How much do you spend on your child's Christmas?

Kimberley82

onlyroz wrote: »

Well I personally wouldn't buy clothes for a child or teen as a present unless they'd specifically asked for something. Most children just wouldn't be interested, and most teens would presumably be mortified by whatever their uncool parents thought was fashionable.

I loved getting clothes as a teen, my parents knew me well enough to nearly always get it right, and if they didnt I could exchange them. My daughter who is 7 LOVES clothes, some of her favorate presents this year were clothes.

Lynn11

We DD got a bike plus other presents which I thought were reasonable for 3yr old but DD says that santa bought too much (quite a few parcels to open) so will need to think about this for next year. Very topical subject.

RoxieW

I think there's definitely a happy medium. Ive spent around £200 on each of my kids, but try didn't need a main present as they already have the consoles, bikes etc, but I think they're too young for laptops and phones. They mostly got games, Lego, DVDs, books, football boots and my oldest had a telescope. My two year old had the usual toys - nothing more that £20 really.
A relative of mine lives on a council house on benefits and has spent over £2000 on her kids, including their own laptops, bikes and phones to replace the ones that they have trashed or lost.
On the other hand a friend of mine buys nothing for her kids for Xmas as she thinks it's a waste of money and it really annoys me. Especially as she has no objections to other people spending money to clothe and entertain her children.
I personally think spend what you can afford as long as it's age appropriate to the children and doesn't get you into debt or is at anyone elses expense.

puddles

We spent £85 on our little boy who is 2 years and 8 months old. It was only that much because he's mad on Cars and I searched high and low for 4 cars that I couldn't find in the normal shops and websites (Wingo, Boost, Snot Rod and DJ - they'll ring a bell if you know the film!).

His main present was a £40 ride on jeep and the rest was books (Cars again) as apart from playing with cars that's his favourite thing. I have a good job and could afford to spend far more but he gets quite a bit from relatives and we don't want to spoil him. He's also remarkably unmaterialistic - all he asked Santa for was a Boost car, which when available in the shops cost £4!

I was always brought up to be grateful for anything I got and often got far less than friends, but never resented them or felt hard done by.

We'll spend lots on a trip to Disneyland which he adored last year, and will be money far better sent than on more toys, most of which haven't been since they were opened on Saturday, apart from those 4 cars I was telling you about earlier!

I hope we can continue like this, time will tell. As he gets older I'm sure things will change and I'll be on here on 5 years time telling of how we spent £xxx on the latest PS3XWii!