North/South Pile or single gift?

[Luggage16]

Ok following on from the how many gifts thread I am really curious as to whether the differences in quantity of gifts is to do with where we live. So...

Where abouts in the country are you (dont be too specific!!)
Do you aim for couple of gifts, pile (20+) or somewhere inbetween on xmas day
and possibly (if you don't want to answer please don't feel obliged) do you see yourself as low/mid/high

I find the gifts threads fascinating as there is always such a mix of responses - but also people seem to have pretty strong opinions on it too (which ever end of the scale they are on). Personally we aim for a middle ground (usually 10 or less thought out gifts plus a stocking - from £5-£50), live in the south and would probably be classed as mid earners though we are paying of student loan and have single income so possibly upper end of low for family income.

I dont think it makes too much of a difference where on the scale you are. I know people who grew up with a pile of gifts who are really generous and giving as adults and not materialistic, and others who had few gifts growing up who have to buy the latest gadgets and must have items so I think outcome is probably more to do with personality than how christmas was celebrated.

Originally from West (me) and North (dh) but living overseas
Stocking and mid size pile (depending on cost of main present)
High Earners

I am from south dh from overseas.
dh would have zero (no gifts at christmas in his culture)

we would have a stocking and then a main present plus bits. How many bits depends on how expensive the main was. So we sometimes get a single big for one person and a pile for another, the amount spent would be the same.
When kids are little though, it has to also appear to be the same.
We are low earners. We spend about £50 on kids plus stocking (£15 ish)
But my parents do/did similar and they are high earners.

(although I do recall one year where my mum's present was on the tree and she had to find it and it was a car key!)

I live in south east and am a full time student living on student finance no wage so low earner, 2dc get a stocking up to £50 plus 5 under tree from santa/me/sibling/dog. They also get from other family and friends so end up with a good sized pile.

How do you classify low/mid/high earners? Genuine question.

South East. Teachers (both). Stocking and about 3 presents. About £50 in total per child.

Midlands, both from fairly high earning families - particularly dh. Dh is a high earner, I'm not as not at work at moment but I am a teacher so even when working I'm not a high earner.
Ds has about 15 gifts from us under the tree and a stocking. He will hardly have gifts from anyone else though as my family is so small and dh's family agreed the year we had ds not to do gifts anymore (their children are fully grown up and we had been buying gifts for their children for years so was a tiny bit cross). Pil will buy for him, my parents and a couple of my friends but that's it.

We have spent quite a lot of money on him though. I always vow to spend less but it never happens. I start early and then keep buying. It's partly because he's so easy to buy for and at 4 he is thrilled with everything. I suspect as he gets older he won't be so easily pleased!

Southwest Scotland.

low earner/lone parent.

Ds has 4 main gifts and 2 smaller ones plus a stocking. It does vary but he wouldn't have any less than 3 or any more than 10 and it depends on what the main gift costs how many other presents he will have.

North East. Both on a low wage. DD gets a small pile of little presents. However her birthday is today the week before Christmas so she gets a Main Present then.

I prefer a bunch of little thoughtful things. So does DH.

we are in the south west and low earners. the dc's have a pile under the tree, there are only a few people who buy for them, and i buy them very little the rest of the year. they probably have £350 worth of things each, but i bargain hunt and rarely pay full price for anything. i probably spent around £600 in total on the 4 of them. oh, they are not little ones by the way, eldest nearly 15 and youngest nearly 8. the piles amd cost were less when they were little.

We're from the NW but lived in London for last 15 years, both high earners.
Our two year old DTs have two presents each from us, total cost about £30 each but they will get lots from family and friends. Maybe when they are older we'll spend more but wont be a "massive pile" as we have little storage space and not very materialistic.

I don't think it has anything to do with where you live. It's more about what you're wanting to achieve at Christmas.

When I was growing up my parents would go absolutely wild at Christmas. My mum would buy us mountains of tat stuff and make up several stockings and Santa sacks full for both my sister and I. It took ages to get through it all on Christmas morning and then there was the headache of where to put it all. It was generally not well chosen stuff. My mum had a policy of buying whatever was available rather than anything else. So I'd get stocking full of stuff I didn't even like, just so it was the same as my sister's ones.

