Christmas Spending

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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! :ROFLMAO:

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!
 
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I don't have kids but I'm so surprised reading this thread on how much some spend on their kids for Christmas. I am curious as to how much is spent on birthday presents. For me, birthdays beat Christmas by far. I don't care for Christmas at all and wouldn't be upset to not receive anything for it!
 
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I don't have kids but I'm so surprised reading this thread on how much some spend on their kids for Christmas. I am curious as to how much is spent on birthday presents. For me, birthdays beat Christmas by far. I don't care for Christmas at all and wouldn't be upset to not receive anything for it!
I’m with you. Christmas was all about family and we’d get something small or maybe things like clothes that were needed.
 
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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.
 
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I don't have a set budget but we usually spend around £600 on our son split between birthday and Christmas. His birthday is end of Nov so they are both close together. We tend to give him more at Xmas just purely for the fact that he's at home longer so has more time to play with all the new things. We buy things throughout the year and put them away to spread the cost. Whilst it might seem excessive as he's only 4 we only have a teeny family and it's just and both sets of grandparents that buy for him.

Its surprising how quickly it adds up with a few toys!!
 
I spent around £150 each for my 2 last year. I don't usually spend so much but my eldest wanted a barbie campervan which was pricey. I've got no idea what to get them this year, neither of them really play with toys
 
As little as possible without it looking like I haven’t bothered
 
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£1500 this year but they want an iPad Pro so that’s taking up most of it. Perks of having an only child.
Family don’t do gifts.
 
I don't have kids but I'm so surprised reading this thread on how much some spend on their kids for Christmas. I am curious as to how much is spent on birthday presents. For me, birthdays beat Christmas by far. I don't care for Christmas at all and wouldn't be upset to not receive anything for it!
Mine is only very little (this’ll be her second Christmas, only had one birthday), my spend is higher than the comments here so I’m going to discuss this with husband tomorrow tbh as I don’t want to create a monster incapable of integrating.

It’s hard to know, really. Daughter has a summer birthday & we’ve booked a holiday for 2023 (still don’t feel ok travelling for 2022 with covid) and are paying for her grandparents to come too and I think/hope that’ll become an important tradition for us especially as we don’t live nearby and she only has one living set.

Christmas will be more about “stuff” even tho annoyingly this year part of the period will be spent in a hotel with just me & her which feels bleak.

I have found myself just delaying normal toy buys and adding it to the Christmas pile for no good reason other than feeling like it’s what you should do (?!), and still can’t decide if I should buy a wooden arch for her now, for Christmas, or for next year as don’t want her to be overwhelmed with bits?!

Also hate seeing present hauls & I don’t share anything like that on social media.
 
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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.
 
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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.
I don’t think that’s mean. I think it makes perfect sense. Also realistically what do you buy a 4 month old?😂 You’re better off saving the money than buy for no reason. If I was getting anything it’d be a keepsake like maybe a Christmas ornament with 1st Christmas on it or a personalised stocking or something like that that has sentimental value and can be used for a long time
 
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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.
 
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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. Christmas is not about presents and it shouldn't be. 😊 Saving for a longer maternity leave is so much more special!
 
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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.
I don’t think it’s mean either! I think it’s a lovely idea to have a longer maternity leave if you can. We haven’t got a lot even for our 2 year old, she doesn’t understand and would rather play with a cardboard box or toilet roll tube 🙄😂 I know both our children will get lots from family and friends so I’d rather not go overboard!
 
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I have a separate savings pot for christmas because i refuse to get into debt. I am pretty organised though, and i seem to be pretty good at finding bargains throughout the year.
We have 2 kids- an almost 9 year old and a 6 year old so its absolutely magical and i love it! Christmas for us is throughout the whole month of December and i love doing the north pole breakfast, all the elf on the shelf stuff, and i always use the money we have saved to go on days out. We have a sunday lunch with Santa, panto, a grotto visit, and a visit/sleepover at gullivars world booked for this year. To me its just as nice and important to do that with my kids as the actual christmas day is.
I am not a snob, and i often buy things from ebay/pre loved so that helps. I suppose some people would say i go over the top in terms of our north pole breakfast with all the personalised name signs and whatnot, but i love doing it for the kids and seeing their faces light up is absolutely amazing.
As for money, i have about £1,300.00 in my christmas savings pot- but thats for everything- the gifts, days out, elf on the shelf things, food, christmas eve boxes, stockings, we do the christmas shoe box appeal, and the salvation army thing etc. Whatever is left i will put towards our holiday fund.
I dont have a set budget for the kids but i dont buy for the sake of it to make their pile look bigger- quality over quantity is my motto. And i refuse to buy just for the sake of it, in the past i have done that and its not worth it and the kids dont care! I would say the gifts/stockings/xmas eve boxes for my 2 kids probably come to about £300/£350 per child.
I do love christmas, i love the month of December. I love being able to organise it with my special trusted christmas notebook, i even get excited organising the christmas eve boxes and filling them- although they are not cheap to do, especially when you add up the PJ's and the other bits that go in there. And i love dressing the table and making everything nice, and hosting christmas lunch.
Im certainly not crass and i would never post photos and show off on social media because i personally find that distasteful, especially when they post "ohh i wonder if thats enough". Im always suspicious when i see those kind of posts!

In general i just think you do it your way, and i dont compare what we do with others because everyone has their own idea to what makes christmas special. I refuse to try and keep up with the Jones's because everyone has their own budgets- some people might think i go way ott, and equally what we spend might be nothing compared with other families. But i do bloody love Christmas and the whole of December. I think im just a big kid tbh! :)
 
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Spend what you can afford and buy wisely is my advice. Dont get into debt and dont brag on social media if you can spend more.

We dont have a budget but try and buy what our kids would like. Ive bought my eldest a PS5 this year. They have mentioned it but have said that they wont ask for one as they know how hard stock is it to get I have played along with that so I really hope they are surprised.

For relatives we usually buy restaurant vouchers / hotel vouchers. Stuff they can enjoy.
 
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Usually I get the card thing that I save up all year for, its park Christmas savings an you pick how much you want an it tell you how much a week you pay an you pay monthly then it comes as a card like a visa which can be spent anywhere that accepts visa cards, means I don't need to think about trying put money away an I usually shop on amazon mostly anyway so I can spend it there
 
I’m definitely struggling this year, budget wise. I don’t have young kids or niece/nephews to buy for, but it’s the ‘done’ thing in our family to buy gifts still for the adults. I can only afford £15/20 each and there’s about 9 to buy for 🙈 Since Covid, I have come to realise its not about the material things - you can’t take any of that stuff with u when u pass away - and it is more about the time spent together etc. So I think I will try handmade gifts or restaurant/shop vouchers this time round.
 
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I’m definitely struggling this year, budget wise. I don’t have young kids or niece/nephews to buy for, but it’s the ‘done’ thing in our family to buy gifts still for the adults. I can only afford £15/20 each and there’s about 9 to buy for 🙈 Since Covid, I have come to realise its not about the material things - you can’t take any of that stuff with u when u pass away - and it is more about the time spent together etc. So I think I will try handmade gifts or restaurant/shop vouchers this time round.
If you feel comfortable raising it I would. I refuse to believe any adult (especially if you’ve got kids to deal with) enjoys the idea of buying 9 presents for adults. Even if you just say look I need to opt out this year, pls don’t buy me anything!

I saw someone on Facebook mention they’d received a kids party invite that asked for no presents, or a gift to charity. Loved that & will be copying for my LO, we all have too much stuff we don’t need more.
 
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