How much do you spend on your DC's at xmas?

[CharlieBoo]

Just interested as am having a nightmare with my two. My ds is 5.8 and is having a ds and lego police station, both of which cost over £200.00, this is before a game has been bought for the ds or any stocking stuff...or the little bits and pieces. All a lot of money, but in terms of wrapping up it looks sod all. Compare this to 18 month old dd who has big boxes, dolly's, buggy's, coupe car and it looks loads but has actually cost me half as much!

How do others of you do it with your dc's? I don't want it to look like dd has got loads more than ds and for that to register with him, but tbh he has had loads spent on him but he isn't old enough to realise and thinks he can ask Santa for what he wants...

OOOH good topic. Mine are 6 and 8. I used to spend around £150 (up to £100 main present and £50 in stocking fillers) But things ae so expensive now !!!! I have less to spend this year as at college and using my savings. I will be spending £100 on each. Tight call i knnow as one will be getting a bike and the other a karaoke machine and they have picked five pressies to ask "santa" for. Went out for the bike today and oh my god! half decent raleigh is £150 !! They even admitted prices had gone up. Not wanting to get a supermarket one which were on watchdog, going to get a halfords one for £85? Hope this helps (confused)

Interesting one! I have twin DD's, so it's a lot easier as they generally want the same things, so get pretty much the same stuff. They have had about £150 each spent on them this year and that's my limit. They don't believe in Santa anymore though, so it's slightly easier as they know whatever they ask for has to be paid for by us, so they're aware of price. They are 10.

We have 3yo, 14yo and 11yo. Probably spend about £70 on each of them. Looks like we're tight!

My DC are 4, 6 and 8. This year they will have around £75 spent on each of them (joins Marion in the "tight" corner).

I think it will just depend on the year,who needs what and go from there. This will be my first Christmas with 2,but as dd will only be 3 months she won't really know the difference....just want to make sure she has enough presents for a good photo so she's not upsetting when we look back! Will be hardley spending anything on her as she doesn't need anything and we have spool many toys around the place. As they get older I will probably try to buy bigger presents as joint ones (things like a games console or computer) and then make the stockings as similar as I can

We had this discussion last year - DD (16) gets about £150 spent on her, but this may often be in the form of 'useful' type pressies eg stuff she needs for school, money to go towards trips etc. DSS (8) gets around £100's worth (but then he does get pressies from his Mum and her family as well) and DS (3) gets around £50's worth, including clothes etc.

We talked around in circles with it for ages, but basically stuff for teens costs more!

Not sure how much we'll be spending, but dd (14) had her birthday recently: she got a £50 DVD box set, a £2.99 DVD, a pocket book and some (cheap) sheet music: probably around £70-80 all told. Christmas will probably have to rather less: large extended family to buy for.

Mine are nearly 10 and nearly 8 - DD1 no longer believes, DD2 does - in the sense that she thinks we pay for the presents but Santa delivers them for us.
This year we will be spending about £75 on each of them so we're in the tight corner too - they're getting a cheap (but proper) digital camera each, a marble run (one of those you need an engineering degree to build) between them, a chemistry set between them and then stocking fillers - books from The Book People, some SillyBands, some stickers, some cheap DVDs bought from Amazon's bargain bin that they've mentioned wanting.
We have to be tight, because their birthdays are in January and early February - what were we thinking with our family planning???

These days, I spend about £100 each for the dds' main present (14 and 12) as I tend to get them things like ipod, hair straighteners, camera, phone.

Then two more presents for under the tree, about a tenner a piece.

And a stocking each. Tend to spend £3 ma xon each filler.

Didn't spend as much when they were younger.

Most years about 50 - 70 pounds on the older ones plus some stocking fillers and Christmas PJs.
The baby got about £20 last year.
This year we are splashing out and have got the older two a DS each and will also get them a game each. The baby will probably still only get about £20 spent on him! But he doesn't understand Christmas yet and ask for expensive things. Wish they could stay like that!

I think it also depends how much they will be getting from the rest of the family.

DS is spending Christmas with his father, so he'll get lots of gifts from that side of the (huge) family. Therefore I'll probably just get him a DS game, few books and little bits and pieces.

DD will also get a lot from the family, and she'll be 22 mo and has no idea what Christmas really is. She doesn't seem to need anything: she's got her little corolle doll that she loves, so no need to get another...got buggy...got tricycle...I'll probably get her lots of crayons, markers, play doh etc plus few books plus puzzle or two (she loves them).

So probably around 70-80 euros for DS and 30-40 for DD.

I just spent 70 quid this morning on a micro mini scooter as well as light/bell/ribbons etc for it for DD1 (2.8). I was feeling like I'd splurged way too much, quite relieved to see I'm in the tight corner! She will also get a few bits in her stocking - books, pants, some crafty things and little toys but I got most of these when Sainsburys did the half price toys offer the other week.

I've got a vtech light up phone for DD2 (6 months) which was less than a tenner and I really can't think of anything else to get her, we have all the baby toys we could possibly need! I feel like she should have some more things to unwrap or DD1 will think Santa doesn't like DD2!

Having said we were tight, DH came back from Saino's last night having bought DS (3yo) a DSi because there was 25% off. Now we're trying to decide whether to give it to him or not. He's only 3, but then perhaps I'll get my iPhone back if he's got something else to play on!

