What do you spend on a classmate birthday present?
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Anonymous
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DD has birthday party invitations for the next three weekends, so I'm gift shopping. What is an appropriate amount to spend per kid?
I feel like we used to do $10-15 but the parties are getting more elaborate as the kids get older. I don't want to be cheap. |
Anonymous
| Probably about $20, and up to $50 for a best friend. I don’t worry about the price too much / it’s more that you didn’t grab a piece of plastic crap at the chain drugstore. |
Anonymous
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$20-30 for a classmate and up to $50 for a close friend.
I usually do 1 very small gift (unique candy/snack, slime, fidget toy, or book) + gift card. |
Anonymous
| $10-25 depending on the friendship. Casual friend $10-15 is normal. No one spends $50. |
Anonymous
| $25. Usually a $20 gift card and a $5 something DC picks to wrap. |
Anonymous
| $15-$20. |
Anonymous
| PP here. For a close friend $25, classmates $15- $20 |
Anonymous
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My kids are pre-k and 2nd grade. I usually spend $20ish.
My go to is a pack of 100 glitter gel pens from Amazon + a nice sketchbook. I get the books on sale at Michaels. |
Anonymous
| $15-$20 for a classmate. |
Anonymous
Really?! I’m floored. Kid is five, so we’re new to the birthday party world. His old preschool didn’t really do them. May I ask your HHI? I’m just trying to determine if that’s a wider norm, or just people who live in a nicer part of town than we do. |
Anonymous
| Y’all are nuts. $5-$10 unless it’s actually a friend. In which case probably $10-15. |
Anonymous
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$15 if I am getting a gift card … if not a gift card, $10-$15
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Anonymous
$90k is my salary. |
Anonymous
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I post this all the time, but the answer is:
Friendly acquaintance/not super-close: Retail value $20-30, I spend $4-8 max. These folks especially are getting generic but hopefully fun/decent quality gifts that I've stocked up on when they were on clearance for 75-90% off. Closer friend: Same thing, but probably up a notch to $40 value, $10 spend. Closest 2-3 friends and godsisters: Here I may go out of my way and buy something very specific to their interests and pay closer to retail, at least for part of the gift. Value still around $40, maybe $50, but I might actually spend $20-25. I like to give something substantial in all cases, but there's no way I'm sending my kid to 15 birthday parties a year and spending $500! I guess I end up spending more like $175 annually. HHI is $120k in DC. |
Anonymous
NP. This reminds me of one of the greatest little gifts we got from a preschool friend at a real hippie school where everyone says no gifts/no gifts necessary & most kids bring a card or something very small. It was this ~8-pack of nice crunchy-mom* colored pencils with two ends-- one side was a neon color and the other side was a metallic, so 8 shades of each. It probably cost like $10 max, but it was the kind of thing almost no kid has, AND fun AND useful. My kid still has and uses them here and there, 4 years later. I just know the parents had a stash of them for every birthday party and it was genius. Something like these, but what really made the gift we got was that they were metallic/neon-- not colors most kids would have. https://amzn.to/3muTcvW *It was sustainably grown unbleached wood or something, IDK. |