how much do you spend on your childrens birthdays and christmas's?

[ogri]

it is my daughters 1st birthday next month. i have spent about £70 on presents. we are also having a huge party which i am too scared to add up how much it is costing. but we have been preparing and buying things for 2 months so spreading the cost.

just being nosey to see what everyone else spends on their kids

About £40.

DD's 3rd birthday party cost us about £200 in total. Her present - a bike - was £70.

At Christmas we probably spend £100-£150, depending on what she is having on her main present.

We only spend what we know we can definitely afford, and we are in a good finacial position luckiy.

Less than £10.

We put £100 in dd's account for her 1st birthday and bought her a talking Teletubby for something to open from us.

Christmas wasn't much different as it was only 2 months after her birthday. We bought her a rocking horse which was £70 and other little bits and bats like books, clothes and little toys. So that probably came to just over £100.

I think it will be a different story this year though, now she's that bit older. Really want to get her a dolls house and a train track.

Jess's 1st xmas - no more than £20 as she was only 5 months old.

Her first birthday is Sunday and we have spent approx £30 on bits and bobs.

Cant see the point spending a fortune until they know exactly what is gonig on.

my dd birthday party cost about £150.00 and her present was £90.00.My sons birthday is in 2 weeks and i have spent £180.00 on present and we are taking him to chessington.At christmas we spend about £250.00 each.

We have 3 children and spend around £70 on birthdays and around £100 - £120 at christmas. Obviously the £100 - £120 figure is variable as our toddler's main present last year was a disney princess trike which only cost £27, but the boys (13 & almost 12) have more expensive tastes in gifts than their sister !

I don't buy dd birthday presents as she has a big birthday party and I think that is enough.

I take a similar approach to Christmas I don't want dd to think it is all about presents so her present is the experience so i go to town on decorating the house, having a party for her and hr friends , doing all the baking etc. I buy her a pair of pyjamas to open Christmas eve so she looks nice for her photos in the morning, a few stocking fillers and one present to open on the day. Last year it was a dressing up outfit from woolies.

Age 1 I think I spent about £30 - on a nice cot activity centre thing plus a few little things. Christmas these days is probably in the region of £70 (recently included bike at £40-odd), birthdays less, but I tend not to tot it up, I try really hard to buy them things I think they will really get value from, and enjoy, without thinking too much about the total. Was very pleased recently dds' birthdays are about a week apart. DD2 got a bike, cos she hasn;t got one, and I really couldn't think of anything of equivalent size that dd1 could do with, so she just got an array of smaller things, probably spent half as much on her, but she really wasn't bothered, or rather didn't notice. She got her hama beads that she'd been agitating for and was happy as larry. I was v. pleased.

£30 each time

About £30 on birthdays, Christmas they get six presents each- main, other toy, DVD or music, book, chocolate and arty. Price varies, but not high as we don't have it usually!

As a kid we got up to thousand spent on the thre of us (eg, when I was in my early teens I got a £475 Amstrad CPC 464 computer with no software that I couldnt use!), we didnt appreciate it though and my parents really went without (council house, no car, no hols abroad0 for it. Dad compensating for his own childhood as one of 16 I think.

Not making that mistake ! Parents STILL overbuy for Grandkids though, often more than us, never know where to put it.

last birthday (3rd birthday)
we spent £150

last xmas we spent about £350 - £400

Last Christmas we went totally OTT and spent far to much. Some of the presents we bought havent even been played with We bought those Roboaspien robots...one each for the DS's and neither have played with them...what a waste of money.

This year we have already told the DS's that they will be getting one main present each (possibly MP3 players) and a few stocking fillers...DVD's etc. We are then going to give them £100 each to either spend in the sales or to save.

Birthdays...DS1 had an electric guitar and DS2 had a new bike....roughly spend about £100 on each of them for birthdays.

I think it gets harder as they get older....gone are the days when I could spend £30 and DS1 would be happy!!!