How much do you spend on your children presents? Just curious.

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

How much do you spend on your children's Christmas presents?Just curios. Also special things do you do with them around Christmas?

 

[mina]

Maybe $100 each if that.....we try not to focus on presents. There's enough toys already. We try to keep it simple and may even do the 4 things simple Christmas: something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. Or more experiences than things.

I want to do a December advent calendar where we have a Christmasy or winter activity for each day- volunteering, making ornaments, making cookies, making a pizza shaped like a snowman, watching a holiday movie, walking around to see lights, Candlelight service, caroling, etc....

 

[Poppyseed78]

My son is almost two years old, so we aren't getting him a lot of presents this year. He will be receiving plenty of toys from extended family. In the future I don't plan on focusing on gifts much, I'm more interested in spending quality time as a family and creating our own traditions. I like Mina's ideas of volunteering, making ornaments, baking together, watching holiday movies and going to see Christmas lights.

As for how much I'm actually spending on Christmas gifts this year - about $50, and that includes necessities like new shoes and pajamas, as well as a little bowling set . His "big" gifts will be from relatives, who are getting him a tricycle, a Little People farm, books, puzzles, and stuffed animals. I figure that'll be sufficient.

 

[JAM2b]

It always depends on how much money I have. There have been quite a few skimpy years. This year I'm not doing Christmas shopping until some time in January because of not getting very much work hours and my family was hit with illness. On Dec. 19 I'm starting a new job that will pay more than I usually earn, so January should be a pretty good month, especially near the end. I might wait until the first weekend of February to give the gifts to make sure I have enough time to pull it together. My goal is to have Christmas finished before Valentines Day! My boys are used to us struggling financially, and they very patient and understanding about these matters.

This year I would like to spend 100-200 on each of them. There have been several years when I have spent less than 100.00 on both of them together.

 

[JAM2b]

For gift giving I saw a suggestion for five gifts. It was a list like this:

1. Something they asked for
2. Something to wear
3. Something to share (game, puzzle, blocks)
4. Something they need
5. Something to read

I think this could also work well for an adult, like a spouse or serious girl/boyfriend.

 

[JAM2b]

This year we are focusing on the non-gift aspects of Christmas because we have the time to. For several years I have shared my sons with my ex for Christmas and I have not had them on Christmas since 2012. This year I will have them for the entire Christmas break, and I am sooo excited.

We will be looking at Christmas lights, watching Christmas movies, having lots of hot chocolate, and reading Christmas stories (we love children's literature, even though my kids are teenagers).

We also like to celebrate Hanukkah. I know it is Jewish and not Christian, but we were friends with some people who were Messianic Jews in Texas, and they taught us about Hanukkah. We don't go all out for it like they do, but we like the observation and candle lighting.

 

[JAM2b]

Another thing as far as food goes, it is just me and my two boys, so a major feast isn't very practical all the time, especially since we just had Thanksgiving. I enjoy party-type foods when it comes to Christmas anyway.

This year I am going to make little mini pizzas by cutting the raw pizza dough with Christmas cookie cutters and having the boys top their own pizzas. We will also have salad or veggie trays, chips and dips, and cookies.

 

[JAM2b]

This is a thing that I just read about a few days ago. It sounds interesting, and we might try it. It is a tradition in Iceland, where everyone gets a new book on Christmas Eve and they spend the evening reading. It is called Jolabokaflod, in English it's "Yule Book Flood." If money is an issue, books could be checked out from the library or purchased at second hand book stores or thrift stores. Or it could be a great re-gifting tradition where you give a book you already own to someone else.