How much do you spend on nieces/nephews for Christmas?

[MrsPete]

I spend a good bit on my nieces, and they give my girls nice gifts.

I don't pay any attention to whether it's reciprocated or not. It's gift-giving -- not trading.

 

[kfeuer]

Any Gift Ideas that won't get sold out from under a 3 year old ?

Get him something with his name on it in BIG letters

 

[tinkarooni]

I totally agree with everybody.
Don't so many of these kids have too much STUFF! I know my two do.

I have 5 nieces and nephews and I have been trying to encourage the pollyanna not only to save money but to stop the gimmies and the overaccumulation of stuff. So far nobody is going for it. We currently spend $25.00 at Christmas and Birthdays although I do try to shop for sales!

 

[Jen_in_NH]

I have no nieces and nephews, and DH is an only child. We have no kids (yet!). We spend about 30-50 dollars on his cousin's 2 kids - we see them all the time, and we usually spend Christmas together. As far as all of my cousins go, for the younger ones, we spend about 10-15 dollars each. Once they get older (like high school age), they get a gift card for the mall or something similar. This may have to stop as I have A LOT of cousins.

Jen

 

[puffkin]

On DH's side, we have 2 nieces. We spend about $40 on each of them for Christmas and about $30 on B-days. We used to exchange with DH's siblings too, but it got to be too much. Now we just do the kids and DH's parents, and now that we are starting a family they will just buy for our son....it will even out in the long run.

On my side I just have my parents and single brother, so we buy for my brother and parents and they buy for us and now our son.

 

[ckoncurat]

We draw names (we have eighteen cousins all together), so I buy six gifts, one from each of my six kids. I spend $15-20 per gift.

 

[Disney4Drew]

We have 5 nieces and nephews. I spend 30-40 on each of them. They get off easy since DS is the only one they have to buy for!

 

[kendrafitz]

We have 11 neices and nephews and spend between $20-$25 per child. It is generally reciprocated.

 

[bettyann29]

Id say $15-$20 each..

 

[princesserinsmom]

We have 7 nieces and nephews and one due in december. We spend about $25 on each kid. My family comes for christmas eve and my husbands christmas day. So we do get to see them open there gifts. My family says thank you and sends thank you cards with pictures. My husbands dont even acknowledge the gifts but then they dont call me aunt either and we have been married for 6 years and were together 10 before.

 

[solgent]

I have 1 nephew & 1 niece. We spend about $50 on each.

Ever since my SIL entered my brother's life, our family has gotten lots more gifts! She is very generous and sweet. They definitely spend more than we do.

My kids hand-write thank you notes to everyone who gives them a gift. My SIL hand-writes thank you notes to us but not many other people do.

 

[FormrCastMbr]

I have 12 neices and nephews ranging in age from 6 to 22 but do not buy birthday gifts for all of them. I am the youngest of 7; we range in age from 35 - 55...I have been buying gifts for them since the oldest kids were born. My son is 8 and I have seen that he does not get a gift or even a card from a couple of my siblings, so I have stopped buying them a bday gift...I hate to be that way but I am not made of money...even a card would be nice...

For birthdays, I generally spend $25 - $35. For Christmas, we have a grab bag for all 13 of the neices and nephews and we spend $50.00.

It gets very expensive coming from a large family...the adults have a fun grab bag at Christmas...every year we pick a color and you have to buy a gift for man or woman in that color and spend $10.00...it is fun because it gets creative...the men tend to stick to buying wine or other alcohol...The year it was red, I bought all red foods and created a nice gift basket...It's fun and I am babbling now so I will shut up!!!!

 

[FormrCastMbr]

I have 1 nephew & 1 niece. We spend about $50 on each.

Ever since my SIL entered my brother's life, our family has gotten lots more gifts! She is very generous and sweet. They definitely spend more than we do.

My kids hand-write thank you notes to everyone who gives them a gift. My SIL hand-writes thank you notes to us but not many other people do.

I write thank yous for everything...I agree that not many people do anymore...I am trying t get my son in the habit.

