Christmas Spending

[Platypusfattypus]

I was curious how people get past the playstations etc my boys aren’t at that stage yet but they will be soon I’m sure

We don't buy consoles because my husband is a gamer, we have every console going, some we have more then one of (he gets broken ones and fixes them up). If they want laptops, tablets etc that's a birthday gift. They have our old phones so we don't buy those. The older two are very much into quirky gifts so they prefer more of those then one big thing.

 

[StrawberryCream]

So I need someone to come and give me a shake. I have 3 children 14, 9 and 6. The 14 Yr old has asked for xbox games and similar which are £55 a pop where as 9 and 6 have asked for toys meaning I can get way more for the price. So I got my daughter a massive barbie plane, and a barbie mansion thingy and it costs the price of 4 games, but will be much more wow factor at Christmas. The needing a shake is because now I've wrapped them all, the 14 year old pile is shocking, although I've probably spent £500 + on him in total , I feel like I need to buy him some more to top up the amount of presents. know that's ridiculous but

It’s probably because you’ve started early, I am so bad for this. I have bought all my Christmas presents and I keep thinking about more I can buy I need to start doing my Christmas shopping the week before then it’s done and we can’t spend anymore money!

 

[Mrs Cucumber]

I don't know if this helps and might be quite childish to adults but when my friends and I were in college, we couldn't afford to buy each other gifts (there was 8 of us in the group) so on the last day of college before the Christmas holiday, we would all bring in a "party" food and have a buffet type thing to celebrate. Was much cheaper than buying presents and it felt really special cause we would all make the effort to celebrate together. I don't know if it's do-able but it's just an idea

Not childish at all, it sounds perfect!

 

[Raininvain]

I cant believe that people spend over a grand on whats essentially just a day with a Sunday dinner. Each to their own but its seems a lot to me.

 

[Platypusfattypus]

I'm dreading this! My two are still quite young so hoping I have a while longer but my youngest broke her heart when she realised that sparkles rabbit on holiday was someone dressed up?

Two of mine no longer believe and its still magic. The excitement is still there, we still put out stockings etc. I was still getting santa gifts when I was 19

I fear it's going to get more expensive too, I always say they can only ask father Christmas for one present as he has to look after all the boys and girls etc, they are gonna know mumma's a soft touch and it's going be easy to get more I may need to work extra hours! Out of interest how old is your daughter? My son's 7 and still firmly believes

No it hasn't got more expensive but my kids prefer small quirky gifts. Big gifts are birthdays only. It's always been that way so they don't expect more.

 

[Emsie]

For those that have older kids, do they still do a Christmas list? My little ones do a letter to santa but my eldest has informed me she doesn't believe in santa now! What do you do when they get older? Just ask them?

 

[Rlaw1978]

I budget £300 each on the kids (I have 3)
£200 husband
£50-£70 on parents etc
That’s the budget but it doesnt mean I will spend that. I’m happy to spend that or go over but if I can get things for less I will or if the items on their lists amounts to less that’s fine too.

I was curious how people get past the playstations etc my boys aren’t at that stage yet but they will be soon I’m sure

You don’t get past the PlayStations lol But what I tell mine is, I will never by on release date. We always wait a year and a half from release so that the price has dropped, errors are ironed out and games are more affordable.

 

[ChubClubThug]

We dont have kids in the family and dont celebrate Christmas, I think if your not religious its a waste of time and the same thing every year. I dont want bubble bath, candles, biscuits etc either.

Out of curiosity, what do you do on Christmas day?

 

[Chandler Bing]

We don't have kids but we do have nieces and nephews to buy for. I collect things from the sales throughout the year, I don't have a budget as such but some years it may look like I've spent £50+ per child but in reality its likely about half if that.

For example I got some really cute pj's from M&S for my niece for £2.50 today as they sent me a free £5 voucher with no minimum spend.

 

[Snippysnips]

I would be careful with buying gift cards/vouchers for places

The year that dorethy perkons, Wallis an Evans all went out of buisness I had bought a gift card for my mum, at the time we had heard they were facing difficulties an liquidation, so I gave her the card early incause it went bust, apparntly because they had went into liquidation it meant that in order to spend the card I had to pay half, she had £25 on the gift card but to spend it it had to come to £50 an I had to pay in cash the other £25 otherwise they refused to take the card

 

[svdwoodsen]

~$300 per parent depending on what they each want this year, probably similar range for my partner and brother. Kids from the extended family get $100 each and for the adults, we don't really gift presents but try to do a recycled Secret Santa using things gifted to us that past year that just don't work. There's no budget for this and it's meant to be fun more than anything else. Over the years, I've gotten everything from a tea Advent Calendar (from a non-tea drinker...more for me so I'm not complaining!) to dozens of socks to a Le Creuset French Oven (bless the person who gave this to my aunt, because she doesn't cook one bit and promptly passed that onto me).

