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?

[nodrog]

My two are 16 and 12.
To all of you who say you only spend £20 or £30 between or even each! on your kids, I say - What a load of cobblers.

[Allboxedin]

A 16, 12 year old and a 2 year old is not quite the same though is it?!
I can assure you I will not be spending more than that on dd's 2nd birthday next month. Yes, we will have little party and some food but I don't see the point in spending any more when after 2 minutes it will be chucked in the toy box like all the other toys.

[simpson]

about £60 ish on each child (6 & 3) for main pressies

DS (6) wants a kids light to attach to his bunk bed and some roller blades

DD (3) wants a girls world, a barbie and I will get her a small bike.

Stockings will be cheap ie fruit, a few sweets, colouring pencils/book and crap tat from pound shop.

Will also get them a new set of PJs each for Xmas eve

[nodrog]

But, even when my two were little we spent a week of dp's wages on them.
I never brought tat, a decent pram and dolly (prices then, obv I don't know the prices of a pram and a doll now) you wouldn't get much change out of £100.00

[Allboxedin]

Well my dd has a pram and a dolly (annabelle) which my mum gave her and which she loves, but tbh I think my daughter would prefer me to sit and have a really nice afternoon playing games with all my attention than something she will forget after a few minutes.
Children of that age simply do not know the value of money, nor do they care so I wonder sometimes if it's in the child's or the parent's interest to be spending so much.

[simpson]

got DD a pram set when she was 2 for £5 from littlewoods (had code)

Was a bit and the colour as its bright pink, but at that price I could not argue and its still going

But agree, a lot of things you do have to spend £££ on like bikes etc....

[nodrog]

I did try the buy cheap thing once. Ds wanted a pram, where as with dd if she had wanted a pram, I would of brought the best I could afford so that it would last her and she would have years of joy out of it. With ds, probably because he was a boy and it was a pram, I brought him a blue pram. Now the only blue pram I could find was a cheap one, it lasted until boxing day. Lesson learnt.
(btw, in case you think ds is destructive, I will tell you that he has C.P and fell on top of it.)

AllBoxedIn, just because I like to spend money on my kids at Christmas, DOES NOT mean that either their father or I ignore them and just fob them of with material goods.
This year, dd would like a disection kit and a new pair of slippers - well thats £40. and after that she said she would like some money towards driving lessons (she is 17 next month) Where as ds hasn't mentioned Christmas yet.

[uphillbothways]

bellavita I really disagree that just because you spend a grand on one child you also have to spend the same on another. Once every few years a child will want a truly useful, educational and expensive gift like a laptop for schoolwork or an instrument. That doesn't mean you should spend hundreds on stuff for the other child that they don't need! They will know when they require something like that, it will be their turn.

For their (Winter) birthdays/Christmas my DD2 is getting a piano. My DD1 is getting some ASOS clothes, nice make up like Urban Decay that she can't justify buying herself so it's a treat, and other bits and pieces. So I'll be spending hundreds more on DD2.. but 3 years ago DD1 got a laptop for her birthday. It's just how it goes.

[wornoutbutstillwonderful]

I'm looking a spending around £1000 between the three of mine (13, 6 and 3 years old) it does include a laptop a psp and a kinnect for the xbox.

I think the laptop is justified for the eldest for his education, the kinnect will get loads of use with the full family and as for the psp well thats mainly because thats what the little one really would like santa to fetch so he can be like his big brothers (also stops arguments).

[cathers]

I will probably end up spending about £300 on ds1 (age 7) and £200 on his younger brother.

Definately get more expensive as they get older. This year Ds1 would like a psp or the like, where as ds2 is happy with duplo. I normally £75 on their present from us, and Santa spends the remander on the stocking toys.

[IwoulddoPachacuti]

Probably about £250 each this year

[inchoccyheaven]

I will have spent about £80-£100 on each of my boys 9 and 11 yrs. This has been the first year neither of them have really known what they want apart from ds1 wanting a new cricket ball and cricket hat, and ds2 wants a new scooter. Got a scooter from home bargains for £10 which is great.He doesn't want anything flash bless him.

I have got ( I think ) a lot for the money, they have 11 presents each and then a ps2 drum kit and guitar for guitar hero and 20 games for £18 !!. My friend and I have been testing them all out to make sure they work and so far so good. The boys won't mind they are secondhand and if they don't like them after a while then no harm done.

All the other presents are new but I hunt for bargains. DH and I have been doing surveys etc all year and have cashed in the points to get Amazon vouchers to help towards the cost.

[Mousey84]

DD is getting "tokens" for things we will do during the year - horrible histories on tour, trip to local science center, a duck tour, cinema trips, places we can go using tesco points for days out vouchers - basically lots of stuff we would do during the year anyway so that its spread out with at least one thing a month. The tokens are attached to a calender for the upcoming year. She also gets a magazine sub to national geographic for kids (with tesco points) and an outfit.

Santa will just be doing a stocking of ebay doohickeys, sweets and a few books, plus a DS game and one toy - possibly a Harumika set.

So, Id say she gets about £300 worth, but like I said, its stuff we would prob do anyway, so really Im saving myself a fortune plus she wont be overwhelmed.

