Do you spend more on Birthdays or Christmas?

Lou67

DEFINATELY Christmas. And I only buy people a present for their birthday if it's a special one as I have too much family to keep up.. and remember all the dates, whereas Christmas is the same date for everyone. Christmas is the best time of the year for my family and I. As for birthdays; I only buy for our daughter and my hubby and my 2 best friends... (as I said there are too many to remember everyone - about 35 actually - and the rest of our family(s) agree..) But I buy something small for all the kids at Christmas (about 15 of them.)

I love Christmas so much and it's been a really happy time for us from one generation to the next and we have a wonderful time with our families. I LOVE popping cards through the 30 or so neighbours doors a fortnight before, and the decorations go up on the 1st of December, and I look forward immensely to dropping off all the gifts two or three days before. My favourite time of year by a country mile. :j

BECKIN1507

We spend more on Birthdays.

fawd1

mildred1978 wrote: »

I really don't understand why the fake birthday of a nutter from 2000+ years ago gets more recognition than a child's own individual birthday. :huh:

Somewhat inflammatory comment, no doubt intended to be. Religious/cultural aspects aside, perhaps its because people like to have a common celebration which everyone is part of. Most people who celebrate Christmas aren't really celebrating the birth of Christ nowadays anyway, they use it as a reason to give gifts and spend time with all the people they love (plus drink a lot :rotfl:)

onlyroz

About the same, although for birthdays we tend to get one big present, whereas for Christmas we will get more smaller ones.

Edit: I'm not religious and I like to view "Christmas" as a chance for the family to have a good knees-up and enjoy themselves. Traditionally the mid-winter festival was where we slaughtered all the animals that we couldn't afford to feed until spring, and then have a big feast to eat them all. Sounds like a good enough excuse for a party to me, and baby Jesus doesn't get a look-in in our household.

HeadAboveWater

Erinnire wrote: »

Personally I spend more on my girls birthdays than Christmas as that is their special day and something really worth celebrating.

Very good point! Never actually thought on it like that before...

Have agreed with family that we stop spending on birthdays coz there's too many of us. Just stick with the kids. Had also decided to only be buying mum and dad and the kids for christmas too for the same reasons.

So have cut out my own siblings to save money, but now have OHs DD1, 2 & 3 to buy for instead!! OH has said not to worry too much about them. Will get some wee things for them to open, but he usually just gives them money (teenagers!!)

Me and OH have agreed that for our birthdays and christmas we'll just book ourselves into a hotel somewhere for a night, no pressies. Suits me!!

Lou67

Originally Posted by mildred1978
I really don't understand why the fake birthday of a nutter from 2000+ years ago gets more recognition than a child's own individual birthday.

fawd1 wrote: »

Somewhat inflammatory comment, no doubt intended to be. Religious/cultural aspects aside, perhaps its because people like to have a common celebration which everyone is part of. Most people who celebrate Christmas aren't really celebrating the birth of Christ nowadays anyway, they use it as a reason to give gifts and spend time with all the people they love (plus drink a lot :rotfl:)

I agree.. what a horrible thing to say. Basically this is totally mocking peoples religious beliefs. Totally unacceptable IMO. You would definitely get into serious trouble if you were so offensive towards other cultures and religions (Islam for example,), so why do *some* people think it's OK to be so offensive and rude towards Christians/Christianity?

Fuzzy_Duck

I spend more on birthdays as I see birthdays as more important than Christmas. On someone's birthday I tend to buy one present, whilst at Christmas I like to give people several smaller pressies to open.

Having said that if I had kids I could easily see me getting carried away and spending more on Christmas.

podperson

paddedjohn wrote: »

Im with the Birthdays, xmas is for everyone but their Birthday is their own special day..........................ive got to say this because its mine today:D

Happy Birthday

In our family it was always more about Christmas then Birthdays, not too sure why as we were never particularly religious. I think it's perhaps something about having a joint celebration that everyone is included in that makes people go a little more overboard. Also for individual birthdays, especially for children, there'll normally be an 'experience' to pay for as well, whether a party, day out, special treat, etc so money's being spent that's not on the actual 'present'.

Nan63

Christmas vote here (but in all honesty probably not by much).

I love everything about Christmas, bah humbug to those who say they ignore it

However, I only buy for my immediate family and I do go a little crazy but I am in a Christmas Club at work so do save all year for it.

For close friends only (I can count them on one hand and still have spare...), I put together hampers from things I have picked up over the year so I don't notice the cost so much. This year it's a gardening theme (sshh, don't tell them!)

Only 84 days to go!! :j

*Louise*

I spend more on Christmas, birthdays are made special with nice gifts and a family party each but Christmas is the day when all five of us can share the excitement and magic