How much do you typically spend on your DC

[GingerRH]

Making this post to satisfy my own curiosity.

There is no right or wrong answer - everyone is obviously welcome to spend whatever they wish on their DC, and I don't want anyone to feel shamed.

The reason I ask, is I'm on a FB group for LOL Dolls - SDD is obsessed. And I've seen several posts where children are being brought 100s of pounds worth of LOL's. When I say 100s one picture shared had £850+ worth of LOL merch for one child. Which to be is mind blowing.

So yeah, wanted to see what people typically spent. Wondering if we're being tight with her 😂🤣

Well not really. A 12 week old has no idea what's going on. I think DS first Christmas at 6 mths he got a fisherprice phone. That was all that was necessary. He was more about looking at the lights etc.

Mine is only very young still so I can get away with spending £1-200. I get little bits throughout the year as well for their stocking. Then they have 2 Christmases with each of our family's (Xmas day & Boxing Day usually) so they get 2 new special outfits for that. I get these usually in the January sale at Joules or Next.

I only bought my children token gifts when they were babies suck. I don't think my 12 yo, 10 yo and 5yo would be as impressed with a soft toy and a rainmaker now.

And mine are older teens and get £100-ish each. It’s not about “getting away with it” because of age.

@suckatpickingusernames He’s 12 weeks he hasn’t a clue about Christmas and he’ll be none the wiser next year! You could buy a packet of bibs or a tub of sudocrem and call them his Christmas present .

Trust me you can do Christmas very cheaply up to school age and indeed past that if you need or want to though it probably requires a bit more effort because their interests usually become more specific. You can probably buy a 4 year old a tub of lego for a couple of pounds in a charity shop but you’ll have a bit more research and leg work to do for second hand lego from the specific range your 8 year old loves.

This year is the most we’ve ever spent on our two who are 10 and 8 - @ €500 each. They’ll have a nice selection of gifts but it’s certainly not piles of tat taking up space!

As well as some toys and games they’ll have clothes/trainers/football boots (not needs, more “nicer and wanted versions of...”). Also loads of books, art/science/craft gifts according to their interests and a couple of nice bits for their rooms such as solar system clock for ds, a little suitcase storage box in the shape of dds favourite animal.

About £200-250 each. I have 2 ds age 5 (6 this week) and 2.5.

This year it will include bike/balance bike each but is still less than ive spent in previous years.

Ds will be nearly 4 at Christmas and due to having Christmas and Birthday close together seems to outgrow his toys by this point in the year. Therefore I've spent a bit although compared to some on here it's probably nothing!
He will have £250 worth of toys (including small stocking presents) to open on Christmas morning. I've counted and it equates at 14 gifts and a stocking of about 6-7 little things.
My mum does also spend £100 each on my 2 children so he will have another 5-7 of his gran at lunch time. He will then have a few more of my grandparents, aunts and family friends. Plus dh family will get him a few things too.
My daughter has had about £100 spent on her as she is only 18 months and won't understand. She too will have a stocking of little presents and then about 5-6 presents downstairs. She currently has very few of her own toys though as she has inherited all her brothers old ones!

have a budget of £300 for a 3yo and just turned 8yo (December birthday).

No big presents this year they have everything and I'm struggling for ideas.

Ds2 I could easily buy loads it's an easy age
Ds1 only like football won't consider playing with toys already so hard to buy for. He wants a Nintendo switch but he's not having one as his behaviour around screens is not great.

We also have lots from family so I'm seriously cutting back this year.

They both get expensive advent calendars as part of their gifts eldest match attax and youngest Thomas minis that was £45 as it was

We are nearly done and. Have spent around £600 each there 8 & 11 and includes clothes got a dd on the way so next year will spend around £200/250 on her.

@suckatpickingusernames dont feel bad! My youngest will be 5 months old, they'll be getting a cuddly toy, a small ball, some bath toys and 2 new nappy wraps(use cloth nappies!).
She has rattles from her big sisters but doesn't have anything that's just hers yet, I think she'll love having something to snuggle up too. The bath toys and ball will in reality be played with by all 3. New nappy wraps just because hers all cheapies so I've bought her 2 more expensive ones as I couldn't think of anything else. So nappies are part of her Christmas presents!
Babies don't really need much, she won't even get anything from anyone else. I don't feel bad at all!

We spend about £50 each for our 8 and 5 year old, but we have a busy Christmas day and holidays so don't really focus much on the presents - would rather do stuff like go out for hot choc or cake with them over Xmas period. Feel quite fortunate though that neither child has any real interest in 'current' toys nor asks for anything in the run up to Christmas so it's all about what we think they might like (which we often get second hand)

I find this shocking and fascinating in equal measure. We’d be considered in the high earner bracket, live in an expensive, leafy area. Shop at Waitrose etc. But we’ve never spent anywhere near £400 per child, or even for all three put together!

Spending the best part of £1000 on a one year old?! Why??

Neither of us like ‘stuff’ though, and consumerism makes me feel a bit ill. We buy things from eBay and bundle it up, try and avoid the waste of new toys. We often give gifts of things kids need, like clothes.

I hate LOL with a passion for the shameful, wasteful packaging and plastic tat toys.

I hate that for so many Christmas is a race to have a mountain of gifts, half of which are novelty tat which get binned.

We have a relative who’s child gets 100 gifts every year. It takes over an hour to open. He doesn’t value any of it, and frankly looks bored. It’s sickening, honestly.

