Amount of money spent on christmas

debtfreein4years

just thought i would join in.
my parents set a max budget of £200 for me and my brother each christmas. ive not really known them to spend more than that. when i was about 8 or 9 my parents told me that santa wouldnt be bringing me as much as my brother cause my presents get more expensive as i get older so that there wouldnt be any jealousy issues come christmas day. i think setting a budget of £150 plus a few stocking fillers per child is a reasonable budget IF you can afford it and want to spend that much.

I will be sticking to that budget when i do have kids, probably even lowering it as grandparents etc will spoil the brat ;p

clairibel

RachelW1987 wrote: »

I love christmas!! To me its about Family time, Christmas Dinner, Sitting watching xmas telly and drinking until merry!!

Who cares about presents its a day for family and the people you love

Nicely put! This is how i remember my christmasses when i was younger not by the amount of pressies i got, i actually cannot remember most of the presents i got

And this is how i want my 7 year son to remember his christmasses, its people that matter not pressies :cool:

I am actually trying to find everyones pressies for £10 or less and i am on track so far with the help of moneysavingexpert of course!

spendingmad

We will probably spend £150 on DS (he would like a DSi) and £100 on DD (as she will also receive DS's old DS in a pink case!) we will also spend around £20 on Nephew (3months) but thinking about buying Gift Vouchers for him along with a small toy. Adults within the family do a secret santa and spend £50 per person ( pre secret santa we would spend approx £250 on family presents and it was just wrong!)

My total budget for Christmas presents is £500 plus I contribute to Xmas lunch and other 'party' food. We could afford more but I just feel it would be a waste of money.

I love having a big family christmas, 20 people around 'poshed up' garden tables, uncles falling asleep after dinner and playing games 'til late

LJM

my xmas budget is also £500 i have a big family and alot of friends and their kids that i buy for plus my partner and my girls this budget includes presents food

code-a-holic

The figures i have seen here tonight are mad! why do people spend stupid amounts of money at christmas?!
I truly believe a child would be happy with a £10 or less gift, a homemade gift even, if that is what they were used to. Its marketing teams in toy companies that encourage this mass present giving.

Im 25, so was not too long ago when father christmas visited me, we wouldnt get any more than 1 main gift and 3-5 small gifts. main gift one year was a dolls cot which was a hand me down from a relative. I can be very honest when i say i never felt dissapointed with gifts at christmas and i do remember telling a friend that she was spoilt and her family were silly for buying too much!

I spent £100 last christmas over my 3 children and felt i had spoilt them rotten! I have 4 children this christmas and spent £20 in the january sales on our new baby's prezzies and bits for the others.
We have been planning on finding a piano to present as a family gift at christmas, they are regularly free in the paper so on the hunt now! Will scour car boots for some gifts for the big 3. Come summer christmas gift have usually lost their novelty and we do a late summer clearout when the kids sell their old toys at a car boot and buy something new for themselves.

caevans

Hi
My baby will be about 8 months old and I don't plan on spending much at all on her. Its nice to spoil children but she is too young to know what is going on!! My family and OH family will spoil her and I plan on saying to them to spend a maximum of ? amount (don't know how much!) or to say to them to each get a maximum of maybe 3 items each. It does get silly how much kids get and I hope my good intentions of not spending much and not allowing others to spend too much on her last over the years and I don't get sucked into the whole idea of having to spend lots of money.

Maz

We, as a family, spend bu88er all on christmas presents. We might get some treats in that we wouldn't normally but for us, it's much more about spending time together and enjoying each others' company.

Last year, I got a couple of great pressies that were obviously unwanted xmas pressies donated to charity shops. Cost? A couple of quid if that but the thought that went behind them was much more precious than the amount spent.

We have a very frugal christmas, spend-wise but invest in the important (to us) stuff i.e. time with family and friends.

Lunar_Eclipse

victory wrote: »

What do you put in your memory box? Very interested in that, sounds great:D

They contain about 40 cards upon which I hand write memories from that year. My children are 8 and 9, so they might include things like:

learning to roller blade during the Easter holidays
going down all the slides for the first time at our local fun pool
going to the cinema with your friends x and y to see Z film
going to Chinatown in London to celebrate Chinese New Year
watching Strictly Come Dancing on Sat nights snuggling with Mummy and popcorn
going on holiday to xxx
your school trip to (insert place)
beating Daddy at chess

... that sort of thing. I basically trawl through my diary on Xmas Eve writing them on the homemade cards and put them in the box which is a wrapped matchstick box, labelled for the year. Something for them to keep from their childhood, or discard if they so wish.

bumpoowee

This will be my first xmas with a child to buy a present for but i dont intend to spend over £50 (she'll only be 7 months). After that I'd keep to a max of £100. I have 4 siblings and I'm the only independent one and get nothing from my parents wheras the other 4 (2 older 2 younger) get loads of money thrown at them and stuff paid for and have turned out to be nasty ungrateful people.

dave4545454

i spend £0 at xmas as i have done for many years.

xmas is about spending quality time with family and friends, it costs nothing.