How much to spend on child at xmas

Calhoun

Then again its a double edged sword, you have to find the balance between spoiling them and giving them a good time. You don't want to put yourself in hot water financially but if our parents were good enough to us to ensure we had a nice Christmas i personally feel its important i do the same with my own kids.

clairefontaine

Calhoun wrote: »

Then again its a double edged sword, you have to find the balance between spoiling them and giving them a good time. You don't want to put yourself in hot water financially but if our parents were good enough to us to ensure we had a nice Christmas i personally feel its important i do the same with my own kids.

Yep.

The way I look at is you have one shot at childhood. Do your best, whatever that best may be.

Mrs Fox

We spent €50 on 1 present plus 1 for the stockings for our going-3;
€40 on the same for our going-2.
There was an uproar by certain people on the lack amount of presents we've decided to give our kids. I'm not joking. They were actually disgusted and said that we've just ruined Christmas even before it had begun.
Are these people for real? They're only 3 & 2, for goodness sake. And they actually had a wonderful Christmas as far as I'm concerned -- the little things like putting out cookies and milk and carrot the night before, seeing there were actually presents under the tree the next morning where there weren't any the night before they went to bed, going for our Christmas morning walk in the park, visiting relatives and having people over for dinner.
They still got mountains of presents from grandparents and relatives. How was ONE present each from us wasn't enough, I just can't understand.
I'm aware that when they start school other kids will be comparing how many presents they got, and perhaps that's when they will start to wonder if Santa should be more generous, but until then, we're sticking to our guns that they will only get ONE good present each from Santa.

Moonbeam

I would not worry my just gone 1 year old didn't even get a birthday present this week:)the just gone 5 year old did of course but she was fully aware of it and he is not.
I don't believe in buying stuff for the sake of it,with the nearly 3 year old and just gone 5 year old they knew what they wanted and then it was down to me to get those things as I best saw fit.
A tool set for the little girl and dress up dresses for the big girl.
I got the most amazing tool bench for one and the 2 most amazing dress up dresses for the big girl,special ones not like all the cheap ones she already has:)

iguana

When I sit down and add it up I spent a lot more than I'd have thought sensible for a 13 month old who hasn't a clue what's going on. But I always buy things when I see a serious bargain even if it's not quite age appropriate just yet. So since May I have been building a stash of stuff that he would get for Xmas as he would have been too young for them before that and along with that there were two particular types of puzzles that I suspected he'd be just about ready for by xmas, so I got two sets of those. I spent about €110-120 altogether and his gifts ranged from a LeapPad to big thick chalks and block crayons.

lashofeye

As nice and all as it is to be able to spend 500 on yer kids it's not going to make them better people.!!! I believe that less is more and like the op earlier he got tones but didn't need them all. Too much is a waset of money and the children prob dont't appreciate it all.
We don't spend buy or son a lot of toys during the year . He gets birthday toy and or a day out and Santa presents. He has 9 aunties and uncles and both sets of grandparents plus our friends get him some thing small. Or we ask for charity donations in his name. It's not all about how much you get or spend either. Its presence not presents!!!!!!!!