To ask how much you would normally spend on christmas per child?

[UpInSmoke]

Back when money was ok I would spend around £300 each on my children at christmas. 70% of the stuff they would never bother with again after christmas day and another 10% of what was left would be broken/bits missing within 6 months. But yet I felt I had to spend a lot because it was christmas.

Then money got shit. I had to dramatically reduce how much I spent on them for around 2 years and it came down to around £100 each.

Now money is good(ish) again and I'm left wondering how much SHOULD you spend for christmas??

Already I have spent £120 each and it seems I havn't got much. £70 of that is just two tiny xbox games.

How much do you spent on yours and if you could spend more, would you?

[NHScutback]

I dunno, it varies (1 teen and 1 primary age here). I don't ever buy toys, bikes or gadgets outside of birthdays and xmas. Have decided to limit number of presents rather than cost this year. Probably both will want a new bike. Often on these threads someone will post that they buy nowt but then the post gets unpicked and it transpires they buy pretty substantial amounts of stuff (expensive hobbies etc) throughout the year anyway.

[milk]

My DS will be 9mnths this xmas, and I am spending around £50 on him.

(£30 on a walker, and £20 on books)

[milk]

But £20 were from Amazon vouchers I got from lovefilm

[wfrances]

4 dc @ £200 ish each
plus they get loads from other people and £70 each from gran and £50 from nanny.

[bubby64]

I have 2 10yr olds, and being on a tight budget, I try to spend less than £100 per child, especially as they have their birthday 2 weeks before. One "big" pressie (both got 2nd hand ipods off of ebay last year, approx £50 each which looked brand new!)plus several smaller ones. Having done it all their lives, my 2 are quite happy to have "slightly used" stuff, esecially as they are now old enough to understand that if they want the same as their friends, the only way I can afford it is to get 2nd hand. Acually being able to have the item is important than it not being brand new.

[bubby64]

Sorry, should have said "more important than having it brand new" oops!

[Doitnicelyplease]

I feel 100 pounds per child is about right, enough to cover a biggish present and some stocking fillers. Obviously some years you might get a big one off present eg bike or computer, but I do think that spending 300 pounds or more every year on each child is OTT.

To me that says more about the shopping habits of the parents rather than the wants of the child...

[TinyPawz]

I tend to go a little overboard, well as much as I can afford to. So that is about £100-150. And I generally feel like DD is hard done by in comparison to DNieces & DNephews.

I'm a lone parent so DD get presents from me, my mum & 2DB.

DNs parents have split so in effect they get separate gifts from their mum & dad, maternal gps, paternal gps, new parners & their parents and then assorted aunts & uncles.

DD & DN are now noticing the differences and I feel guilty as hell that I can't provide everything.

[Justfeckinggoogleit]

You feel guilty that you don't spend more than £150 on tat presents?

Jeez.

[Ciske]

DP and I discussed this very subject last week. We agreed to spend approx £50 on toys this Christmas for DD (2 years old), possibly go up to £70 if we also include clothes. GP's presents will bulk it up £150-£200ish in total, I expect.

I disagree by the way that you can't buy much for £30, if that's all I had I could turn it into a lovely pile of presents.

• £1.00 buys a colouring book
  
• £2.00 buys a new set of crayons
  
• £5.00 gets you a lovely duplo set from eBay.
  
• £8.00 gets you a nice children's book.
  
• £10.00 buys a doll.
  
• £4.00 buys some nice shiney wrapping paper.
  
  Christmas shopping doesn't get difficult until there is peer pressure for kids to get fancy electronical gifts.

[Marne]

Oh, we have this tread every year and its the same old same old.

I think it depends on the age of the children, if there is anything they really want and if they are going to actually play with it.

I have spent too much on tat over the past few years so will try and cut down this year. Dd2 wants a drum kit (we bought her a toy one last year now she wants the real thing) so i am happy to buy it for her as i know it will get used. Dd1 would like a i-pad which i have said 'no' to, even though its a great thing to have but its just too much money. I have also got a few bits of sylvanian families 2nd hand (probably around £30 worth) for both of them to share. So i will probably spend around £100 each. TBH they would probably be happy just one good present.