My dad was a pretty high earner back in the day (not by banker or corporate lawyer standards though). My mum is a teacher. After they split up, she still did the same avalanche of presents. She always did it by bargain hunting throughout the year. She'd regularly find presents she'd hidden the year before (or years before) but hadn't remembered about at Christmas at random points throughout the year.

My friends who lived nearby were generally amazed by how many presents we got. Their parents did much more moderate Christmases. They weren't jealous though; they more found it all unfathomable. We found it incredibly exciting as children but it's not how I want to do Christmas for my children and certainly not how DH wants to do it. He is like my own personal Scrooge, moaning about anything and everything. I could buy them an apple and orange and a pound land toy between them and he'd still be wandering around mutating about 'obscene amounts of presents'. (Note: his Christmases were hardly miserly affairs as a child either; the PILs have no idea why he's such a dark cloud on any fun occasion).

DH and I do a much more moderate Christmas, with a small number of thoughtful gifts and a single stocking each (none of this multiple stocking nonsense). We can afford to buy much, much more, but we don't. We're both higher than average earners, which gives is a good household income.

Ds1's dad will go wild and buy him all manner of extravagant tat and then DH will get all angsty about the volume of stuff. We're going up to my mum's on the 27th where she will undoubtedly have prepared an avalanche of tat for the boys that we'll have to try to fit in to the car to take home. DH will get angsty about that too. It would all be much less stressful if he'd just accept that this is what other people will do and stop bloody moaning.

Oh this is interesting OP.

Mine have as you know from my thread 35 each from me, about 10 from my nan, panto tickets and a pressie from my dm, plus their auntie and uncle and great auntie and my cousin will buy them one or two each. That works out to about 50 presents each. It will be spread out over Christmas eve day and boxing day so not quite a mountain.
Oh dds dickhead dad is buying her a phone and has bought them both a hat they wanted and most likely trainers to each.

I'm a single parent, and a lone parent to my ds. I work part time as an assistant chef in the south west.

I was born and raised in the Midlands, dh was born in London and spent his early years in Scotland. For the first 15 years of our marriage, we lived in the South East, and now live in Scotland.

We have tended to do one big present for each boy - so we could afford to get them the big thing they wanted. The only exception to this was the year that I had decided to get a Wii for ds2 and ds3 jointly, but there were none left in the shops, so I took the budget for their presents and bought them a stack of stuff instead (playstation games, rugby top - I think they each ended up with 7 parcels) - and I have to say that I enjoyed that year a lot, because they had no idea what they were getting, and it was fun to watch them open all the parcels.

I don't aim for anything, I just buy whatever they really want that fits in with the budget.
So for DD this year that is not very much as her main present is an IPad mini. DS2 has the biggest present, a castle. I try and get roughly the same amount of presents to open, not exactly but I will often wrap things individually to achieve this rather than buy for the sake of buying. I shop around so get a lot for the money.
DH always thinks I spend too much but I don't buy any toys through the year, only the eldest gets regular pocket money so they only get things on Christmas and Birthdays.

I didn't have loads of Christmas presents as a child, and really expensive. My Parents think birthdays are more important than Christmas so we got bigger presents for those. We used to get a main present, a small present, an outfit and a few bits and bobs.

DH had a lot of presents as a child his Parents would prefer to get loads of cheaper things than one expensive thing. He got a big present and then a sack full of cheaper things. We get a sackful of stuff from them now, socks, pj's, toiletries, sweets, candles, Christmas mugs and aprons etc then usually a something like a voucher for a meal or show tickets etc.

I was brought up in Yorkshire as were my parents and DH and his family are Welsh.

and nothing really expensive that was supposed to read.

