Budget per child?

[MsMiaWallace]

What is your budget per child?

I was thinking around £200 for mine. Once you add up everything including PJs, chocolate, stocking fillers etc it really adds up.

I'm interested to hear if mines about right compared to others?

i think i went for £80 per child last year

In the nicest possible way, there's no such thing as right. The most important thing is you can afford it as Christmas shouldn't cause money troubles.

I find these threads bizarre. I cant see how strangers on the internet telling me what they're buying affects my budget. If I (for example) have a budget of £100 per child, even if everyone else on the thread says they are spending £500, I wont automatically find an extra £400. Similarly if I had afforded and bought presents to the value of £500 and everyone else was spending £100, I wouldnt suddenly return them all to the shop!
Spend what you feel is appropriate and within budget.
I dont spend exactly the same on each child. A couple of years ago my DD got an iphone for xmas, DS got something of a lower value. Last year he got an xbox, DD got smaller items.

We say £200 max for presents, stocking, Christmas jumper & PJs.

Saying that, we have already spent £130 on tickets for Santa train, and £50ish on ticket for a festive lights event, so all-in-all, we spend far more. I have to say, though, I’m all for experience over excessive gifts. DS1 has theatre tickets last year, which he loved.

You also focus on experiences rather than more stuff.

We not you!

I just buy what I think DS needs, no set budget but I'm not going to go crazy. He's only two though so won't be expecting piles of presents.

I really hope no one is reading this feeling and bad that they can't afford to spend £500 on each of their kids. Nothing wrong with spending that but there is a lot of pressure to buy loads of stuff but it's not required to have a good Christmas, my best memories aren't of presents, they're of family time.

I work backwards in terms of first deciding what they’d like and then keep note of what I’ve spent in a spreadsheet. This helps me remember what I’ve squirrelled away. Mine are young though, so fairly big items aren’t super expensive. I set up CCC alerts and wait for the good toy sales to get the best prices. I don’t spend equally on each DC, but visually the piles look equal.

I usually imagine I'll spend £200 but with everything in it goes beyond that. I can't afford as much as I have previously spent on Christmas and birthdays because of Covid. I have already made DC aware it will be a cut back Christmas.

The budget is what we can save from one year to the next. We put money by each month.
Then it's what they would like. This year one would like bean bag chair, another would like a camera.
We work within the budget to get those.
One year dd had entirely free presents from free cycle. She adored them and had no idea.

Totally agree on no right budget and as I just posted, one year there was no budget but I managed to get her a decent pile through free stuff.

What I don't like is parsimonious meanness at Xmas. The 3 gift brigade and one of those is a whittling tool.
Personally I don't think Xmas day is a teaching day. Nor do I like the tree drowned by presents brigade.

About £100 each which I thought was way too much but I'm quite surprised by these replies that it seems like we're really stingy! We're not particularly hard up or anything.

There’s nothing either of them need this year (4 and 9 by then) both have bikes, tablets, eldest has Xbox

They have October and December birthdays
unfortunately neither are having bday parties this year so that might bump up the budget

I thinking probably £100-£150 each I don’t have a clue what to get

As others have posted, it completely depends on age of children and what is being bought as a Christmas present rather than as and when needed. I have friends that are very well off but Christmas and birthday presents are very contained, however they buy big ticket items throughout the year for their children outside of them being “presents”, eg bikes and several expensive family holidays and experiences etc. I used to think it was stingy at Christmas/birthdays, but they’ve probably got the balance quite good as the children certainly don’t go without but aren’t aware that they have everything

£450-500 each this year, mainly because they both want a very expensive main (Lego diagon alley and a games console). Normally aim for £350. They are 10 and 14 though.

I budget £250 for big prezzies + £20-£50 for stocking each... as they get older it’s harder and with DS bday 11 days after Xmas it’s hard to find stuff for both 😩

Sigh we usually try to keep to £100 per child plus Christmas Eve pyjamas.

This year everyone (including me and DH) need bikes... which is going to make me cry when I have to pay for them.

My kids have birthday parties each year and so get quite a few presents then, plus several family members buy for birthdays and Christmas too,

So we do one big present per child (bikes this year) then they get:

Books (usually a box set)

Then in the stockings

Lindt reindeer
Socks
Tangerine
Pringles

They’ve just got into Harry Potter so we may do a wand each and maybe a Harry Potter Lego figure time go in the stockings.

We have so many toys in the house, that it’s getting ridiculous.

Our DD is going to be 6 months old this Christmas so we've set a budget of £100 for her (all educational games (things to help her development as she doesn't really need any toys etc at this age and grandparents will no doubt go nuts with gifts!) but next year we've agreeed to a £200 budget and reassessing each year as she grows and interests change

For those saying they are struggling to come up with presents for their DC’s as they have everything and their house is overflowing with toys, why would you then set a budget for this year running into the 000’s? Are you not buying for the sake of it and that you feel that you have to post that you spend huge amounts?

Mine are toddlers they will get around £150 each this is plenty for them
My children also have birthdays straight after Christmas so don’t want to overload