Interesting!!!

We spend about 25 pounds per child and presently we have two kids. However my Mum and my MIL both give me 25 for each child.

With that money we have bought a 10 pound train set from tescos, reduced ELC sand and water table, ELC fun scissor set and peppa pig DVD for my 2 year old.

For my 7 year old we have pooled all his xmas AND birthday money from both us and the grandparents to buy a reduced WII for 130. We are not a tecno famiy but plan to play games together for no more than about 45 mins a day. Also a half price set of roller scates for 12 pounds - plus pads.

I spend about 25 pounds on DH too.

On top of that santa brings a sack which will contain choc money, second hand but new looking books (horible histories, beano annuel etc) and other nice but small bits and bobs - playdoe, kids recipe book, glittery hair stuff, oddly named sweets from the pound shop or home bargins.

Both DH and i have massive families and quite a few very very close friends we buy for too. My children also buy a couple of gifts for their long term best friends. I quite enjoy picking up early Xmas things and get stuff in the sales all year round. We often only spend about 5 pounds per person but it costs about 200.

We also get some 2 for 1 offer chocs for school teachers and a few other special people but these are just from the pound shop.

How ae you all mamaging to spend so little.

I have budgeted about £150 per dc (have 3) but i know this will probably be closer to £200 plus stocking fillers.

They don't really want anything but by the time i have bought vouchers, electrical items, pj's, slippers, clothes, toys. it all seems to add up.

i have spent £100 on dh's nephew and £100 on my parents, in laws and sil for the big pressy each then little bits to go with

I don't spend the same amount but they always have the same amount f parcels to open, i guess between the 2 of them they get £400 spent on them. DP had had £300 spent on him and he will spend about £400 on me... gulp

We will seem really tight!

I think, all together, I spent about £100 on DD and DS (total, not each) including stocking stuff.

Got absolutely loads though - I was worrying DD will get spoilt! I used amazon and ELC vouchers so I saved loads of money. Being organised really paid off.

It helps that they are young, I think this is the last year we can choose for DD as next year she will be at school getting peer pressure etc.

Not too sure what I spent on the DSCs, probably more than on our own DCs, but then they are teens! Again, saved loads by doing it all early.

Also pleased that none of this/next months money is needed for presents. We will put some aside for the sales, DH works for Boots so we get fantastic bargains, will probably get their birthday presents!

Forgot to mention, we don't have a big family so not many presents from others. My parents spent £50 on my DCs again thanks to my bargain hunting. they get a few bits from my DSCs and my nan. The dscs have a bigger family get loads as they have a bigger family.

I haven't really got many actual toys for DD, I've stuck with games and vaguely educational stuff as I felt we would get more value for money (of which we don't have much!)

Can't believe how much some of you spend - I guess it is all relevant to how much you earn etc but surely anything over £50 is massively extravagent - can't believe the OP spending over £400 on a 5 year old - how does this relate to your family income; ie: how many hours do you have to work to earn enough to buy a present?

We spend about £50 on our 9 year old, and that tends to be sports stuff that he needs for his hobbies. I pick up a few bargains from charity shops etc throughout the year and those tend to be wrapped up from the grandparents who give me another £50. I hate the idea that Christmas is just about presents.

Rant over .

Ragwort I was chatting to my friend about this and she spent £250 on her 2yo. Apparently thats half what she spent last year and that's her being conservative as her DD gets loads from family too.

Still if she can afford it, fair enough :o

I have spent about £30-40 on each of my 3 (9,3 and 1) they have so much already and always get presents from other family members that they get lots anyway so i dont like to go over the top.they all get a stocking each that has a couple of little presents in and things like chocolate money,crayons or felt tip pens,a toothbrush,apple,orange,and then 2 main presents each.the older 2 havnt complained yet so it must be enough, i really couldnt afford to spend any more and i think its far more important to just have a lovely happy day and nice food(which costs a lot anyway!) they all have birthdays in nov and dec too so that makes it even easier to not go overboard with xmas bits as they are still into their birthday things!

This year i have spent £250 on each so far, that is not stocking fillers yet. but they have both got £30 worth of books in that.

we'll prob end up spending £150-200 on each this year..dsd is 6 ds is 5months BUT before i get flamed they are having stuff we were going to buy anyway. for example ds is having a jumperoo (£80) but i was going to buy him one anyway. got him some other bits including nice bowls pyjamas outfits hat scarf blanket etc etc and a build a bear from his big sister. dsd is having wii games that she has had to wait for xmas for (she's wanted them all year) she is having loads of new pyjamas and clothes as she has grown out of her stuff and new boots. plus other bit including books bedding etc etc. it all adds up!! we start buying our presents in sept tho so the cost is spread out for us and we dont end up with massive bills in january. i didnt have much as a child and while it may seem massively extravagent to some people i love giving presents (i also have 3 siblings who have £50 each spent on them) and i love seeing the tree with presents bursting out from underneath. we dont have a lot of money esp as im on maternity leave but we budget for xmas as it is so important to us. hope this helps OP.

i wouldnt worry about spending the same amount as they dont understand how much things cost so id just get little cheap bits for ds so it look as if he has the same amount as dd. thats what we've done.