Average amount of presents you get your child for christmas

[mom2t]

During the year, I buy things I know my ds will need or like. Santa brings new socks, underwear, gloves, movie, book, M&Ms for his stocking. I buy clothes at the end of the season for the next year. I set a budget for the things he asks for which I split between Santa and us. I do not buy everything he asks for. We set a limit and a cut-off date because Santa has to plan what he needs for his sleigh. Can't add or delete at that point.

 

[wgeo]

We don't do Santa here, so it's just one set of gifts. We set a dollar amount and go from there. I will wrap gifts together (or break something apart) in order to make sure they have the same number to unwrap. We're usually around $100 - $125 per kid.

 

[taymaesmom]

We do about 15-20 gifts each. I "big" gift and the rest smaller. Usually 3-4 from mom and dad and the rest from santa. This year neither girl believes in santa, its honestly a relief that I don't have to hide everything. This year both girls asked for makeup kits, hair stuff, nail stuff. So they will get alot of presents but we wont be spending alot. Older dd is getting an ipod touch but the younger is getting to bring a friend to disney so that is her big gift.

 

[bellebud]

We do about 15-20 gifts each. I "big" gift and the rest smaller. Usually 3-4 from mom and dad and the rest from santa. This year neither girl believes in santa, its honestly a relief that I don't have to hide everything. This year both girls asked for makeup kits, hair stuff, nail stuff. So they will get alot of presents but we wont be spending alot. Older dd is getting an ipod touch but the younger is getting to bring a friend to disney so that is her big gift.

It's so bitter-sweet, isn't it? It's a little sad when they find out, but it's SUCH a relief!!! I loved the first year on Christmas Eve I could just say "don't go in the livingroom, I'm putting presents under the tree", and I could go to bed at a reasonable time, not wait for them to fall asleep.

I've never done a set amount of gifts or $. I just do whatever seems reasonable that particular year. One year when they were little, I bought so much, dh and I ended up opening the last of the gifts because the kids were so tired and bored of it. Then the next year, I scaled back... too much! The kids were like "that's it???" LOL! I felt so bad!

 

[4HppyCamprs]

My boys are 19 and 14. I set a budget and spend that amount. When they were younger, The budget amounted to tons of gifts the tree, as they got older and more expensive tastes, the gift piles got smaller.
This year, the 19 year old is getting a trip to WDW with my nephew, so all that will be wrapped under the tree is park hoppers, plane tickets and maybe some trip essentials (travel toiletries and such)
Here, all gifts under the tree are from Santa. Mom and dad provide essentials and gifts all year long, Christmas is about selfless giving, therefore no one gets credit for gifts. My kids still believe in the magic of Christmas and say they believe in santa and so it is fun to open presents from them marked "love, Santa"

Yes it is about giving your correct but my husband and their father works hard to afford those gifts and while I would never spoil the magic for as long as they believe there is only so much that Santa will get credit for. Reality is that when they say thank you it will be to their father and I. You have different values and that is okay. I wasn't sure untilast year where I was on this issue for our family. But when my husband works so hard to provide for us then yes I want most of the credit to go to him. Yes credit and yes my children will learn to be thankful for what they receive. You were very snarky in your reply but the intent was there. We also give anonymously to angel tree kids and I do not care who gets credit for the gift it could be the man in the moon. My children are uoung enough to wish their dad never went to work. Ever. I think it is important for them to know what we work for. Santa is a great tradition but he is not the one who carefully searches out the best toys that seem like they will make my children happiest.

Happy holidays to you, however you celebrate.

 

[monica9]

Its great to see the variety of comments. Sometimes I feel like we over do it with our daughter but she is our only child and at her age, she grows out of toys and I buy ones that are more age appropriate and that she can learn from at her age. I always hear how kids have too many toys these days and that is very true but I do feel the toys my child got last year are not going to be age appropriate for her in another year. Her birthday is in May and we don't buy any toys for her throughout the year. Her birthday she just gets a birthday party and 2 presents and most of the toys she gets are from christmas. I can tell you out of her 4 1/2 years, I have never gone to a store with her throughout the year and came home with a toy. I was just curious on if parents change the amount of presents based on the age like I feel we will end up doing. I think the amount of presents to open will most definitely lesson the older she gets. For now, I enjoy watching her rip open presents and seeing new toys, crafts, etc.

 

[blessedby3]

We have 4 kids ages 22, 17, 13, and 5. We have a budget of about $150 per kid. That doesnt mean we have to spend that much, its just what the max amount is. The 5 yr old asks for much less expensive gifts than the older ones.
We have a 3 gift limit from DH and I to the kids. They get 1 gift from the siblings (meaning the 5 yr old gets a sibling gift from the 22, 17 and 13 yr olds...then the 13 yr old gets 1 gift from the 22, 17 and 5 yr old, etc.)....so a total of 4 gifts on Christmas morning (they get other gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc).
We also do stocking with pretty good gifts (like ITunes gift cards, movie tickets, etc.--not just candy and dollar stuff)
We dont do the Santa gifts in our house. We enjoy Santa, but have never pushed the issue and put more focus on Baby Jesus and the reason for Christmas

 

[ah1126]

DD is 2 and we will have a 1 month old baby this Christmas. We started doing 3 gifts for Christmas to represent the 3 gifts that Baby Jesus got. She also gets some small things in her stocking. This year she kinda gets the idea of Santa, so maybe 1 gift will be from Santa, 1 from Mom and Dad and 1 from the new baby.

I got the idea a few years ago from reading these boards!

