How many friends do you let your DC buy presents for?

[purplespink]

Sorry, I'm not meaning to take up the Christmas board today!😅

How many friends do you let your primary aged DC buy presents for? DS wants to buy for 3 but DD wants to buy for 8 which is too much. Also what was your budget for DC's friends? TIA! 🎄

Mine only buy birthday presents for friends. Christmas presents are for family and family friends only. If they did want to buy for friends I'd limit it to 2/3 close friends only.

DD and her friends did 'The great selection box' swap at Primary and basically just all bought each other a £1 selection box but it was the actual gift giving that was important. I think I used to give her a tenner. You could make those Rudolph cones though with hot chocolate powder and marshmallows etc. they are cheap but nice to make / receive.

She's in her teens now, my rule is that I will go 50/50 with her on what she spends from her money so that reigns her in. She tends to buy for 3 x close friends (I recommend no more than £15 each as an appropriate amount) and she might get something smaller for a couple of others.

Would a secret santa work for your DD if the majority of friends are in the same friendshop group?

When they were little, none. Maybe a very best friend and even then it was something like some sweets. Now they are older it doesn't seem to be a thing at all.

We do as many as DS wants on his list (normally about 20) but either make something or buy something cheap.

Last year was one of the Works 10 for £10 Christmas books, and a gingerbread man we iced with the friends initials. This year it'll be those little Santa sleighs where you glue chocolate bars together.

We normally just do Christmas chocolate with maybe a little christmas mug in a bag for whoever they want to really. Nothing big for Christmas at all though, it's birthdays that they buy for.

At primary we used to do about 3-4 friends depending on which year it was and how many children were in DD’s closest friend group. But only very small token things - here’s a selection of what we did:

Christmas book from The Works (£1-2) if I saw a nice one at some point before Christmas;
Candy cane plus a little handmade decoration;
Bag of choc coins plus a handmade decoration;
Hot choc Christmas bombe (I found some inexpensive ones for about £2 each);
Hot choc cone with marshmallows;
Christmas themed soap from TK Maxx

DD used to love giving a few of her friends a teeny thing, but really, don’t go overboard, make it very small/cheap. I found that some of her friends would give her a handmade biscuit or some chocolate back, but lots didn’t give her anything back (most parents I suspect don’t even think about kids giving each other gifts with all the Christmas build-up - especially if they aren’t Christmas obsessives like we are on here 😂) It’s a good opportunity for crafting and for teaching them the pleasure of giving, but I would keep it as a cheap token thing so that if they don’t get much back then they aren’t disappointed.

Mine don’t buy for friends. Neither do I though, I only buy for my own dc, nobody else even family.

is this a thing? DD is 9. At her school some kids exchange cards with a mini candy cane / similar Christmas themed sweet taped to the envelope. Never gifts.

We've never done christmas presents with friends, just not a thing here. They used to do cards but that's been binned now for whatsapp. They do do birthday presents.

We don't do Christmas presents or even cards for the DC's friends, just birthdays for their best friends. Wouldn't even occur to me to do so.

When I was growing up in late primary school, I'd get a wee present for my two best friends. I don't think I ever spent more than about £5! In high school I had quite a large friend group (about 15 of us) so we would do a secret Santa with a budget of £15, and then every year I'd hold a party the week before Christmas to exchange gifts. Maybe a Secret Santa idea would work for DD and her 8 friends?

My dd started buying for her friends towards end of primary. She is now 12 and will probably buy for 4-6 friends. I put a £1 limit on it though and will stretch to £1.29! She gets chocolate, sweets or stationery. It's just a token gift. And she decided she wanted to do it herself. Her friendship group started gifting in lockdown when they couldn't be together they were putting cards and small gifts through letter boxes and now it is Christmas gifts.