kids christmas presents; do you go for similar sized piles or money?

carlamarie_2

what do you do? do you aim to have similar sized piles or do you like to spend the same amount on them?

my kids have been looking at toys and ds has picked things he would like. he has 'spent' his £200 budget and has 6 presents

dd has 'spent' £160 and has 9 presents and still has £40 to spend

i like them to have the same sized piles but it feels a little unfair to spend more on one than the other to make them have the same.

mrbrightside842

They're picking out their Christmas presents already?! My kids change their mind depending on what advert has just been on tv! They'll change it 50 times over before Christmas and I'd have to spend double!

delain

£200 each :eek:

In my house this Christmas that would be £800!

Admittedly mine are quite small still (almost 8, 6 and 6) but I choose things that they like and yes, sometimes I do things on the cheap but there are always happy faces in my house at Christmas, and I spend nothing like £200 per child!

When they get older I think they will be told that if they want a very expensive present they will have to just deal with it meaning they will get less, or even (if it's that bad) that I will have to go halves with nanny so it will be a gift less from somewhere else as well as from us.

sp1987

If they are aware of how much they have and have picked out their own things then they won't notice in the same way that you would notice one getting more or less if you didn't know what was in them.

Bit unfair if you put in more to 'top up' a sibling who has spent more cash per present so then has 'better' (in reality just the same, lol) presents than the other who got more for their money. The government don't sub you a few grand because you picked the wrong mortgage/rental property/electricity supplier/car.

As long as you know you have treated them fairly you can explain any disparity that they may think they see.

Hsl500

Hiya mine are 3yrs, 6yrs, 8yrs, 13yrs and 12yrs.
I have said to older boys you get £200 each and to choose what you want they understand the cost of things now and seem to be ok with that ,
I told them the little ones you can get 3 toys for same price as 1 video game and showed them thats how come younger ones have more pressies
I spend £1000 as have the 5 boys but the 2 little ones 3 and 6yrs have not come to that , with the remainder i buy a joint family pressie this year wii games for the whole family can play so they all get use out of it
hth helen x
They dont need anymore and im not wasting and buying stuff for sake of it

Giggles_Fairy

How old are you children?

As a child gets older and starts to learn the value of money they will begin to understand that if they want a more expensive gift then they need to 'sacrifice' several smaller ones in return. Maybe have a sit down and explain with some examples for them so they can make an informed decision . My mum always spent the same on us and we knew that we always got/get the same amount cost wise yet we still had to sit through a 5 min speech every year until last year when my parents had split up (im 24!) as to how myself or my brother appeared to have more presents but thats only because we wanted x y or z and this cost more or we have more in actual cash, but still the same amount of money has been spent etc etc. Every single year me and my brother have literally just told her to shut up, it takes the pleasure out of opening our gifts with this speech! We already knew and know we get the same we wont need telling this every single year as we are opening our gifts!!! We are grateful for recieving any gifts at all.

If your children are still alittle young to understand fully or you dont feel comfortable then maybe spent a small amount (10-20) of their budget purchasing some present fillers. Cheap things that they would like which bulk their pile up!

Ultimately I would rather have 6 gifts I actually wanted than 9 I didnt .