How Much Are You Spending on Your Kids This Xmas?

I only have one child (so I guess I tend to spoil her LOL). So far I've spent about $200 on her, and most likely I will pick up a few more things before Christmas. After the extra's and her stocking stuffers...I bet I spend close to $300 on her. I think it's more about "what can you afford", not what is the "right" amount to spend. Happy Holidays!

I have 3 boys and I honestly have no idea how much I spent on Christmas this year. I start buying early and if I know they want something and it is on sale I will pick it up and stash it away for Christmas. I did just spend $400 on snowshoes for myself, my 3 boys and my mom. I don't really look at that amount as a waste of money on toys that they will forget about in a week, I look at it as spending $400 on something that I can do with my family that gets us outside and together. The snowshoes were all on sale and I did buy a good quality brand that will last and not break down after one season. I will spend a little more money on gifts if I know they are a good quality/brand that will last and I will be able to hand them down to a younger kid. I still have the original GoeTracks set from my oldest (10) that has been handed down to my 3rd (4) and we just keep adding on to it. I will also buy gifts that my boys can all play together. My youngest is getting some more of the Trio Blocks and that is something all 3 of my boys will play together.

Probably somewhere between $100 to $150. I have one DD who is 4.5 My hubby and I never exchange with each other, we just buy for her.

Game stop is having a special through today I think, online. Buy 2 used games, get one free. Also, Wal-Mart usually has the 2 for $30 bundle online for their video games. I have spent $800 for our entire family, many family gifts included in that, and some big ticket items. Oh, and my daughter's birthday gift is in that, as her birthday is coming up. Also got all the stocking stuffers, and stuff for myself and my husband. With 4 kids, and the big ticket items, I think I did pretty good considering all that I did get. We really do try our best to keep the true meaning of Christmas, and our kids will tell you they know and feel the true meaning for sure. Individually, the kids won't have too much to open, but as a family, we will get some great stuff that we are sure to enjoy for many, many years to come.

We've spent about $25 on my 18 month old. We are making his gifts and that was for the supplies. As he gets older, our goal is to buy him one new gift and make the rest.

We will also give him opportunities to earn his own money throughout the year, so that he can buy whatever he chooses with his earnings.

well my kids are 7 and almost 4 the 4 year old is still easy to buy for but my son of course wants ds games and as you know can add up. My total this year was $200 each kid that includes stocking stuffers and I'm doing a little secret pal the week leading up to Christmas plus we had a gift card for something that helped out a lot. I start saving in January so that I'll have enough money plus my daughters birthday is 3 days after and I spent $100 for that.Good luck and remember it's not about the money spent or the gifts just make it special and about the real meaning!

probably 80 to 100 on my 2 year old, and 150 to 200 on my 7 year old

I have a 14 year old boy. I am buying him a PS3 game then giving him a pre-paid Visa that he can use as he pleases on I-tunes, map packs, whatever. I'll throw in a Monopoly game as he collects them, and a Christmas stocking filled with goofy Dollar Store stuff. So I figure $200 for the whole deal. BUT, he is an only, and I don't really buy for anyone else - just small things ($20 or less) for my Aunt and sister. Small family = smaller holiday bills. :)
Merry Christmas.

Haven't sat down yet to figure out the final total but my two oldest have 'big' gifts that are around $100.00 each. Then they will have 'smaller' gifts so probably the total for each child will be about $300.00.

For the 15 month old, I am a stay at home mom, so I need her to have more toys. I will probably spend around the same on her but it will seem like she 'got' more because you can buy more for less for her age level.

Though we sound as if we are all about the consumer part of Christmas, Christmas is a religious holiday for us. My children are well aware of 'why' Christmas is celebrated and we bring the religious side of Christmas continuously throughout the season by having an Advent Wreath, donating to the less fortunate, and participating in our Church's schedule.

Merry Christmas!

I think I spent about $50 so far and plan on spending maybe $15 more. my child is only 15 mnths and will be getting plenty other gifts from others in my family, we don't want to spoil him lol

We have a budget of $100 per kid and try to cut down from that each year. Ultimately after it is all said and done, I typically spend around $125 on the two older ones and around $80 on the 2 year old. Not trying to be unfair, it just turns out that her desires at 2 are much less money than the older boys wanting electronics and such. Needless to say, every year they are inundated with TOO MUCH. I always get frustrated that I did that to them, they forget the whole reason we are celebrating. Argh!

$200 seems a bit much to me, I would just pick one big item (around $50 to $75) then do a few small items after that (around $5 to $15) and hit the Dollar Store for stocking stuffers crud. Ultimately your son will end up with anywhere from 4 to 6 gifts plus stocking stuff. Then when you figure in gifts from family which will probably work out to be another 4 to 6 gifts - GOOD GRIEF - that is up to 12 gifts in less than 24 hours!

I think he will be more than satisfied with that amount of stuff, not to mention the fact that he will not be bored.

Good luck and have a wonderful holiday!

