Xmas spending

[technodup]

Now it's all over I'm looking to get a sanity check on what others spend, specifically on their kids presents. I'm totting up my Mrs' spend on her only child and it's frightening. Obviously everyone's circumstances will be different, but what would be considered a normal or reasonable amount for a non PBCD to spend on a child (16yo) these days?

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

My Children are a similar age, I gave them £250 each. I believe my mother also gave them £150 each and they got presents from their mother, no idea how much they were but I am guessing in a similar ball park.

[Ussrcossack]

15 Year old son

about £100 worth of presents from me. Contributed £350 ( one off occasion) on an iphone.

The £100 worth of presents would be the norm.

However last year 4 holidays away, 3 abroad one at home. Large contribution to a merida mountain bike and stays overnight when doing competitions. So its not all about Christmas in my opinion

[Downward]

Depends if they need a so called big present ie laptop, tablet, phone and how much you spend through the year and how much pocket money you give them.

[fat80b]

There's never going to be a one size answer to this. A few years ago I made a policy decision that clothes and phones are not a Christmas present - I may live to regret that one.....

In our case, one got a Nintendo Switch 2 + some other smaller stuff, and the other got tickets to a concert plus makeup plus other stuff.

[carguy45]

We have one child (son, 12) and it ranges from £400-£600. Which probably seems a lot to some but he's a good kid, well mannered and works hard at school, and he has no brothers or sisters - so any money we spend on this stuff goes only on him and we don't begrudge it. Sometimes he'll get one big present (e.g. PS5 last year), other times it's a few smaller things like clothing and earphones and so on.

He gets to a few footy games but other than that, we don't really buy him anything else throughout the year that doesn't fall under normal child costs - clothing and odd trip to cinema etc.

[technodup]

I thought as much, in my day we tended to get one 'big' present and a handful of smaller less expensive things. My Mrs goes mad and literally covers a three person couch with stuff for her kid, clothes, makeup, electronics (Ninja ice cream maker this time), whatever is on her list she gets and total spend is about £3k. Which when you add in another grand or so for stuff for other people is every penny she earned in December, probably plus a bit more.

I'm trying to get across to her how utterly mental that is but I'm failing miserably.

I get the thing about the rest of the year too, but it's a constant flow of cash going one way, every day, week and month of the year. And with little gratitude or understanding of the sacrifice either. And although it's an only child/single parent situation there's an entire family doing the same, including her dad and several sets of grand/great grandparents. They could literally have bought her a flat, but in the end she's going to have a wardrobe full of last years fashion and a room full of Chinesium landfill.

Next year she's 17 so guess what's on the agenda..? Audi A1 my arse

[Sheets Tabuer]

11 year old got an apple watch purely because they are not allowed phones at school so she'd never get my reminders to go to her tutor after school, £300 worth of clothes, now I normally don't buy clothes as presents because I think it's my responsibility to clothe her but she has everything you could possibly buy an 11 year old.

Then a £100 shopping voucher and another for boots for smellies/scents.

So around £700 from me then a few hundred from relatives.

[seabod91]

About £800 each x 3.

I’m not well off, 35k yearly and wife sub 12k. But being able to spoil them at Christmas is amazing. My wife is brilliant and she starts Christmas shopping on Boxing Day and throughout the year for good deals. Considerably less on birthdays. It’s our favourite time of year.

[lizardbrain]

It's one of those trick questions I think.

the reverse brag is to say you only spent ten pounds on your kids at xmas because the underlying message here is that you generally spend a lot more every other month of the year.

Edited by lizardbrain on Tuesday 6th January 20:34

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

technodup said:

I thought as much, in my day we tended to get one 'big' present and a handful of smaller less expensive things. My Mrs goes mad and literally covers a three person couch with stuff for her kid, clothes, makeup, electronics (Ninja ice cream maker this time), whatever is on her list she gets and total spend is about £3k. Which when you add in another grand or so for stuff for other people is every penny she earned in December, probably plus a bit more.

I'm trying to get across to her how utterly mental that is but I'm failing miserably.

Sounds exactly like my ex wifes family. All of them on benefits, yet when it comes to Christmas day half the floor in the front room is covered in presents. It's all complete rubbish and will be in the landfill a month or two later. I actually think it is trying to over compensate for something that they clearly feel is missing.

My ex wife is similar, she will send me massive lists of presents that apparently my daughters want and will try and co ordinate who will buy what for them. Again, it is is mostly crap, lots of junk from Pandora that will be instantly forgotten about. Again I think it is over compensating because she believes Christmas is about opening as many presents as possible on Christmas day, maybe in her mind this is how you prove you love someone?

The first year my ex wife was working after graduating she got herself into massive financial difficulties because she spent a load of money she didn't have buying her whole family loads of presents. Guess who got to sort out that one........

I just ignore it year after year and give them boring old money.

[skyebear]

Our seven year daughter got £150 across several presents, main two of which were Lego sets. Plus £100 in cash.

She was uninterested in the Lego (Wicked) despite having loved the same stuff all year so we packed it away to give at her birthday in the summer.

[Greenmantle]

technodup said:

My Mrs goes mad and literally covers a three person couch with stuff for her kid

Yep seen this many times. Very common in Scotland or should I say Glasgow and suburbs.
Seen a sofa full of several pages from the Argos Xmas Catalogue.

[Jonathan27]

Probably about £100 - £150 per child (we have three). I really don't see any need to spend more than that. They get what they need when they need it throughout the year and they get plenty of decent holidays; 2025 included; New York, Tokyo, Switzerland, Italy and Paris.

We could spend way more, but I suspect it would either have no difference in terms of how happy it makes them, or possibly even worse, it could lead to them becoming spoilt, and I've worked very hard to avoid that.

[languagetimothy]

ok.. now..lets think..there was that and them... and that of course not forgetting thingy and that lot.. oh yeah and yeah so n so.... alll together then, id say:

£ zero..

yep. looks about right. im getting good at this after many years of practice.

[markymarkthree]

Since Covid, Mrs Marky and me spend £500 on Christmas.
That’s food, tree, presents for each other, 2 sons, 1 daughter, 3 grandchildren. No one knows what they are getting and if they suggest anything they don’t get it. No socks, pants, PJs as they are all bks gifts.
Our kids love this, as they love the surprise.

[gotoPzero]

No kids so thats £0
Nieces and nephews £40-50 each, of which we have quite a few.
Wife, depends but usually around £100.
Parents both sides £20 ish.

So about £400 total. It adds up quickly.

[technodup]

Jonathan27 said:

We could spend way more, but I suspect it would either have no difference in terms of how happy it makes them, or possibly even worse, it could lead to them becoming spoilt, and I've worked very hard to avoid that.

That horse has bolted for her. Spend less and the face would be tripping her.

Also did four holidays last year with Mum and/or other family, and was genuinely pissed off when I said no to New York for Xmas.

[geeks]

gotoPzero said:

No kids so thats £0
Nieces and nephews £40-50 each, of which we have quite a few.
Wife, depends but usually around £100.
Parents both sides £20 ish.

So about £400 total. It adds up quickly.

Very similar here except I spend a little more on Mrs geeks as she puts up with alot of my bullst

[POIDH]

"kids" - now in early 20's but have always been £50-£100 total including a main present and stocking/fun bits.

OH and I aim for £100 each but go over a little too regularly...

Nieces and nephews get £10-£15.

Wider family on both sides do secret santa, maximum a single £50 cost.

Food budget for 4 or 5 of us is around £100 over usual shop.

I've just splurged £50 on a less than half price plastic tree to save us buying a new tree each year, and each year OH spends about £20 on new decorations.