I think the budget for gifts may be higher this year due to the lack of international travel, parties, and weddings that we would've attended otherwise.

 

[Jc456]

Our baby will be 4 months old and won’t be getting any presents from us. Might seem mean but he’ll get them off family, I’d rather save and have a longer maternity leave with him and he already has so much stuff.

Not mean at all, they can't even open them. My eldest was 4 months on her first Christmas and I bought clothes (didn't find out gender) a few small bits like crinkly/sensory book, rainmaker toy.

 

[Emsie]

I'm dreading this! My two are still quite young so hoping I have a while longer but my youngest broke her heart when she realised that sparkles rabbit on holiday was someone dressed up?

Oh I know it's awful. I feel like l there isn't any magic now she knows that we just buy her presents. And my december threats of "santa is watching" will fall on deaf ears we have agreed that she will pretend for the little ones though.

 

[HoGi]

My husbands work run a saving club..so they deduction money from his wage each week and we get it back in November. It's a godsend having 4 boys. Covers presents, food and any new decs.

My work do the same. Really helps out especially as my husbands birthday is end of November!

 

[prozacprincess]

We don’t really do Christmas but my husband has two nephews so we buy them gifts …usually about £100 each.
My husband also buys his parents something. Last year we got them a mattress They’d asked for a mattress topper but when we discovered their mattress was over 20 years old and absolutely knackered we thought it was pointless just putting a topper on it.
I don’t do ‘family’ but I usually get my husband a gift when we are on our Christmas holiday. Usually some sort of experience relative to wherever we are, or a spa treatment as he loves fancy spa days.

 

[spangly]

I've got three grown up children now - so they get £100 each plus a stocking of between £25-£50, depending on what I can find. I usually look on hotukdeals throughout the year and get them something electrical and then pants, socks, smellies etc.
Mum and FIL - approx £25 each and great nieces/ nephews approx £10-£15 each (x6) Granddaughter overseas usually about £40-50 but the shipping costs can be another £30!
Partner approx £100 and Brother just a token gift approx £15

I tried the Edit this on the end of my post but ran out of time - so I'll put it here...lol!

When the kids were younger, we did buy them a Wii console between them when it first came out but after that, we did manage to get them each the consoles they wanted as they came out. I think the final one we paid for was a PS4 but my Son had to put his own Birthday money towards that too, so we paid about 2/3rds. The console years, they didn't have any little extras at all
We've always scrimped and struggled with money, so apart from a few little bits and bobs, most of the stocking fillers were useful things rather than lots of little things that they wouldn't look twice at after Christmas day (I learnt the hard way in the early years and felt so disheartened when things stayed under the bed gathering dust). Stockings always include a chocolate orange and some shower gel though!

Compared to a lot of their friends they didn't get lots of stuff but I asked them the other day if they ever felt they missed out and they genuinely seem to think they did pretty well over the years and never felt they didn't have what they wanted. My Eldest (now 23) says it's all about the food and the party games! Oh yes, we do a throw the parcel game where we have approx 15 gifts (one of them is always a toilet roll, so you don't want to get that) and you all have to try and grab each others prizes and swap them for your own and that is still their favourite party game!

 

[Marmaladeapricot]

It depends. Some years we’ve spent as little as £50 , some years more. Depending on what we are buying. This year we are spending more as littlest needs a new bike so already spent £400 on that, but we buy bikes that we can sell on and hold their value. so selling his old one for £200. Will get him a few other bits too. My eldest wanted a gaming pc so we’ve got him one he can also use for school, that’s set us back a grand.

 

[Mrs Cucumber]

Oh I know it's awful. I feel like l there isn't any magic now she knows that we just buy her presents. And my december threats of "santa is watching" will fall on deaf ears we have agreed that she will pretend for the little ones though.

I fear it's going to get more expensive too, I always say they can only ask father Christmas for one present as he has to look after all the boys and girls etc, they are gonna know mumma's a soft touch and it's going be easy to get more I may need to work extra hours! Out of interest how old is your daughter? My son's 7 and still firmly believes

 

[Youre a wizard Harry]

As I have a large family, the adults do a secret Santa as it was getting ridiculously expensive.
Budget of £50, and we use an online secret Santa generator and each person can enter a wish list. My mum often ends up buying us a little something separately as she can’t yet cope with not buying gifts for everyone

I don’t have children of my own yet, but my siblings’ children aren’t included in the secret Santa, we buy for them separately- I spend £15- £20 per child. There are now 7 children to buy for so will be £15 this year.

Husband and I spend £50 on each other, although the year we got married we decided not to buy each other anything as there was nothing either of us wanted and we had an expensive year.

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

I’ve asked this on another thread but what do you get a 7 year old (relative). I don’t want to aks him as I want it to be a surprise. What are 7 year olds into these days