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

Marne, we have just bought DS an android pad, theres loads on ebay brand new with 12 months warranty for £60.00 Obviously will not match the standard of Ipad, but we're finding it a good substitute :)

[Marne]

Thank you BabyDubs, do you know if you can play 'moshi monsters' on it , for some reason our lap top wont allow her onto it (maybe its just too old) so wasn't sure about the android (or other makes)?? A i-pad would be a great thing for us to have as it has so many apps that would benifit dd2 (she has ASD and communication problems) but i just can't afford one but dd1 would be happy with an android.

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

We've not turned it on yet, his birthday is wednesday and dhs job to set up...so will be tuesday at midnight at the earliest

It is advertised as being able to use all the apps on an iphone, so hopefully... no idea about moshi monsters, but it comes loaded with angry birds and advertises game use! also a camera, internet etc, from all the reviews, and we trawled through many, the only things different to the ipad were memory capacity and speed, and obviously price!

this one is the one we have bought, its got loads of info in the description.

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

one more thing, apparently there is an andriod app market, like the apple and htc ones i expect, may be worth checking that out first for DD2. But it seems a good deal

[Ismeyes]

You can access moshi monsters on an android touchpad, but it isn't as good as playing it on a laptop and when we tried it it got abit confused and it wouldn't show the whole screen. That said, DD (5) had a whale of a time playing angry birds, rocket bird and fruited on it and you can download a limited amount of books onto it and there are quite alot of apps/games.

I spend about £200 on DD and I love every penny!

[TastyMuffins]

I will never forget my DS's delight in a box of secondhand Lego I bought from eBay and gave from FC. I wrote his name on the cardboard box (same box it was posted in) and he was so delighted that FC new his name. He also loved his £5 eBay bike.

I spend the Christmas money on a holiday, or at least that's what we did last year, so planning to do the same this year. He get's a stocking and some small presents, he's only 6 so nothing extravagant last year he got a marble run, plastic basic sledge, pyjamas and a stocking on holiday and another waiting at home (things I didn't want taken on holiday).

Of course, he'd love an iPhone but he knows that'll never happen.

[Marne]

Thank you Babydubs and Ismeyes, i'm not sure if the screen will be big enough on the android as dd1's eyes are not great (short sighted), will look into it though, she spends a lot of time on Moshi's and loves angry birds, i'm starting to think a laptop would be best as she likes to type (a bit tricky on the android or I-pad), i don't know what else to get her if she doesn't get one though, she doesn't really play with much, they have a bit of littlest pet shop but dd1 is more of a tom boy, she's always tricky to buy for. Dd2 loves music and instruments so she's a lot easier .

[Shinyshoes1]

Bellavita


£1000.00 each

is there a nought you've added there accidentally

[Shinyshoes1]

I'm looking at having a £1000.00 budget this needs to buy
Presents for MIL/PIL
My 3 children ages, 14, 11, 3
My neice 2 nephews
My mum and her husband
My DD

Food and booze and hopefully a night out at panto or something

[Bellavita]

Shinyshoes, nope not added a nought accidentally. As I said, DS1 goes into Yr10 on Tuesday. He adores Music, has taken this as one of his subjects. He plays the guitar and will also learn to play the drums. In the Music Dept, they use IMacs and having one at home will help him greatly with the subject. They cost £1000. So as Ds2 will be 12 in Nov and knows the cost of such an item we have to spend the same on him too.

[Shinyshoes1]

Oh ok , my apologies for the judgey shocked face, I completely get it now.

[Bellavita]

Shiny, that's ok. I agree it is a lot of money, but music is the one thing that Ds1 has ever been passionate about so we want to help him as much as we can.

They also only get presents from my parents and brother/sil, so they really do not get a great deal on xmas day.