holiday budget

[PrincessFiona]

What is your holiday budget per child and how old are your children? I don't generally have a budget, I buy a certain number of gifts for each child. Each of my children gets a gift from us as parents, a gift from Santa, and a gift from each of their siblings.

[Vanquisher]

I don't have a budget, really. I go based off of whichever kid gets the most expensive stuff and try to make it equitable.

[ladymoreta]

We did it by number of gifts, too. DS's ended up being much more than DD's, but that's mainly because I got her big present for free (Toys R Us rewards), and he needed a bedding set.

[Thirteen]

holiday budget

About $350 total on all 3 of us, then $25 on three additional people, and $$ for our Angel Tree project.

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[GrayMatterWife]

We have the tongue-in-cheek "If It's Good Enough For Jesus, It's Good Enough for You" Rule.

Each child gets three gifts (and no wiseacres can get gold, frankincense or myrrh…) (from Mom and Dad, anyhow. The grandparents and aunts/uncles also send gifts. There are more gifts than any child could know what to do with!)

They get little stocking stuffers (books, crayons, smaller toys, notepads, etc.), but three "big" under the tree gifts. I probably don't spend that much by comparison to a lot of the kids' friends. DS got an $65 Lego set, but that is BIG money compared to the other under the tree gifts.

Honestly, I have never seen any correlation (at least, at their current ages) for the kids between the amount I spend and how much they enjoy the item. Half the time, the biggest hits are the trinkets from the $1 bin.

We spent quite a bit of money (at least to me!) on swim lessons, robotics class, Lego League, Irish dance, etc. We belong to several children-oriented museums, and we eat out at a restaurant every Sunday after mass. We fly the kids to visit relatives during the year and pay for fancy camps all summer long. We spend a LOAD on our kids already! I am just not big on monster Christmas gifts.

Plus, we celebrate the entire Christmastide season, between the Feast of the Lord's Nativity (Christmas Day) through Epiphany (January 6)--the period commonly called the Twelve Days of Christmas. Each morning, I give them a small little gift (a book, some candy, something like that).

[PrincessFiona]

This is interesting to me because I have a friend who has a set budget per child. If her kids need anything as the holiday approaches, she deducts the amount from their xmas gift allotment.

[Pollyanna]

We don't have a set budget either. We do spend a lot though but the majority of the gifts are necessities (shoes, clothes, etc) since we don't really buy those throughout the year. The fun items (PS4) are pricey but those really become family gifts. The littles are much less expensive than the bigger kids. A ten dollar outfit for a 19 year old is just not realistic. I know people who have a set amount per child but it can be weird if one kid gets one present and the others get a bunch.

[Pollyanna]

Plus, we celebrate the entire Christmastide season, between the Feast of the Lord's Nativity (Christmas Day) through Epiphany (January 6)--the period commonly called the Twelve Days of Christmas. Each morning, I give them a small little gift (a book, some candy, something like that).

Love! I've always wanted to do this but have never been on the ball to make it happen.

[SuzySunshine]

We also don't set a budget, we tend to buy them the same number of presents - I suspect as they get older we will take more care to make sure we spend the same, right now they don't notice.

[Michele]

They get a gift from Santa (so far it has been family oriented....a train set one year, plasma cars last year, razor scooters this year) and one from me. This year they also got two family games (kid laser tag and an I-Spy game). Their dad gets them his own presents. I try to limit most gifts to under $20. But mine are still young and I can get away with that. I buy them things (clothes, toys, Disney on Ice shows, etc) and we go out to eat at least once a week. I don't make a big deal out of letters to Santa or being good for Christmas or gifts in general... even birthdays. I'm more about the experience of the day, cooking their favorite meal, family time and such.

[mommax3]

We try to spend about the same on each boy, but the number of presents each child gets for that amount can vary.

[ides]

Lol. We've only got one kid so there's no competition.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

We try to spend about the same on each boy, but the number of presents each child gets for that amount can vary.

My mom would spend EXACTLY the same amount on each kid (just my bro and I). To the point where one person would get a couple asinine gifts to account for the difference. Some years it was easy - extra spools of thread for sewing machine, etc. Some years, not so much (like 1 pair of underwear from a package of 3).

[spotty_dog]

It's very rough but I'd say we try to keep it to a dollar amount, in the sense of "Do we need another present for this child? He already has 3-4 things in the $20-30 range, and $125ish seems right, so probably the answer is NO."

I think DS will end up with a bit more than DD in both quantity and dollar amount. I am not so big on "fairness". It all comes out in the wash.

[Ladybug]

Holy. Shit. I finished today.