how much do you spend on Christmas?

[Snowflakey]

We have always spent a lot at Christmas. It's just us. We enjoy it. I'd say around $2,000 - sometimes less and sometimes more. Some years there were snowmobiles or mini bikes. Now that the girls are much older things cost more and are more practical. We end Christmas day with our stockings that are rather large in size - why I thought that was cute years ago I will never understand

 

[NYCDiane]

I really only have my daughter to buy for and I always go overboard. She has no grandparents and no aunts/uncles/cousins/other relatives to give her anything. I always go all-out though, and get her the things she asked for as well as some extra.

If we do anything at work, it's a $25 limit (secret santa). As for work friends, we usually get one another stuff from the 1 spot at target or the $1 store (just cutesy things)

 

[CandleontheWater]

I have two kids and I'll spend $200 each, I don't buy them toys during the year, so this is pretty much it for them. I'll also buy for my niece/nephew at about $50 a piece, and gifts for DH's parents usually at around $100. I also think I'm going to be roped into buying gifts for two of my DH's friends kids, they usually send us gifts for our kids so I feel obliged. I really wish I didn't have to, but it is what it is, I think I'm going to buy books, and make it my yearly gift.

I'm going to really try to reign in the all the "extras" this year, because I feel like that is where my budget goes off the rails, extra food, alcohol, decorations, etc.

 

[ArwenMarie]

We spend about $2000. I finally tracked every expense last Christmas to find out!

This includes everything though. Gifts, wrapping paper, any decorations, food, gifts for teachers, gifts for people at my husband's job, cards, stamps, the inevitable outfits for the Christmas pageant at school, every single thing.

I was pleasantly surprised, I thought I was spending much more than that.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

When the kids were little, anywhere from $100-200 each. Our kids don't get presents from anyone other than us (or their friends, on occasion).

This year, my budget is a bit more.
DS is getting a WiiU (his request) plus a couple of games. His Wii is dying (that thing is like 10 years old), and he already has an Xbox 360; and we, as a family, have a PS4. (He wants an Xbox One also, but I'm only able to get one big thing for him this year.)

The older girls (both married and on their own) are getting copies of Julia Child's cookbooks, plus I'll catch some movies on Amazon's BF sale for the couples. Something for the husbands (most likely the next couple books in the Dresden novel series, since we got them hooked on them).

We're also buying a carseat/stroller combination for DD#2, for the yet-to-be-born grandson. I've already started sending stuff (so far mittens and a teddy bear snuggy with Broncos on it).

DH wants a Windows tablet of some kid, and I want a new Kindle (the paperwhite will work for me, I just want it for reading; and my old Kindle won't keep a charge anymore).

 

[Tiffylv]

.

 

[disneychrista]

We stopped exchanging last year. No one needs anything, everyone just buys whatever they want.

In the years leading up to this I spent about $100 per child.

 

[DnA2010]

DD11- I'm not sure...changes based on what we feel she needs- I don't think where we are going with her gifts this year but I would say $200-300 maybe
DH- we buy each other gifts, but sometimes they cost next to nothing, sometimes they cost more- we don't set limits on each other- I would say on average maybe $200 between the two of us, unless someone buys something larger
Nieces/Nephew- we have 3 nieces and 1 nephew- I would say I spend around 15 each, so say $60
Siblings- DH has 3 siblings with spouses and so we draw names- limit is $50
My sister and her DH I would say we spend $100
Parents x 2- I would say we spend around $150 in total for both sets of parents
Chris Amalgamated Family- My DH's family that lives in town and us adopt a family from the local group and provide the fixings for Christmas dinner, and some gifts, so I would say our contribution to that is $50

I don't buy for friends kids, I discourage them for buying from our daughter

So that's around $1060- so given other bits and bobs, say $1200?

 

[100AcreWood]

I would say $1400 for us including the kids, grandparents, teacher gifts, etc. It really adds up!

 

[Chrelaine]

We buy for my mom & dad, his parents, and his brother and sister in law. I keep it to $50 pp. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less but that is the target. For DD she is young enough that we just buy what we want for her. I always say no more than $300 and we have rarely come close. We buy for each other, but I have put a cap on that because DH was going nuts! We both love the holidays so we tend to splurge. I am a bargain hunter and we tend to buy things that we would never buy any other time of year ( we don't do big birthdays or anniversaries). I would say we are probably around $1000 total. If we couldn't afford it, it would go down. We enjoy the giving, so I don't see any reason to change unless we are having financial trouble.

I don't host holiday dinners. I do a small dinner party on NYE for my mom's b'day, less than 10 people, and I love to bake cookies w/DD. Those things probably add another $300 to the total.

