How much do you spend on Christmas presents?

[Anonymous]

We have a HHI of a little over $120k and a 3 year old. My stepson is 6 but does not live with us, so we may or may not see him for Christmas or at all around the holidays. (DH and child's mother have a weird, sometimes good/sometimes bad, strained relationship). We have a host of siblings, parents, etc. that we buy for every year. Considering your own personal familial situation, how much do you budget for Christmas? I want to plan this year and not just spend aimlessly. TIA!

[Anonymous]

OP, are you going to take the first answer, last, or average all of the responses in between? Just let us know ahead of time. TIA!

[Anonymous]

I don't usually add it all up, but we've typically spent about $50 per parent, $30-$50 per sibling or sibling-in-law (we have 7 between us) and $15-$20 per niece or nephew (5 of them). How much we spend on the kids and each other varies from year to year (maybe $50-$200 each?). We plan to cut back on the cost of sibling gifts this year. We make $150K.

[Anonymous]

Usually around $2000. Why wouldn't you get SS gift just because you might not see him? Seems irrelevant to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, are you going to take the first answer, last, or average all of the responses in between? Just let us know ahead of time. TIA!

I'm just curious as to how much people spend vs. their income. Not really taking a specific answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't usually add it all up, but we've typically spent about $50 per parent, $30-$50 per sibling or sibling-in-law (we have 7 between us) and $15-$20 per niece or nephew (5 of them). How much we spend on the kids and each other varies from year to year (maybe $50-$200 each?). We plan to cut back on the cost of sibling gifts this year. We make $150K.

OP here. This sounds around the same as us. Thanks for the input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Usually around $2000. Why wouldn't you get SS gift just because you might not see him? Seems irrelevant to me.

OP here. I wasn't saying we wouldn't be getting him a gift - of course we are. Looking back, I see that point was irrelevant. Please disregard!

[Anonymous]

The best thing we ever did was stop gifting gift cards or random stuff to our adult siblings. We can now concentrate on our nieces (no nephews). And our parents (in their 70s) don't care about "stuff", so we give them photos, etc. of their grandkids. (Actually, my FIL likes coffee, but for some crazy reason won't buy it for himself, so we've given him some coffee beans in the last. My dad really likes a homemade jelly from one of the farms up here, so he gets a couple of jars of jam/jelly.)

All the adult siblings agreed the same year to stop giving to each other and just work on the kids! It's much more enjoyable.

[Anonymous]

We spend around $500 for the teenager and around $300-400 for the elementary kids. We purchase throughout the year.

We don't exchange with each other but help the kids pick aout a gift for the other parents.

We do an ornament exchange with my family's kids/cousins (large family, no adult exchange) and spend around $50-100 for the niece and nephew on my husband's size (very small family)

No adult gifts. Everyone has kids now except one newlywed brother. We would rather the money go towards everyone's own kids vs adults who don't really need anything they can't purchase for themselves.

[Anonymous]

We also don't give presents to adults in my family. (Some buy things for my elderly parents, like gift certificates to restaurants they would not otherwise treat themselves to, or vouchers for travel, but not more "stuff".) I spent between $15 and $25 per niece/nephew, depending mainly on whether I hit a good sale or have a great idea for them. I end up spending a few hundred for each of my own kids, despite my best efforts -- about $50 to $100 for the "big" present; about $30-60 for stockings (but I often put in some really practical stuff in there that they may need anyway); and another $20-50 for some smaller presents (they each get a nice book and usually a nice game/puzzle/kit from me).
Honestly, we could afford more, but I just object to spending much more than that. Instead, we adopt about 7 to 10 people through our church giving tree and get lots of stuff for them.

[Anonymous]

No presents to adult family members. Nieces/Nephews get $25 each in their college fund plus something small, like a book or pjs. (We give them toys for their birthdays).

Our kids are probably $200 each total- including stockings.

Overall, that puts us at about $500.

We also give to charity for both of our work programs and both kids school programs. ($20 per program). Then teacher gifts and other random gifts. Rounding up, add about $200 total.

Add another $100 to be safe...

I can definitely, safely say we spend less than $800.

[Anonymous]

First think you should do is institute a 'no adult gifts' rule. Its not even the money, it is eliminating the pain of finding gifts for everyone - liberating

[Anonymous]

We spend about $1000. HHI 190k.

We don't give gifts to each other, or we keep it under $50. We just don't like gifts, but we realize how important they are to everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Probably $300 on our kid, $150 on each other average, $150 on each parent and $150 total on our siblings/inlaws (just 2 people). If I am being honest, probably another $300 for random edible gifts for neighbors, teacher gifts, and miscellaneous wrappings and stuff. And this year an atypical $200 for a special employee this year (no other employees to gift to). Throw in another $200 for special foods and gifts and cards. I end up buying for myself, and that adds up to about $2,000m but we almost always have a hefty gift card and credit card point stash, so I'd estimate we only "spend" closer to $1,200 in total.

HHI is 200K.

[Anonymous]

Do you all spend the same amount on your parents as they spend on you? My parents love to gift us about $300, but really we only want to spend $100 on them. We just would love to dial back the spending since none of us need anything.