How much do you spend on your kids for b-days and Christmas

[christielee7278]

I forgot birthdays!

 

Now I'm odd because I don't feel too inclined to go all out at Christmas but EASTER - I love Easter! I could easy go nuts at Easter. At least twice in the past I spent way more than Christmas and birthday combined for Easter. My dh still makes fun of me for creating Easter baskets full of toys and books that our then 5 year old oldest could stand in. Oddly enough it was the last year dh let me shop for Easter without him. ;). lol

 

I went way over the usual Easter this year, and spent more than I do for birthdays. Dh had received a bonus from work and split it with me. I really wanted to splurge on the boys.....and Easter was around the corner! :lol: It was a good fun excuse anyway.

[Melissa in Australia]

$0 we don't do either.

[danybug]

Gosh! I kind of feel ridiculous posting mine after reading all of the others. But...for my ds' birthday in two weeks I just spent $300 and got him the whole Playmobil Egyptian set.

 

And for Christmas I would say about $400-500 for my ds and less for our dd since she is so young. We don't really have set amounts, it is kind of just what it ends up.

 

We make sure all of the gifts are thought out and not just more junk and toy clutter. But I guess it is still overboard compared to what I am seeing on here.

[Catwoman]

That Playmobil Egyptian set looks very cool, and I think it's great that you bought the whole set at once. I'm sure he will love it! My favorite pieces are the pyramid, the sphinx, and the ship!

 

Cat

Edited October 11, 2009 by Catwoman

[jujsky]

I don't have a set amount, but the ball-park amount I try to budget is $320/child. I only have 2 kids, and DH has a good job -- that's the only reason we are able to do this. I also don't buy them any toys during the year except for b-days, our winter holiday madness, and Easter, so this is it for them. Their one big gift each is usually in the $100 range, and I try to make the average price of the other 11 gifts no more than $20.00. I usually do pretty well, and in fact often come out under-budget. I do wait for sales and look for bargains. I buy things on e-bay sometimes. I also buy throughout the year and store things away so we don't take as big of a financial hit in November/December. One of DD's gifts is a $4.00 potholder kit I got at Christmas Tree Shop. I got her a bunch of hard-to-find Calico Critter stuff off e-bay during the spring for about $60, but those come out to 5 presents for her plus a stocking stuffer, so the price/present is very reasonable. That counter-balances the insane prices at the American Girl store where I bought her a doll (her big gift), a book set, an additional outfit, and an accessory set. Most of DS's Lego sets were $15 or so, and his non-Lego presents were under $10.00, so I was able to splurge and get him a $40.00 Lego kit with the money I saved on the rest of his gifts. By doing some careful shopping-around online, I was able to save almost $30.00 on his big gift, so instead of $109.00 + shipping, I paid $81.00 with the shipping included.

 

One thing that has really helped with planning and buying ahead is keeping a wish list. I do mine on Amazon. They now have a feature on the Amazon Wish List that allows you add things from other suppliers. I have a little "Add to Wish List" button on my browser. I started the list a couple months before DS's b-day, and my family has found it very helpful. Since I check/add to the list often, I am pretty aware of prices. If I see something on a major sale somewhere, I'll pick it up and store it for the holidays.

 

For b-days, the kids either get a big party with friends and a gift in the $30-$50 range, or a small family party and a $200 shopping spree. I go all-out for kids' parties (I never had one as a kid, so I over-compensate for it by throwing my kids huge parties and living vicariously through them. Hey, at least I'll come right out and admit it ;)), so when they choose the shopping spree option, they actually save me a little bit of $$$$.

[tdeveson]

We usually spend about $50 for birthdays and then for Christmas it breaks down something like this...

 

$40 - big gift

$15-$20 - books

up to $10 on stocking stuffers

 

 

 

This sounds about right except each year we also buy one expensive item for the whole family. One year it was a Bose iPod dock. Amazing. Last year we got a Wii console with several games. We don't emphasize gift-giving at Christmas as much as just enjoying the season. We do lots of crafts and fun activities. We bake and cook gifts, etc. We have friends over a lot during the holiday season.

 

Also, big sister (27 and independent) brings her little brother gifts - maybe $25 worth, and my sister always gets him way too much, but she can't enjoy Christmas if she doesn't buy scrumptious things for her niece and nephew. I can live just fine giving and receiving very small meaningful gifts.

 

We do buy toys, games, books and music throughout the year, so even if Christmas doesn't bring a giant mountain of gifts he still has plenty of stuff to play with. Also, every three months or so I rotate his games and toys (and also do some culling). I've found that we can get away with fewer items if every three months or so they're considered new again. Before I started doing that, he was bored of everything and no amount of games and toys were enough. Since I started rotating them, it's Christmas every three months. He oohs and aahs over this thing that he hasn't seen in ages, or that other thing. Works for us.