This is what works for us. Everyone is different. I don't see any reason to spend more than you can afford just to keep up with others. The focus is family time

 

[momof2gr8kids]

I figure all in with gifts, food and booze will be about $2000 or a little under. We have cut out buying presents for anyone except our kids (4, plus a new dil and grandson). I host all the Christmas stuff, brunch, usually 2 big dinners as inlaws announce a couple of days before when they are coming and it's never when we've already planned our big family dinner. LOL. We don't buy for friends anymore. We usually host something at our house after a skating or sledding party with the families instead.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

We gift to my parents, sister, brother and sister-in-law, spending about $50 each. No nieces or nephews yet. For my grandparents, I spend about $25 each (only 2 grandparents). DH's family is Hindu, so no big gift giving holiday per se, but we still want to gift them something too. This year we bought them a snowblower ($350), which is more than we will probably spend in the future. But we got it because DH is no longer there to shovel the snow and I didn't want his mom shoveling it alone (DH's parents work different shifts). Also I spend about $50 on co-worker gifts. This year our gifts to each other is our first DVC trip in February.

So discounting the DW trip, we will spend about $700 this year. Once we have kids, I am sure this amount will go up a lot. I can imagine spending about $300-$500 for each kid depending on our finances.

 

[Madteaparty001]

I put away $20 every pay check (bi-weekly) for holiday gifts, this includes x-mas, easter, valentines, mother's day, father's day, etc. While I love shopping for gifts, I couldn't justify buying people more and more stuff every year. So I switched to making christmas cookie tins: http://korenainthekitchen.com/2013/12/29/christmas-cookies-2013-the-round-up/ . It's more economical, less wasteful, and a great 3 day weekend spent baking with my kid, mom, and sister.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

I don't have children to buy for so that's a big expense gone right there. I host my parents to escape the cold for the holidays and at most we exchange $10ish stocking stuffer type gifts.

I do budget about $300-500 each year for the program that our local radio station does. Some years I put it towards donating to the toy warehouse and some years I answer a specific family letter and help with xmas dinner, a tree, etc.

 

[viaggiamo]

We spend around $200-300 per child (x2) and around the same on each other.
My parents $100
his mum $50
SILs (we only buy for 2 of them) around $20 each
godparents $50
nieces/nephews we no longer buy for most of them as they have reached age 21, we sometimes buy for 2 of them but sometimes my SIL and I decide not too due to the amount of stuff they all receive.

So all up for presents $1000-$1300

Then extra food, but we have cut down on that a lot in previous years. We host as it is Summer here on Christmas day and we have the pool and large yard. So we have prawns, seafood, bbq, salads etc. We also have a street party and a few friend gatherings. The food would run us an extra $250-$350 per year.

I love this thread.

 

[dilliyo]

All presents for family - $1000

 

[DawnM]

We pretty much only buy for our own children. Grandparents don't want anything but a photo album and that runs about $20 with shipping. We don't buy for nieces and nephews or anything.

DH and I don't really exchange either. We feel Christmas is for the kids.

This year we will probably budget $500 per kid. Oldest may run a little more. He is starting at the community college in Jan and needs a good computer for that.

 

[ilovevacation]

I am horrible at Christmas budgeting. I love to buy for people. Let's be honest I love to shop.
Op I agree with not buying for your partner, we love to do things for us or for the house.
I make a detailed list on a shopping app that I use. I make notes of what people mention that what or need.
I struggle the most when i feel pressure to buy. I have a few family members that are materialistic and I am not. My family thinks we are "rich "since we have good jobs. To be honest, we do fine, but we live well inside our means and dont have kids. So. I have to remind myself to stick to the list and remember life isn't about what we give to each other but what we mean to each other.
I also craft some gifts for extended family member that buy for us. We don't need anything and I have asked to shut down all of the gift giving but I was lookeI have the plaque.
Just stick to the list!

 

[Nayan]

DS is getting a WiiU (his request) plus a couple of games. His Wii is dying (that thing is like 10 years old), and he already has an Xbox 360; and we, as a family, have a PS4. (He wants an Xbox One also, but I'm only able to get one big thing for him this year.)

Just an FYI: Dell already has their ad out and they are offering the Xbox One Fallout 4 bundle for $299 at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving day. I plan on grabbing one.

 

[tvguy]

I tried "budgeting" for 2 years (when money was tight) at $1,000 for a family of 4 and 2 Grandmas. Spent $2,000 both years. Stopped budgeting, just bought what we felt was right, came in under $1,000 every year since!