 

[barkley]

as of this year zero. i have none on my side, dh has 3 nephews/2 neices on his. when i married into the family they were all youngin's and though his family did'nt do family get togethers i always sent a gift (via grandma/grandpa when they would visit around the holidays) as well as something for their parents. the only time i ever knew they got the gifts was if i gave them in person-and we would get thanked. i understand kids not knowing about making a call or sending a thank you note if they have'nt been taught to do so-but an adult? both of dh's sibs with kids never aknowledge the receipt of a gift. (and not that it matters but they don't gift our kids unless they know they will see them at a prearranged christmas gift exchange-no bdays, never a gift when the kids were born or any other occasion).

as of this year they are all 18 or older-i gave christmas one last shot last year (because his nephew was engaged and i thought maybe his fiancee would clue him in or do it herself since it was a joint gift). nope. no word that they had even received the gifts. since 3 of them graduated in june (2 from college/1 from highschool) i sent each a $25 check-the only reason i know they got them is because they cleared the bank.

i'm taking a hard line now and just calling it quits. in fact we did'nt give nephew a wedding gift (if we had attended the wedding we would have but i did'nt see any point to going to all the trouble of shopping, packaging and mailing something i'de never know if they even received). if we're invited to a holiday gift exchange or an event that we will attend that calls for gifts i'll bring something but i'm not going out of my way the rest of the time.

i'm not a scrooge-i just think that adults (which they all are now) should practice common courtesy (and frankly i got tired/sad when my kids would ask 'did uncle x like the y we sent him?' and i had to tell them i had no idea ).

 

[missymagic]

We spend on 40-50 for the kids but we don't get gift for eachother any more.

 

[antmaril]

I have two nieces and two nephews. In addition, I have three great-nieces.

I spend $50 on each. I have one son and he usually makes out pretty well, since my sister spends more on him because all of the above belong to her (she has four children and three grandchildren)

 

[barkley]

With 4 kids and basically only 1 nephew a few hours away - the boy gets spoiled....He's an only child and my SIL is the youngest of 3 (DH is the oldest) and the only girl in the family...

So yes we can say spoiled -

Yet - we still manage to spend $40-50 (OFTEN MORE) on him every birthday and Christmas....

The problem that we have ran in to...my SIL puts ALMOST everything we give him on Ebay...with some excuse or another... Doesn't matter if it's educational, cheap, expensive, clothing, room decor - it ends up on EBAY! (and to make matters worse - it's sold in secret)

So - this year - we aren't sure what to do.... The witch in me says nothing! They aren't appreciative anyway But then again, it isn't my nephews fault his mom is an ebay addict!

Any Gift Ideas that won't get sold out from under a 3 year old ?

Thanks

how about a disney sweatshirt or jacket with his first AND last name embroidered on the front (unless he has a realy common name i can't imagine it would be very marketable).

 

[deelam]

There are 15 on DH side. WE pick polyanna and set a limit of $30. We have 2 kids so we pick 2 for polyanna.
On my side there are 5. I used to go heavy, like $50 in gifts each. But now we do $20 in a card. I've never received a gift back from the kids on his side or on my side.

I just wonder at what age do you stop buying for kids. One niece is 19, do I include her still?

 

[summerrluvv]

$25 is our limit.

 

[EthansMom]

I totally agree with everybody.
Don't so many of these kids have too much STUFF! I know my two do.

Our kids have waaaay too much stuff, yet seem to have fewer toys/clothes/etc. than many of their peers.

Christmas isn't so bad at our house. Each child gets a stocking loaded with small toys and a few candies (went with one full-sized candy and a box of Cracker Jacks last year, which seemed to work better than lots of small candies). Then, Santa brings each child one or two toys (in the $10-$15 range) and DH and I give each child 2-4 gifts. It generall takes us about 30-45 minutes to open our Christmas gifts and say "Thank you" to the gift givers.

My MIL was visiting SIL and BIL two years ago for Christmas morning and said that they had to take a break after three hours of unwrapping presents.