I'm from Midlands, DH from London. Both come from average earner families and are average earners ourself (if that means we can afford a nice holiday each year but by Christ do we have to save and plan for these not just decide 2 weeks before!)
Anyway.....
I always had a large pile of presents when a child and it was mostly well thought out things and not tat. My DH however was in the 1 present household but then had a mass of relatives who all bought him things (mostly pants, socks and tat lol as he remembers)
We have tried to go somewhere inbetween (but more closely to what I know) so they have a nice sack full of presents- all good quality, but then I am good at getting a bargain and shop all year round really so can get nice presents for them. (Probably around £70-80 each) They then have a main present from Santa - this doesn't have a set limit but haven't had the need to set one yet as still too young to ask for big things yet so for DD1this year its cost us £45 and DD2 £25 (due to sales and buying at the right time) then they get a main present or selection of things from us too. Once again due to a bit of savvy buying and excellent offers this year have only cost about £70 each but easily worth £100+ each at full price.
Quite pleased with the quality and amount of presents for the money actually.
I have inlaws down south - very high earners in the buy one present each camp (and have even bought one between them before now!) and haven't bought yet!?!?! They just don't spend their money on their kids at any time though so it could just be them. They like to sit counting their money I think lol! Oh and we get ordered to not buy toys for them either (misery guts) Oh and mahoosive house, plenty of empty drawers and cupboards to put the odd board game from a kind auntie in!

Scotland here.

Both OH and I from poor backgrounds/large families. My Mum was always in conrtol of Christmas and we got some lovely well thought gifts and a stocking of bits - were never exatly disappointed but never got any bick ticket items.

If it was up to my OH he'd probably get them a few things and leave it at that.

I tend to go a bit overboard and spoil them rotten. Both have summer birthdays, so get a decent few gifts then, but Christmas is the big afair. They don't get much in between. I've just worked out that i've spent about 3.5% of our post tax income on presents for our two children. I have no idea how many gifts they have but it is less than previous years though the cost is more. I think that's what happens as they get older - i.e. gifts for toddlers etc give you a lot of present for your money whereas a computer games looks like nothing but will cost £40. I have tried to not buy as much extra stuff as in the past so that i am not wasting money on stuff that wont get used.

I have still wasted a bit I think but not too much - I guess time will tell.

Ok we have spent about 2.5% of post tax income this year, but half of that was funded selling things so really its 1.25% of annual post tax income. More than usual too. Put like that it doesn't seem so bad at all!

were central Scotland, I come from a wealthy family, dhs is average. both had mountains of presents and £££ spent on us and still do at 28.

our 3dds get the same from us (35+ gifts each from us) and £££ spent from both sides of the family

I'm from South Wales (but parents from SE), DH is from SE, we now live SW. Income the low side of medium.

1 main present per DC, plus a (pretty good) stocking. Ermm, that's it. Feeling very Scrooge like after some threads on here!

If we had more spare income, it would possibly be more than one main present, but they do pretty well out of grandparents (both sets of parents divorced and remarried), so perhaps not.

Oh, I would add that my children only have one elderly not well off Grandparent who is overly generous based on her income, and they get some cash in a card from other family members, but rarely get an actual gift from anyone other than ourselves so we probably over compensate on the present pile.

I am from the SE (London), DP is from Syria and we are in SE (Londin).

1 main present. Then smaller presents (roughly 4) plus a stocking. For my 14 and 12yo, they have £30 spent on then, for the 7 and 4yo, about £25, including stocking. We are definitely low income (only our first year on low income).

Do you want an international perspective? I am from New Zealand. We got a stocking from Father Christmas with things like books, crayons, clothing and one other biggish present, then one other big present (bike etc) from Mum and Dad. We would never have received anywhere near 20 presents each.

Its always hard to put these things into perspective though, I would buy far less if anyone else was going to put some back into it.

Saying you got your child one present and a carefully selected stocking means nothing if they are going to be flooded from other relatives....

I also have no idea on how many presents we have here, I have not thought like that. I started buying back in August and have def got too much this year....next year I wont start so early.

The year before however DD had lots of car boot and charity and freebie items. So I dont mind spending more this year.

DD has also got three small gifts from her GP, and will probably get
" 0" from her wealthy aunts.

North west, low end of mid level earners and massive pile.