My parents would spend less than £50 each on myself and my sister growing up for Christmas. And we would get a mountain of presents.
These days with my own two dcs - dd(6) and ds(5) I Probably spend £100 each, but they only get 1 or 2 presents as I prefer quality over quantity, and where possible I’ve asked relatives to buy them experiences that they can do with them.

I have a strong dislike of ‘Tat’

Anyone claiming to spend £1000 on a 1 year old is just pulling your chain, ignore it!

Interesting thread and would like to ask for opinions too. I'm feeling a bit guilty about spending too little on my dd (almost 2) while my dh has said "absolutely no more" as for him this is already too much in terms of "where will we put it all" and "we shouldn't spoil her"

She has a birthday a week fromChristmas and will have a party that is costing around 200 and one gift from me, probably a mermaid or a truck (the party is mostly because we use it as an opportunity to invite all our family and friends so really it is for us too).

For Christmas I've got her a little table and chairs, a tipi tent, 2 teddies of the gruffalo and mouse, and squirrel sylvanians to go with them (she's gruffalo mad and loves the books and movies)

She doesn't get anything from either side of our families for birthdays or Christmas apart from my mum, who has paid for two big experiences and has got her a doll. Nobody else in our family shows any interest, but I've sent all her aunties and uncles a message to remind them it's her birthday coming up... let's see if they pay attention.

Is it enough what I've got? Or is there room to add more? I have a list of about 5 additional gifts I would like to get her but don't want to waste money and overwhelm her. She will get gifts on her birthday but I will ask everyone to get her crayons and books. I think I could add a few more toys to the pile?

Neoflex I would wait and get her something in the summer instead- they change so quickly at that age it's a long time between Christmas and a December birthday

I have three. About £60-100 each. Absolute tops.

Our problem is dh relatives they ask for a list of items which we provide but will then buy the whole list which was meant for four relatives. The presents pile they get has been bigger than what we get our own children which has caused some guilt on my part. Often the children & us have needed to come up with something just for the list because they don't ask for much we've already got it. We've asked relatives this year if they wouldn't mind giving our two money so we can use it for days out or towards a Merlin pass.

This year we've spent more on ds as he needed a new bike as he's outgrown his old one. But he really wanted for Lego for Christmas so roughly £250 but the bike was £170. We wouldn't normally spend this much. I've used the Christmas bargain thread and saved loads but was surprised at how big DD pile looked for £120 lots of Lego plus family laser tag and some wooden play kitchen items. Some are being saved for her birthday in the new year.

@Neoflex Does she get things throughout the year? If she doesnt I'd add some play dough tools if she doesn't have some, a puzzle, paint, a book etc.
Mine don't really get things throughout the year besides birthdays and Xmas, my middle-child is a year older than yours and is getting 12 presents, excluding stocking, plus a joint dolls house & board game. Although only 4 are toys which I think makes it better! One of the non-toys I've got this year is a children's hot water bottle (you can get microwaveable ones) and I think that'll actually be one of the biggest hits!

Usually about £100 per child, but this year they’ve asked for bikes so that’s wiped that before getting to stockings etc!

I think how much they get from extended family and friends makes a difference. We don’t have much in the way of extended family. My parents usually send a selection box and my in-laws some money, so that’s all they get apart from the presents I buy them. I definitely don’t get piles of stuff but 3-5 things per child. Like one big thing and a few smaller or medium-sized things plus stocking.

I'm childless but I have a really big family, lots of siblings/nieces/nephews/in-laws and I also do all of my mum's present buying for her, on top of buying my own presents for the whole family too.

I haven't kept a tally of how much we have spent between the two of us but it would be in excess of £2000 at this point; My mum's gifts for everyone are done, mine are done apart from gifts from me to my mum, alcohol all bought, most of the sweet stuff too, it's really just the big food shop, butcher's meat parcel, M&S stuff, and a few other bits and pieces still to sort, and two JD Sports vouchers.

We are not wealthy, we are working class (and proud to be), we have normal lives etc but we start early (July this year to be precise) because we have to, with so many people to buy for we couldn't afford to leave it until November or December but we don't get into any form of debt for it.

Christmas has always been really special in my family, we probably go over the top but we enjoy the Christmases we have, our traditions. I don't pass comment on how much or little anyone spends or how many presents a child gets, to each their own. By the time I have sorted out the aforementioned things I still need to get I would say the total for the entirety of Christmas 2019 (not including days/nights out or new clothes) will be around £2700-2800.

Is it a lot of money? Yes. Is it wrong that there are people in the world who won't get so much as a turkey dinner? Yes but me spending less isn't going to alleviate world poverty. (and I do donate food supplies regularly to a local food bank etc)

I LOVE Christmas, I LOVE the memories I have of all of my Christmases with my family, I LOVE the spirit and traditions my mum instilled in us as kids which we still carry with us now as adults. I don't have massive savings, a big house or a jet set lifestyle but I don't want those things and I will never be apologetic for how we do Christmas.

My 2 teens have said they would like money (as they do each year) so I give them £250 each plus a few bits to open on the morning. Then the have a lovely day out with friends shopping and going for lunch. I’m happy to give them that, i save from January and nothing goes on credit for Christmas.

DS is 11 and would like Fifa 20 and a scooter. And stuff like Nike trousers (cheaper in Sports Direct), trainers etc.