays for example for them, so several hundred pounds.

@Mummyongin Don't be upset by it, everyone is different and has different traditions etc, no one is being a better parent by spending more or less. When dd was 2 I bought an ancient dolls house from one of those junk shop type places and refurbished it myself and she had that and some little dolls for it. I think in all I spent about £20-£25 and she absolutely loved it.

I don't normally budget as such but I think I spend around £250 each but they will often get more essential items like bikes, scooters etc. My family are big spenders at Christmas and the amount of tat they get them drives me crazy - whatever I say it doesn't stop. We have a household income of around £200k but do spend a lot throughout the year on clubs, experiences, birthday parties etc too.

@Mummyongin I hope I didn't contribute to you feeling bad, nothing wrong with second hand. £30 of second toys would probably coover £100 to buy new.
And its good for us all to keep stuff out of landfill as long as possible. So few toys can be recycled.

This year -

DD1 - 16 £200 so far, and she’s got a lot to open as she’s written a list of 20 Manga/books, none are above £10. I’ve managed to get 15 of them so far; the others are proving more tricky to track down. She’s also got Benefit Roller Girl mascara, a gift set that has a big one and a small one, and Life is Strange 2 PS4 game.

DD2 - 14 - Nike trainers, they were £65. A sunset lamp, £30. That’s all she’s asked for so far.

DD3 - 7 - Switch Lite with Minecraft, Cats and Dogs, Mario Kart 8. Some more kitchen toy bits from IKEA, 3 Little People Big Dreams books, 4 new Tonies, two Barbies. £375ish.

I'm a lone parent, DD3 has no paternal family, I have no family either. So she gets extra from me. Eldest DDs will get a lot from their Dad and his side.

My budget is £1500-1750 this year. I started buying in August, I hunt down deals (Prime Day, Black Friday, and my Post Grad discount all help massively). We’ve had a fucking shit year. I’m ending it with a great Christmas. Not sorry.

Just wondering will your kids not be expecting something from Santa?