To ask how much you spend

[PixieDustt]

On your children at Christmas?
Of course you don't have to answer!
I have a DS and I feel i could be spending too much then I worry it isn't enough because toys are so expensive now!

Think it will be 150-200 this Christmas for DD (7)

Dd has begged and begged for a specific high ticket item this year. We found it 20% off but it will be for Xmas and her birthday jointly. And the rest of the tree shall be bare ;-)

We are planning on spending £50 and putting £50 into her savings account. Same with birthday which is early Jan. Grandparents on DH side go a bit crassly so we don't have to worry too much about buying much else. Last year we got a balance bike.

About £150 on each Ds. A tiny present from Santa. A stocking.
I just refuse to spend more.

Ds1 announced that lots of his friends, Y11, 16, are getting iphone 11's. £1300
FFS

About 50€ each, DC are 5 and 3. They have so much stuff already and they usually lose interest once they've opened 5 or 6 presents because they start playing with their favourite one.

I budget £150 for my dc, ds, 5, I've gone slightly over budget and dd, will be 2, is slightly under! That budget doesn't include stockings but that is small stuff, hair clips, chocolate coins, bath stuff that sort of stuff, not adding up to more than £15!

Whoa people spend a lot on gifts! I spend £100 on the oldest and nothing on the youngest and re-wrap things the older doesn't play with as they are too little to notice. I save £100 a month each for them instead towards university.

Depends on what they want , need etc . I don’t have a set budget as such but I don’t go overboard and I don’t spend more than I can afford .

Around £500 each on the two teenagers but less, around £300 on DC aged 23.

I always feel tight on this threads & personally don't see the point of spending loads when they are young as it's a waste in my opinion. Last year whilst I was wrapping up presents I thought there is too much here and put some away for this yr. I've probably spent £140 so far & don't think they need much more (3 yr old & 5 yr old). The eldest only has 4 things on his list. Having said that they do get toys bought for them fairly regularly & like another poster we do christmas themed days out/activities.

I've really had a major rethink recently about gifts and spending on DD. She is only little and I’ve been very excited to really spoil her at Christmas and on birthdays, but I’ve had a change of heart because I don’t think I was doing her any favours. She is lucky to have a large and very generous extended family, and almost every other week it seemed that someone was turning up with a little gift for her from a holiday or “just because”. I started to notice that, although she is very polite and always grateful, she sort of came to expect things all the time. Never bratty, but just less excited and more blasé. I don’t ever want her to lose sight of how lucky she is or to value material possessions over actual time spent with loved ones and real experiences. I also have become a lot more environmentally conscious in recent times and the sheer volume of plastic and just stuff is overwhelming.

I have asked relatives to cut down on the random gifts and suggested to my mum (who really can’t help herself) that 20p for DD’s money box is better all round than a new toy every week. For birthdays and Christmas I have cut down massively and guess what? DD is just as happy as ever and enjoys the day every bit as much. I buy as much second hand (always excellent condition) stuff as possible, mainly for environmental reasons. I probably spend about £150 on main gifts and £30 on stocking fillers from Father Christmas. Although it depends if there’s something particular that she needs that year. This year it will be slightly more than usual as she needs a new bike. When she is older she may need a phone or laptop etc which would bump up the toys that year.

£50-70 each including a stocking.

I just buy what they’ve asked for and then try and make them have roughly the same amount of presents, last year my oldest two wanted a PS4 each and the vr headset so that was quite a lot (plus the other smaller presents) but this year they’re not asking for any big presents as they have pretty much all of the consoles/electrical gadgets between here and their dads, so I’ll spend a couple of hundred on them maybe a bit more.

Also worth mentioning I have 7 kids! So between 200 and 500 plus each, depending on what they’ve asked for.

@Oblomov19 it’s not 1300 when you get them on contract which is what 99% of people do these days

I’ve spent £70 on DS aged four, he’s done for Xmas now. On the baby she’s getting lots of cuddles and love ,too young for presents.
DSS aged 17 - A LOT more than the others- even clothes for him are expensive!!

I usually have a £100 budget per child, and I have 4, but I'm not focussing too hard on budgets this year, and just going to get gifts I think they'd like, or that they ask Father Christmas for. Within reason, of course!

This year I'm spending £100 on my four year olds stocking from Santa. He'll get three items around £25.00 each and the leftover money will buy fillers like chocolate coins, bubble bath and there's always a cuddly toy from Santa.

For his present from us which goes under the tree he's getting a £95.00 bike and a helmet to match for £15.00.

My six month old baby is getting a high chair for his main present (haven't chosen one yet so don't know the cost, probably about £50.00). I'll spend £50.00 on his stocking because he has all his brothers baby stuff.

16 year old step daughter will get about £300 spent on her (just from us, her Mother will probably spend the same again on her) because she's older and DP says this means she needs more expensive stuff!

It varies depending on need and age of child. This is usually quite an unpopular view but my DSS’s get more spent on them as they are older (15, 14 and 12). My boys are 6, 6 and 3 so we can get away with spending less but making it look more.

DSS1 and 2 are both getting a lot spent on them this year as one is getting a laptop and the other is getting a tablet (which they don’t know about). This will be on top of what they have actually asked for so I can see it being a lot!

My view is as long as we can afford it and it is things they will use then the amount does not really matter.

Last year I spent £150 per child.

Thats: One big present from Santa, One stocking from Santa, One big present from Mum and Dad.

For full context: DH has a shed ton of relative who all like to go overboard. If it was just us- I would probably spend more.

I have 2 4 year olds. I've barely started shopping yet but I do have a list, I've a rough budget in my head of £300 each tops for presents.

Stockings are usually quite cheap so around £20 each. We don't do a Christmas Eve box but we do a 1st December one instead. I start buying early for this and it includes Xmas bedding and pjs so I'd say maybe £40 each.

This is the first year they've actually asked for specific things, this along with the price on toys means we're spending more than I'd like really.

what are people buying for 4 yr olds for £300? Is it because people limit toys through the year, we already have slides, trampolines, bikes, scooters & I'm struggling to think of things to buy for my dc. I need ideas, so far I've just bought a few lego & playmobil sets.

No we still buy toys through the year. This year they're big on playmobil, you're looking at around £50 a set so a few of those soon add up. Imaginext is another thing on their list, sets are usually around £40.

They would both like more toy story figures, £25 a pop.

That's without some board games, educational stuff and a couple of fancy dress outfits. No big ticket item this year as they have bikes, scooters and outdoor play stuff.

Trying to delay video game consoles and tech for another couple of years.

I feel like I've brought too much for my kids. I'm terrible for buying things that are a good deal then deciding it's not quite right. I'm going to go through what they've got shortly & give some away to the children's Xmas collection that comes along each year. I spend about £200 per child (I've got 2 kids).