Christmas vs Birthdays

[DinosaurOfFire]

I was reading the thread about the 4 gifts rule and started wondering how people on here do birthdays vs Christmas vs treats during the year. We go all out on Christmas, whereas for birthdays the kids will have far less- I would say they have around twice as much for Christmas than their birthday, maybe a little more if you include stocking gifts. Treats during the year tend to be small items as rewards from their sticker charts, so if the kids didn't have the more extravagant items at Christmastime they wouldn't get them at all.

For context, extravagant to us is around the £60 mark for one item, and they would have between 1 and 2 items in that price range- I'm not talking ipads/ laptops/ consoles etc. I also recognise we are fortunate to be able to spend what we do on Christmas, it hasn't always been this way for us and I'm happy with how we do things. It's more curiosity on my part how the rest of the year pans out for others on here in regards to gift giving etc.

My kids get a fair amount of stuff throughout the year. They're only young and have birthdays fairly close to Christmas so there will often be a toy they grow into during the year. However I'm talking small things, costing under £10, books or items from the charity shop, not "big" presents

I don't really make a decision. Often gifts depend on some form of "need" like a new phone for her birthday because the old one was on its really last legs or the laptop during lockown.

This year her birthday was low key in presents while she will get more for Christmas.

In some years she got an experience you can better do in Summer like a zookeeper one while in another year for Christmas she got tickets to a theatre play booked for January.

It's really more what gift fits which time better than looking for the right occassion.

Fuck that stupid rhyme. I mean, we can probably divide DS's presents into those four categories but we absolutely don't limit it to one present from each.

We spend more at Xmas, because his birthday is in November and we don't want Xmas to be an anti-climax.

I spend more on Christmas than birthdays, although the birthdays are not long after Christmas so there’s usually not much they want. Next year they have big birthdays so will be getting more spent on them. Usually it’s around £200 for Christmas and £50 ish for birthdays (plus a meal or days out), this year it’s more like £150 for Christmas and £100 for birthdays.

@reluctantbrit

I don't really make a decision. Often gifts depend on some form of "need" like a new phone for her birthday because the old one was on its really last legs or the laptop during lockown.

This year her birthday was low key in presents while she will get more for Christmas.

In some years she got an experience you can better do in Summer like a zookeeper one while in another year for Christmas she got tickets to a theatre play booked for January.

It's really more what gift fits which time better than looking for the right occassion.

We are the same. It ebbs and flows depending on what is wanted/needed.

I do smaller birthday then at Christmas they have a main present off Santa (this year one is getting a bike the other a motorcross bike, both are second hand) then I get them a few things to open, I aim for 10 presents each. For their birthday it's either smaller items or if they have asked for something big then they'll get that plus a few smaller things, maybe about 8 presents I total. I have two with winter birthdays so in the summer I did get them a new climbing frame and slide, I asked them to give away garden toys that were too small and I would swap it, I also got my oldest a bike at the start of the summer (second hand) as he'd grown out of his and he rides it so much. I don't mind things which they use or that encourage them to play outside. I do have a reward chart for them but we usually do a day out reward or trip to the trampoline park etc. Sometimes they'll ask to go to the toy shop and choose a toy but the fascination lasts 5 minutes before they are bored so I'm reluctant to do that and if they want a toy try and get them to wait for birthday or Christmas, it's hard though as they get everything in November and December.

Christmas is more important than birthdays to me because it's for everyone. We're not religious so it doesn't really make sense I guess, it's just how I was brought up and how I feel.

Dont really have a set rule, we like to make a big deal of both birthdays and Christmas. There are definitely more presents at Christmas and probably do spend more most years, but it also fully depends on what we get. This year we made a big deal of birthdays as our 2 eldest had had 2 lockdown birthdays and we’d not don’t any activities, trips or clubs for a year so we splashed out on birthday presents, buying something we’d not normally justify buying. But it still worked out less than we would have spent on a normal years presents plus birthday parties, treats, days out etc…

This year DD 7 got way more spent on her birthday, her main Christmas wish only costs £20 even with other things I’ve bought it still won’t come close to what she got for her birthday.

DD9 wants a switch which I bought months ago to make sure we had it ( think it was £289) Add games and other bits she’s had far more spent on Christmas than her birthday this year.

Both got exactly the same birthday presents.

DD4 probably got a bit more for her birthday as we bought her a play house to replace an old one we got rid of as well as some things we had to get rid of when moving. For Christmas I’ve mainly bought things in the sales, she will have a lot to open but £ wise it cost a fraction of what she got for her birthday.

We buy more and bigger presents for birthdays. Things like bikes, phones, big Lego sets etc would always be a birthday gift.

We give 3 presents for Christmas (because, so did the 3 wise men)
On the other hand, Christmas involves a stocking, so I suppose it's not strictly speaking 3 presents really.

We do budget and go bigger at Christmas, £100 per child at Christmas and £50 for birthdays. Birthdays are more low-key for us and there's usually a few presents or one larger item then just cake and we go out for dinner. Christmas is our favourite time of year and we definitely spend more on that but save up for it so we're not putting anything on credit cards etc.

More at Christmas than birthdays.
I dont really understand those who just buy stuff throughout the year. The anticipation is half the fun and excitement of it.