We are spending $100 dollars on each of my sons. I have two. That's it. That's all the money we have put aside for Christmas. My husband and I are not buying each other anything. It makes me really sad that we wont be able to buy them everything they want. I am 34 weeks prego too, so I have found myself pretty upset about this.
We do the best we can. We let them know that we love them. We spend time with the family. We have a great family dinner and we start saving for next year!
L.

I guess I am super cheap! I gave myself a 50.00 budget for my 4 year old. I ended up spending 24.99 plus 17.50 shipping and handling for a huge dollhouse online. But I did get it on Black Friday and it usually sells for 149.00-199.00. So I am happy to say that I was able to spend only 42.50 on Christmas this year:) If I had not found a deal like that online I would have kept searching craigslist or thrift stores for one since I only had a 50.00 budget to work with in the first place. I plan on spending the remaining 7.50 on stickers and beads.

$200 was our budget for each of us last year and will be again this year.

We only have one child, a 4 year old. I usually spend around $300 but that only bought about 4 gifts so I will do stocking stuffers. You are right, if you get big items the money goes fast.

My kids are still young-3 and 6. We spend around $75-80 for gifts plus a little more for stocking stuffers. I know when they are older their gifts will cost much more and they don't need for us to get them too much considering they have grandparents who love to overindulge them whenever they can.

We spend about 150 a child and even with the big at-ats that the boys wanted they still are ending up with about 6 things each under the tree which I feel is more then enough especially considering my oldest has his bday on the 14 plus they get christmas gifts from other family members too.

Well we don't celebrate Christmas, but we give family day gifts once a year, & we spend $10 for the younger kids, $20 max for our older kids. They usually get 1 "big" or 2 smaller presents for the same price. Our main gift is to spend time together, usually a family trip to somewhere, & each child gets one on one time with mom & Dad separately. I honestly think they look forward to the one on one time more then any material positions they receive. I think kids are overly spoiled today, I watch my bro/sil & they buy like 10 gifts each for their kids & spend sometimes $1500 + on gifts all together & they take all year trying to make up for it. The kids get tired of their gifts after a week or month often times & talk about the new this or that already.. Not saying every kid who gets lots or expensive gifts is like that, but I don't think it teaches them to appreciate things as much. I went & visited my best friend in Africa a few years ago, & my kids do volunteer work once a week with us. So we've seen/see how little other people have, they worry about feeding their children & providing heat in the car they sleep in at night, they don't get to worry about how much they want to spend on gifts, so I think this has changed our outlook majorly.

Our problem this year was/is how much to spend because her birthday is in February, but we are lucky because she's under 2 right now. For Christmas we decided on 100 dollars and under. We got her big gift for $39.00 on black friday (which I never want to do again, lol), and then just a few little things. I will probably get away with spending 60 bucks if I watch my spending (this includes her stockting).
For her birthday we are going to hit the sales after Christmas, which is what we did last year and got a ton for under 50 bucks.

Hi! I spend about $75-$100 on my son. I do a lot of online shopping and comparing. I also go to places like Tuesday Morning (great prices!), even though it's a different maker, I have a cousin who loves Madame Alexander dolls. Those can be found at TM and Avon sells them as well. Have you tried Ebay? That's a great source (check a seller's ratings first) or Amazon. Also for the American Girl clothes, how does your SD feel about making clothes herself? Michael's or Joann's will often have clothes for dolls and bears and you could get a few with some accessories and etc so she can make them her own...could be a fun project for the both of you.

For my 2 and 1/2 year old son, we spent about $150-$200. Most of that was for a play kitchen set. I have been shopping since June buying things on sale/clearance, so to others it will look like he is getting a lot. But in reality it is the playset and some other small things. For my 4 month old we spent about $40 dollars and that is just on small things for his stocking.

I spend $150 per kid but mine are young so you can still get stuff cheaper. I also look for items I know I want to get them on Ebay and Craigslist. Sometimes you can find good deals there!

How old is your daughter? My kids are young so I can get away with spending less (they are not at the age where they ask for computer games etc) , so I would say that they probably get around $100-$120 each. I have 3 of them so cannot afford to spend too much each.

Have you tried ebay for AG stuff and the DS games? Your child will not know that it's not brand new , that way your money goes further.

we've spent about 50, but we're going to split the presents between her birthday and christmas, we just havent decided what is for what yet, except 1, she specifically asked Santa for. And we'll probably spend another 10ish on stocking stuffers.

Our budget was $100 each, but, again, we'll go a little over to about $120-130. I wish we didn't spend so much, but I honestly love getting them stuff that they'll love, not to mention that we celebrate christmas and hanukah, so we need stuff for the 8 days of hanukah plus stuff for under the tree. It does help that they have lots of aunts and uncles that get them stuff too.

My kids are little, and we started early so we could spread out what we bought them. I think it has (or is) adding up to around $60 total (2 boys, ages 2 and 4), which is more than I wanted to spend, but we started over the summer. We found them some cartoon DVDs sets they like (we don't watch television, so we get the cartoon box sets) and I found them sooooo much cheaper new on ebay. I think that a lot of people spend according to what the year allows. My husband loves gift giving and receiving so it is harder for me to stick to a tighter budget, which is again why we started early. My older boy is actually turning 4 in December, so we had his birthday to factor in to the month.