 

[IllinoisMommy]

My Mom always had equal number of gifts for everyone- she would go buy pencils to make it even and wraps several things together at times. I do it differently though- I am not so worried about the same number of gifts and my older kids are pretty aware that what they want is more expensive than what their sister wants. I don't worry about the dollar amount being exact matches either- just make sure it is overall pretty fair. The biggest and best gifts come from Santa- my oldest now knows the deal and this year I think he will be into helping create the magic for his siblings (just in going along with things, not helping to shop).

Santa usually brings a family gift that is bigger, and Mom and Dad get small items from Santa. He brings the majority of the gifts for the kids

 

[skeettafic]

My kids are 7 and 4. DD turns 8 the week before Christmas. We have a dollar amount that I stay under for each kid and we start planning from there. I try to keep each set of gifts about even - just so that if you would look at it, you would think they had gotten about the same amount of presents even if it isn't exact.

In our house, Santa brings 1-2 of the "hot" items (this year, it will be my son's Furby and daughter's American Girl) and the rest are technically from us. Santa does leave presents at my parents house for the kids but he still leaves me presents there, too.

 

[iheartwalt]

From my husband and I my son gets 3 gifts on Christmas eve: jammies, an ornament, and Christmas book.
This year from Santa we will do 4 things (and will continue to do this; thank you Pinterest): something he wants, something he needs, something to wear, and something to read. And then his stocking which is all little stuff but I shop for it all year...I love Christmas stockings!

 

[StephMK]

I usually have a general limit per kid and try to keep the number of gifts similar. If they get an expensive something, I can still wrap little stuff so they have things to open.

I plan to keep doing Santa gifts as long as they are here. I know they know but last year they still played along and I expect they will this year too.

 

[Bungle]

My boys are getting three each from us this year. We go by our budget so this year we had enough to get the pricier items they really wanted.

I can't even imagine getting 10+ gifts just from the parents or "santa"

 

[indimom]

We also stick to a dollar amount so the number of gifts vary. They get one big gift from Santa (always a surprise, usually the most expensive item, and sometimes a shared gift like the PS3), plus small stocking stuffers. Mom and dad give 5-10 things ranging from socks or pajamas they need to less expensive wants like a new football or video.

 

[DebMcDonald]

They get their big most expensive gift from Santa, unwrapped sitting right in front of the tree. I always say they get 10 others, but by the time x-mas gets around it's probably closer to 20.

 

[Ginny Favers]

Whoa-- 20 gifts?

I give each of my kids 8, one slightly large gift ($100) and the others smaller. That was how many I got as a child, and I remember being happy and not feeling either cheated or overwhelmed! They also get several gifts from family members, but none from us (and they really don't notice that!). My kids are only 3 and 6 and already they have so many toys that they don't play with-- we have a room filled with unopened toys.

I have a family member that gives so many presents from Santa to each of her kids. Her house looks like a toy store at Christmas, and it's impossible to shop for her kids because they already have EVERYTHING, and don't care about any of it! They toss the stuff around and break it and every few months she goes through with a Hefty bag and throws away the broken stuff to make room for more. It's crazy.

 

[DawnM]

My boys are older and would prefer more expensive gifts.

It no longer matters the NUMBER of gifts, although we tend to wrap up little things just so that Christmas morning lasts a bit longer. Last year I wrapped up small candies like tictacs and I wrapped packs of gum, wrapped individual pairs of underwear, etc....

Oldest wants a new game called warhammer.....it will run over $100 for the starter set.

Yougest wants a 3ds XL, $200.

So, once they start wanting pricier items, the number of gifts go down.

 

[Cree629]

My girls (7 and almost 4) probably get about 10-15 gifts from Santa. We keep it even momey-wise (about $150-$200 each) as well as number-wise. They get one present each from mom and dad, and one present each from their sister. Both sets of grandparents go overboard every year though (another 5 or so presents for each girl from each set of grandparents).

 

[Colleen27]

We do one from Santa and 2-3 from us, plus PJs and stocking stuffers. I don't have a dollar limit and don't try to spend the same on each child - my kids are 14, 11, and 4 so the prices of the things they want vary a lot and I'm not interested in limiting my 14yo's gift to a price that is reasonable to spend on the youngest or giving the 4yo a couple hundred dollars worth of Duplo and Little People because that's what DS14's X-box cost. The kids each get roughly the same number of gifts under the tree but the dollar values aren't even close to equal.

We've always kept the Santa giving pretty low-key - we told the kids right from the start that Santa brings just one gift per child because he has so many children on his list, and that some parents like to wrap more gifts from Santa as a way of adding to the holiday magic. I remember as a child that some kids really questioned holiday charity because "Santa will bring presents for the poor kids" and I didn't want my kids thinking that way.

 

[monica9]

We have 4 kids ages 22, 17, 13, and 5. We have a budget of about $150 per kid. That doesnt mean we have to spend that much, its just what the max amount is. The 5 yr old asks for much less expensive gifts than the older ones.
We have a 3 gift limit from DH and I to the kids. They get 1 gift from the siblings (meaning the 5 yr old gets a sibling gift from the 22, 17 and 13 yr olds...then the 13 yr old gets 1 gift from the 22, 17 and 5 yr old, etc.)....so a total of 4 gifts on Christmas morning (they get other gifts from grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc).
We also do stocking with pretty good gifts (like ITunes gift cards, movie tickets, etc.--not just candy and dollar stuff)
We dont do the Santa gifts in our house. We enjoy Santa, but have never pushed the issue and put more focus on Baby Jesus and the reason for Christmas

I have to admit, we were on the fence about doing the whole santa thing but decided we would do while she's a child but not put too much focus on him. We make sure she knows the real reason for christmas which has absolutely nothing to do with santa. And we always sing Jesus happy birthday on christmas morning which she loves!