How much do you *really* spend on your kids for Christmas?

[stickynote]

Looking at some of the threads about Christmas recently, I think I'm a bit of a tightwad re Christmas presents. How much do you spend in total (i.e. including stocking presents) on:

a) your own children?
b) other special children e.g. nieces/nephews?

I really am genuinely interested - I've been living abroad and feel out of touch with what is the norm.

TIA

We spend a fortune on kids and relatives and very little on each other!

What would you and dp spend on each other stickynote?

We only buy for friends children now, not the friends (unless they have got children). I guess probably about £150.00 each on our children.

probably £70 for ds (8) and dd (1) £40.00.

I reckon we will spend about £50 on ds (2) and there is an agreement on dh's side to spend no more than £10 on anybody. My family are big on Christmas presents so we usually spend a bit more.

£50-£100 each. dd2 is getting a bike and a doll this year. dd1 i'm sorta stuck for, she wants a huge trampoline but i said no lol.
neices and nephew i soend about £10 each. only got 4 atm. my younger sister gets the worst deal as she has to buy 5 pressies lol.

few bits and pieces for dh parents/brothers,

all in all we spend £400 approx.

Have spent almost nothing in previous years, but this year I have spent a month figuring out what to spend...came up with ~£400 for all gifts in immediate family, decorations & Xmas meal/related. Gifts & cards for other people won't add much.

£50-£75: "Little" things for kids that I've been picking up all year long
~£75 on the 5yo
~£25 on the 3yo
0 on the baby
~£60-£130 on DH (includes £50 item he will share with kids)
~£35 on me (but I get to tell DH EXACTLY what he buys me . )

Rest is for food, travel, decorations...

Mine are littlies still, so about £20-£25 for main present each. However I never had a Christmas stocking when younger, but Dh did, so the dss have them, and I'm always surprised at how quickly these add up (though tbh they're often with things that they would have got anyway eg new pants, some playdoh etc). Again would probably splash out on a family video or something. Last year I got some Christmas cds (though obviously not an annual expense).

I probably spend about £120 all in on ds, mostly bought in sales and kept for Christmas, or some of it bought early from the US (most things are the same price there in dollars that they are here in pounds) and shipped over via surface mail (slow, but cheap) - so probably double that in "value" if they were bought here in the runup to Christmas. So far have bought him a big remote control JCB (£25), a Thomas the Tank Engine dvd (£8), a loop-the-loop car racing thing (£3), lots of Thomas the Tank Engine wooden engines (cheap from the US at about £70 for 20 compared to £10+ each here), a few knights, etc for the ELC castle (the old style ones, in the half price sale - about £10) and a box of maltesers (£1). Probably won't get him much more - perhaps just some stickers, or new playdoh.

It is a lot but Christmas is the only time of year he ever gets much which is new. The rest of the year (well during the summer anyway) he gets a regular supply of "new" books, toys, puzzles, etc from car boot sales, ebay and the like - at just 3 he's not really old enough yet to differentiate between "new" and "new to him".

Other kids, probably £5 each on average - although maybe up to £10 for something particularly appropriate, and I have been known to slip in the odd £1 bargain picked up through the year. Again the usual retail price of these is almost always more that I've actually paid.

£300 - £400 on dd including stocking filler and pj;s on xmas eve.

Then about £300 on the family n friends - we save all yr long for xmas so althoug we spend alot it's not all in one go.

£150 on the kids
£20 per parent (x 4)
£15 per niece/nephew (x6)