Edited October 11, 2009 by tdeveson

[peachskittles]

For birthdays, I try to stay around $50-$100...Sometimes it might be less, other times more but that's a rough guesstimate...

 

For Christmas, it has varied from year to year to be honest...Some years were very tight and I had $20 to spend while another year I went all out...I do try to make the most of sales though...Last year was extremely tight on unemployment but my lil one got a lot of stuff for like $40 because of Amazon clearance...

 

I always make sure that the replay value is there for toys though...My oldest has Weebles and Pop Onz that his lil brother will get and then when he's done with them my littlest one will get them...I have very little that can't be handed down...Also, I don't buy toys usually throughout the year...Whatever toys they get at Christmas/Easter/birthdays is all they get for the year...I don't have the issue with family giving us gifts either which keeps the toy clutter down...

[Julie in CA]

$20-$40 each for birthday.

Around $100 each for Christmas, including stocking-stuffers.

There is one glaring exception to the $100 Christmas, and that is that as the kids get older and are trying to patch together an old beater car to get them around, we will buy an expensive part they need for their car, instead of a regular Christmas gift. Sometimes it's tires, or shocks, new battery, whatever. When you buy a $1000 car, you need all of the help you can get, just to keep it going! :001_smile:

[EarleneW]

Way too much!

Usually around $50-$100 on birthdays and probably $300-$500 or so each at Christmas. More for the older then the younger 2. It's only us and my husbands parents and I LOVE giving gifts, so we do go all out.

[TravelingChris]

For my girls who are under 18, we normally spend about 100 per birthday and 150 per Christmas. But it gets complicated some years. Like last year, my youngest had her trumpet paid off. That was her big CHristmas and Birthday present but she also got come clothes, and a few pieces of jewelry. None of the kids except her received much last year since we bought a large screen tv, high def dvd player, and wii. WE got games that all of them would enjoy and they do. For my son who is an adult, we normally get him a few cds and maybe a book for his birthday and the same plus some clothes for Christmas. He gets less but then he is an adult for whom we are paying for college, room, board, transportation, and books. We think that is a good deal for him.

[IsabelC]

We spend very little. Christmas is not a big deal for us, so the kids just get a book, every year. Plus they get to donate up to $50 for a charity item of their choice (we use one of the online charity gift catalogues like TEAR or Oxfam).

 

Birthdays, they get 3-5 presents, but these are generally educational type items that we would have bought for them anyway.

 

They also get gifts for each of the 8 pagan festival days. Summer solstice is a biggish present, Winter solstice is always games, the others are little presents that aren't necessarily educational.

[amydavis]

I don't really have a set amount when it comes to birthdays. It really just depends on the age of the child, what they want that year, our budget, and what kind of great deals I can find. But, I am going to guess that it ranges from $100-$200 per child, not counting the actual party itself.

 

As for Christmas, well...:blush: I seem to be in the minority. I'm honestly not sure of the dollar amount, because I pick up some things through the year, that I don't end up tracking so well in the final dollar count. But, I am going to guess that it ends up being in the $350-$500 range per child. We usually wrap three gifts to the kids and place them under the tree. The kids also buy for each other (small gifts). We open everything on Christmas morning. However, the bulk of what they receive is brought by Santa. These gifts are in the room, around the tree on Christmas morning. Santa doesn't wrap; he beautifully arranges items, lol. I usually start with a list, and then tweak it. I do not worry about trying to match dollar-for-dollar. However, I do make sure that the number of gifts under the tree is equal, and Santa always brings equal amounts for the kids, too. The big gifts can be big in price or big in size, sometimes both. For example, my 5 year old will probably get a bike this year, big, but not expensive. My 13 year old will get Beatles RockBand. This will be big in size and cost. But last year it was the iPod for her, which was little but still expensive. Oh, and of course they get a stocking filled by Santa as well. This is usually a combo of some candy, maybe a dvd, small toys (little pony, etc), and little items picked up from the $1 section of Target, etc. Our budget is tighter this year, but I always go shopping the day after Thanksgiving for some great deals, watch the clearance shelves at Target, etc.

 

I love this thread!

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

We do Christmas and Hanukkah, so it can add up fairly quickly. Usually, Hanukkah is 8 small things each, like chocolate coins, a sticker book, some new markers, etc.

 

Starting last year, we took them to Toys R Us, and let them pick out 2 things they wanted to ask Santa for, and 2 things they wanted for Hanukkah from mom and dad. They actually picked out relatively cheap toys, so Santa brought them a few extra that they didn't ask for. Their stockings are filled with little toys, some candy and clementines. I think that between both holidays, we probably spent about $150 for each kid.

 

We don't really budget it out, just based on what we have that year and what they want.

[angela in ohio]

We spend $0 for birthdays and about $30 each for Christmas. Other people buy them way too much as it is. We donate money at the holidays as a family instead of buying a lot of gifts, so dc know why they don't get much from us.