For her birthday in December I am getting her new, more grown up bedroom furniture and her xmas day outfit (the outfit bits a tradition now)

Her dad might spend twenty quid on her.

[HecateGoddessOfTheNight]

Just £150 each. I wish it could be more, but .

It doesn't seem to get very much though, not as they get older.

[2ddornot2dd]

Last year I spent about £120 on DD1 (who was 3,) and about £10 on baby DD2 - who was a baby, but only FC bought new for the baby - DD1 chose a toy out of the attic for her, and we wrapped up the other pass me downs.

This year DD2 will probably get a scooter, and a couple of other toys, and some tat - which will come in at about £80-£90.

DD1 has asked for a chocolate lollipop, a barbie, and a dog for DD2 (not happening, but she will get a toy dog). So that would be about £20.00, but honestly I can't bring myself to spend so little on her, so I will probably end up spending about £50.00 on clothes, books and toys to give the pile under the tree a bit more presence. She will get presents from extended family, and she always knows exactly who gave her what for years afterwards. I really appreciate how undemanding and how grateful she is, and want to encourage that by not giving her a load of stuff she doesn't really want.

I also don't give her a lot of stuff during the year - but I do give her a present at the start of the school holidays, which this year was a scooter. Her birthday is in January, so she doesn't get much then either. She just doesn't seem to want much.

For all the other kids I know I am making playdough, as the home made is actually better than the bought.

[minsmum]

My DD(16) wants a laptop this year & I am already keeping an eye out for deals but she is doing her a-levels & will need it. My DS hasn't talked about it yet.
Last year he got a lap top & she had a pair of boots for £36.00 that arrived late got here new years eve. We don't have much money so their presents are normally clothes and other stuff that they need.

[SummerRain]

Roughly 200 euros each.

They have to choose between a party or a present for birthdays and don't get toys any other time during the year so I like to spoil them at christmas.

That said, the gifts they want from santa are; a barbie, a whacka mole game and a wooden pirate ship so they don't have spoiled attitudes by any stretch of the imagination.

They open their presents in stages throughout the day (and on boxing day and new years) so don't get overwhelmed either.

[KinkyDorito]

Too much.

[mumeeee]

We spend £100 at the most.

[mumeeee]

Well we spend less on DD1 now as she's married.

[Machin11]

It depends on what DSS (13) wants, last year he had a bike as old one was to small and to be fair we said a bike would be more practical than a scooter he wanted, he then started saving up his pocket money, but we got him the scooter as well, he was soooooo happy on Xmas morning that the limited edition one he wanted was in his presents!! So overall last year, well over £350.
This year he wants an iPad, although they are £400, we will discuss with his mum and possibly consider a joint present from his Mum and Dad and step parents, although we're not all sure it's the correct thing yet!

We don't really set a limit and we do save all year to make sure we don't go into debt for Xmas.

[GetOrfMo1Land]

I hardly spent anything on dd when she was younger - probably about £30 or so when she was a young child. Picked stuff like bikes and trikes at auction. I was skint though.

Now she is nearly 16 I spend a lot more on her - I think you tend to when they are teens. Very easy to spend £20 on a small child - less so when they are older.

For the past couple of years I have committed the previously-hated crime of combining christmas and birthday presents for dd (her birthday is mid-December). This has been at dd's request. They have been things that she has really wanted and were useful, not just spending a couple of hundred quid on tat.

Last year - paid for trip to Berlin (£250) and blackberry (contract, so £180 over the year)
2009 - camera and trip to Paramore (£250)
2008 - ski trip (about a bloody grand when adding up salopettes and other ski gear)
2007 - laptop (£600 - she still uses it now)
2006 - pushbike - £200

This year she is getting a moped, so with the bike, paying for CBT, insurance, helmet, jacket, gloves that is probably a grand all told.

BUT - she is an only child, I have no family on my side, and only get small sticking filler type presents from DP's family.

And, I only really spend on dd. Me and DP don't buy each other presents, I don't buy for my friends (with DP and friends we arrange to go out for a dinner in a smart restaurant) and only buy for the children in DP's family, not the adults. The only other large present is for my 24 year old stepson, we usually give him a couple of hundred quid and some clothes.

So my christmas spending burden isn't very high really.

[notso]

I wait and see what DC ask for, last year DD wanted an I-pod touch and I had enough clubcard points to buy half of it so I got her one, DS1 wanted a DSi which was in budget so he got one, DS2 was 2 weeks old so he got a bouncy chair and a baby gym to please the other two more than anything.
I spent about £350 between them.

This year DD would like some skullcandy headphones and some converse boots, DS has asked for a Lego, and a DS game, DS2 will be getting happyland bought on Ebay and with Boots points to hopefully last him through the year. Much less spent this year.

I can't remember most of the things I got for Christmas as I child, the presents I do remember are when I got something I really wanted.
I think lots of adults needlessly obsess over money and amounts of presents for their DC, when in fact the Children probably only want one or two things.
My friend always goes on about the look on her three boys faces when they see the piles of presents.
The reality is she spents around £800 on each son and then ends up selling 90% of it at carboot sales or on Ebay, the boys end up taking three days to open everything and they still only play with the couple of things they asked for.