How much do grandparents spend on your children at Xmas?

[stonebrambleboy]

I have six grandchildren and I spend £50 each. Is that enough? A friend made a comment today and I'm worried I haven't been spending enough on them.

My parents do a sack of gifts for everyone, adults included and they have bought bigger/main items for my 2 at Christmas and birthdays especially when they were both working and I wasn't getting much money myself - I think they enjoy giving as much as the kids enjoy receiving items.

£50 is plenty. I don’t have GC but I do know it’s a bit uncomfortable if one GP buys lots for the other GP. And also there’s definitely such thing as too many presents.

I think it's all relative. £50 for someone on state pension is a lot of money and very generous. In different circumstances £50 is a nominal amount that would have been around £20 in the nineties. Totally acceptable, but not overly generous.

I agree with a PP, especially re older kids, and trainers, hoodies, computer games and new LEGO sets costing a fortune. Likewise any kind of 'experience', panto etc.

That said, give what you're comfortable with. My daughter is given so much, I dread her coming home from her dad's side. Bags and bags of stuff used for a few months and then forgotten. I've said they should buy less or get her some small jewellery pieces or something she can keep, but they enjoy her excitement and opening it all and they are wonderful grandparents so it's up to them.

Only one set of Grandparents who spend between £10 and £20 on our DC - by that I mean they treat our DC differently to each other - one gets £10, the other one £20. We weren’t blessed with good Grandparent for our DC. The rest of the Grandchildren in the family get different too - the favourite Grandchild receives £100s.
As long as you aren’t a Grandparent who plays shitty games like that and all of the Grandchildren are treated the same I don’t think it matters what you spend.

My husbands parents died before my children were born (I never met them) and my parents don't talk to us/we don't talk to them so my kids get precisely nothing off grandparents for Christmas.
I am sure they would be thrilled to receive £50 from a grandparent that loved them.

Whatever you want to give is fine.

For my DC, one set of grandparents spends about £80 per head and the other spends about £15. The latter set are wealthier. But gifts aren't transactions and aren't proportional to love. It's your decision and if any recipient thinks you haven't spent enough on them then they don't deserve anything.

I have two grandkids and spend about £150 each on them. Plus premium bonds each every Christmas and birthday.

One probably spends up to £50 and the others less. I don't really care how much it costs. It really is the thought that counts.

DP's parents spend lots, the presents literally fill our car, an SUV, when we try to get them home. However, it's to compensate as they never visit us and never would, call a handful of times a year and very rarely message. Additionally, if we were unable to visit them around Christmas time, they wouldn't come to us so there would be no presents until we travelled to them.

I say this because I would much rather involved grandparents than a ridiculous amount of expensive gifts to make up for not really caring about their grandchildren. If my parents, who regularly see us and ask how the kids are doing and want to do things with them, didn't give them any presents, it wouldn't matter. It isn't about how much you spend, I'm sure an inexpensive but thoughtful gift would still be appreciated, I know it would be here.

I spend £50 on each of mine. I have 3. I couldn't really afford more though 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's totally depressing when kids have too much stuff.

Everyone wants to be generous but really less is more when it comes to toys.

I love Lego but it can also be a complete PITA when sets are mixed up and you try to put something back together but can't find the parts for it. Sorting it out saps the joy out of it too.

My mum had three grandchildren and spent £200 on each of them.

Maybe £20 each (that’s MIL, she only has our 2, but I think that’s plenty). My family, nothing as we are NC.

My DP have a lot of money and probably spend £300 ish on them but that would include Christmas activities and pretty much any presents they ask for.

We spend £50 max.

My parents have 5 grandkids and are on a low income. Dad is in ill health and doesn't work. Despite this they go way over the top and spend £150+ on each of them.

Other grandparents to my kids have plenty of money (4 grandkids in total) and they spend up to £100 and I think this is a lot more normal!

I've told my mum to cut it down. She shld be retiring not out working to pay for all the kids bdays and Xmas 🙄

My mums friend spends £50 on each of hers (4 teens) and she can afford more but refuses to spend more.

I mean £50 for little kids you can get plenty for that. Teens u probably can't get that much for it though. A savings plan is a much better idea, will they remember what u bought them when they grow up, probably not!

That's completely fine. PIL probably spend more on my DDs than my parents do but see them about twice a year and never really taken much of an interest, but my parents have a great relationship with them and see them often - I know which style of grand parenting my DDs prefer!

My parents spend about £50 per child, they could afford more (just sold their house for 1.6m, travel several times a year etc) but it's plenty! They do like to treat us all to a few dinners out over the year, and the last couple of years we've all been away for a long weekend too.

I honestly think £50 is plenty!

There are 9 grandchildren in our family and one set of grandparents spend £50 and the other used to spend about £100 but now cut back to £50. Kids haven’t even noticed the £50 drop from one side

MIL probably spends between £150-£200 but she’s an only grandchild (on MIL side). My mum has passed now but spent about the same as you on my DNs (3 of them)

£100 each child.

Why Christmas, why not birthday.
I think birthday is much more important and special.

Our parents spend about 10-15 pounds per grandchild but make it go a long way.
I agree that savings accounts are very valued when the child grows up!

£50 each sounds quite a lot to me. My parents wouldn’t spend anything like that.

My DC are the only grandchildren - PIL get them a gift (£20ish) to open on Christmas Day & then give us £100 for each child to put in their savings.

One set give DS nothing,

one set something like a Lego set (but they tend to send us £1/200 once or twice a year when they have some spare cash),

and the final set buy whatever he asks for- this has been a teddy one year and an iPad another.