If you’ve bought 15+ gifts for your child/ren where are you from?

[PinkyU]

I have a theory that different parts of the UK view giving Christmas gifts differently (based solely on anecdotes and experience, so very scientific).

I’m from the Scottish central belt and don’t know anyone, regardless of income (in fact more so for working class families), who gift less than 12/15+ presents to their children, nor do any of the NI parents I know.

Conversely my experience of English families (almost exclusively on here) is that there’s competitive minimal gifting regardless of financial situation.

Is it different traditions across the nations?

Prove or disprove my very scientific theory.

(Apologies to the Welsh, I have no experience but am happy to be informed)

It is all very subjective. I never grew up with stockings, sacks, Christmas Eve boxs etc, what we got under tree was a Christmas present regardless of size or cost.

Also what one family might spend on a “stocking filler” may be equal to what another family may spend on a “main” present.

It’s the same with what people buy, I know lots of MN’s criticise what they deem as essentials but for others they are very normal Christmas presents especially when they are struggling financially. My cousin, single mum works dam hard to save for the branded tracksuit and trainers her 8yo son wants. Just because these are clothes and foot ware dose not make them any less of a Christmas present than a board game he wouldn’t be interested in.

Absolutely!

And I agree the number of gifts people provide is subjective too. I've stated between 6 and 11 presents under the tree, but we have large and stretchy hand made stockings which will have a few smaller but still proper gifts - Uno, Pokemon card set, etc which bumps the number up by around 7 gifts per child or around 15 gifts if you consider the £1 chocolate coins and £2 bubble baths in the total too!

I'm South East and give my children around 6 things each from us to open, one or two bigger (maybe £40-£60ish) and a few smaller. They also receive presents from grandparents and aunts and uncles.

They do also get about 25 things in their stockings too.

DD will have about 10 under the tree from us and about 7/8 little bits in her stocking. She’ll also get quite a bit from family as she has grandparents on both sides, aunties and two great grandmothers who will buy for her. We live in the NE

This is probably a lot by mumsnet standards but much less than I grew up with- my mum was a mountain of presents sort of person and in hindsight I do think it was too much. My mum is Scottish and grew up very poor but became a high earner , so I think there was an element of wanting us to have what she didn’t as a child

I’m so glad I asked this, I’ve found the replies really interesting and am beyond astounded happy that everyone has been so respectful and open minded. It’s all very Christmas-y 🌲

I think it also depends on extended family. We have always bought the dcs lots because we are spectacularly lacking in the grandparent department.

I must admit stockings do include toothbrushes but my finest hour was a grammar book for children: dd has never forgiven me!

Central Scotland here too and my 3 get limited to £1500 each and for the teenager that equates to a new iPhone and AirPods and then clothes she wanted so doesn’t look like much , the younger two have a new iPad each and then approx 25-30 toys each then they get there little stockings too with essentials and chocolates etc , I’ve refused to buy any cheap shit tat this year too because it’s just a waste

So someone will say they have bought their kids 40 presents but are including absolutely everything and someone else will say 4 but won’t include the 20 other small stocking fillers they have bought.

The OP said not including stocking gifts. But my BIL and SIL aren't British and the stocking their kids got when they were little were just full of sweets. Whereas my kids have a lot more: fruit, pants and socks, toothbrushes, chocolate but also CDs, DVDs, card games, playmobil figures, small lego kits, stationary/art materials, small craft kits, pop vinyl figures, jewellery, books, etc.

West Yorkshire, we go big at Christmas, dh and I are on the same page. It's how we were brought up and I have lots of fantastic Christmas memories.

I'm not spoilt, greedy, materialistic or selfish. You can treat a child without causing this. There's a lot more to parenting that influences such things. Withholding fantastic presents and wrapping up socks and toothbrushes isn't the answer.

I'd also like to dispell a myth here. Buying a decent number of presents for my children does not mean I'm buying lots of cheap tat. That seems to be mentioned a lot on Mumsnet. I'm also not going into debt for Christmas.

I don't really get the poor families buying more thing. I didn't have the money to buy 15+ gifts when DS was young! It was a Lego set and a few other smaller things. I'm on a low full time wage now but he just can't think of things he wants so is a struggle to buy for.

I've never counted and my DC have never been minded to count either?!
I don't gift by counting either just mainly by budget+ what they want/need etc.

However in the year's when we had very little money I still managed to get them free stuff.

More than 15 is the norm in my circles. Much more in most cases to be honest. Im always surprised by people who post about their children only getting a couple of gifts. I’m in North West England.

Yes I seen that but my point is you don’t know what people class as a present and a stocking filler …

One person may say a card game, jewellery, lego kit is a gift and the next person may count it as stocking filler.

County Durham - North East

Please remember many of the " we only give 5 gifts" crowed then disclosed they have large families who buy tons for their children!!

So they actually get far more

Mine don't have anyone who spoils them at all so it's down to DH and I.

But intake trying to give Xmas some depth is good i'e getting out and doing thing's as well as just gifts so a large part of my budget is days out.

I'm always shocked to see £10 gifts advertised as stocking fillers!

This is fascinating!
My kids get three or four gifts to unwrap, and a stocking of smaller gifts -which are not pricey things at all- and that's all from us.
We are south England.

How did you get presents for free?

Yep almost same here 4 or 5 under tree and a stocking of small bits. I'm East of England

Freecycle
before Xmas people do huge toy clear outs it was amazing, several year's I collected huge bin bags full of toys.
Obviously some dirty or we didn't want etc m
I cleaned them up and took what we wanted and passed the rest on.
DC had absolutely no idea.

I remember a particularly parsimonious relative saying...even if free they still get a lot!!

@SLCUC and @WaitWhatOh

No other gift's at all from relatives/freinds?

Places like market place or some free facebook groups I imagine but things go quick.

I also know people who spend all year entering free competitions and get lucky (I never am though lol).

Oh, and on the toothbrush and pants debate, my teenagers insist on getting them otherwise it's not Christmas.

You must have lived in a better area for free cycle than me! I only ever saw things for very young children, never anything like lego or similar toys that DS was interested in.

We were given a few things through a charity once but they were more suitable for a younger child, like a book he'd have read at age 5 or 6 when he was 8.

I was lucky as people seemed to do huge clear outs before Xmas and obviously didn't want the hassles of taking it to charity shop..

This was when DC younger up to 5 I got away with it.
Disney's dressing table, key boards, drum kit...

Loads of Disney stuff...

Books of course puzzles...