Families growing at Christmas

Sea_Shell

Britannia12345 wrote: »

Definitely better start saving then. My mil has only ever bought me a small present - a scarf or suchlike and I was always happy with that.

Did your MiL lavish your OH with obviously more, or did you both only get token gifts?

Britannia12345

Some years he got something big, usually something smaller.

DD265

We don't exchange presents with my Dad any more (he moved abroad so it's awkward), but do with Mum. I'm married, and my sister has a long-term partner that she lives with, so both serious relationships. Neither of us have children.

I suspect, though I'm not certain, that Mum spends more on my sister and I than our partners. Maybe £30-50 each on us depending on her budget, and £20-30 on our partners. We all still buy for my paternal grand parents too, though this year it will be paying for their meal when we go out.

As a group we're trying to cut back a bit, so will be interesting to see how well we achieve it.

firebubble

In my family, we started off with token gifts until given 'the nod', but by the time everyone had a partner, proper presents for all became really expensive. Then we moved to secret santa and everyone has to buy one present to a set value, then after a few years of SS it moved to the game 'white elephant' where you trade low value gifts. Then thankfully there were grandchildren, and at that point everyone breathed a sigh of relief and agreed that we would only buy for the children and not the adults.

See it as a sign that Christmas routines are about to change! And as others have said, put what was the present budget towards the hospitality budget so you build a tradition of visits to you, rather than all swapping 'landfill in waiting'.

eamon

I think that over the last 25 Christmas holidays I've spent 22 with the same close friends. Every year I stress myself with present buying. Its ridiculous, we are adults with all our material needs met and more. I used to spend hours attempting to match gifts to personalities/interests. Then I defaulted to socks, bathroom stuff and later gift vouchers. Their respective flats are full to overflowing with stuff that they don't need/use/want etc and I just add to it, its crazy and needs to stop.
So this Christmas I'm determined to have the conversation "stop the present buying!" its insane. Don't get me wrong I'm delighted that they invite me and I travel a long way 500 miles round trip. I don't come empty handed as I supply a range of beers & wine.

Pollycat

eamon wrote: »

I think that over the last 25 Christmas holidays I've spent 22 with the same close friends. Every year I stress myself with present buying. Its ridiculous, we are adults with all our material needs met and more. I used to spend hours attempting to match gifts to personalities/interests. Then I defaulted to socks, bathroom stuff and later gift vouchers. Their respective flats are full to overflowing with stuff that they don't need/use/want etc and I just add to it, its crazy and needs to stop.
So this Christmas I'm determined to have the conversation "stop the present buying!" its insane. Don't get me wrong I'm delighted that they invite me and I travel a long way 500 miles round trip. I don't come empty handed as I supply a range of beers & wine.

I suggested this in post #5.
Better to have the conversation as early as possible to catch the early gift buyers.