how much do people spend at Christmas?

[partgypsy]

I was tallying up my count (pretty much almost done with shopping, believe it or not) and realized I passed the 1K amount for christmas shopping. This includes gifts, wrapping and labels, and also for me new Christmas lights. Am I out of control or is this a normal amount? Not including co-workers, I shop for 15 people.

 

[Enerchi]

My DH just bought all 3 kids snow tires for Christmas - yah, what a THRILLING gift, I know, but its all about safety! - and that came to about $1300 for all 3 kid cars. That is not normal for us to spend that much on just our kids alone.

I would say I normally try to keep it in the $500 - $750 range, but there were 2 years in a row that I paid for 2 full family of 5 trips x 1 week in Cuba, so both those years, I ended up spending about $5000 on just our family alone! That also was not normal!

 

[aviastar]

Meh, what's this 'normal' you speak of?

Is that a comfortable amount for you? Do you love the gifts you found for people?

I didn't spend that much, but I also don't shop for that many people. Just DH, his parents, my parents, and then our siblings and their spouses are each getting a handmade gift from us that cost about $2 in materials and my time, mostly a sweet gesture more than anything. We spend about $100 per set of parents for a gift that comes from both of us, and maybe $100 on each other. It's what's comfortable for us. And without kids yet, we keep it pretty much at one major gift each and then some smaller useful items and stocking stuffers.

 

[kenny]

I'll spend around $100 this year, all on one person, my SO.
If he felt the same about the holiday as I do we'd both spend zero, but relationships are all about compromise.

 

[Enerchi]

I'll spend around $100 this year, all on one person, my SO.
If he felt the same about the holiday as I do we'd both spend zero, but relationships are all about compromise.

Kenny, do you and your SO not give gifts to his family? I think I recall he has quite the extended family, right? How did you decide NOT to give gifts, if that is the case? Just curious...

I kind of wish it was possible to just wipe out the expectation of million $$ gifts / person! Its all marketing, and I know it, but we all kind of get sucked into the "if you love "so and so", you will buy this car/diamond/house/airplane, for them" , KWIM???

 

[kenny]

I'll spend around $100 this year, all on one person, my SO.
If he felt the same about the holiday as I do we'd both spend zero, but relationships are all about compromise.

Kenny, do you and your SO not give gifts to his family? I think I recall he has quite the extended family, right? How did you decide NOT to give gifts, if that is the case? Just curious...

I kind of wish it was possible to just wipe out the expectation of million $$ gifts / person! Its all marketing, and I know it, but we all kind of get sucked into the "if you love "so and so", you will buy this car/diamond/house/airplane, for them" , KWIM???

You are not responsible for the expectations of others.
Nobody gets sucked into anything.
Thinking this is co-dependence.

IMHO, we each are responsible for our choices.

Just don't play.
Perhaps your family will learn some day that people vary, and a few think for themselves.

There is tons of love and generosity given to my SO's family throughout the year.

 

[kenny]

I had a dream once.
I was running away from a bull.
It got closer and closer.

Exhausted, I finally just gave up and turned around and faced my certain death.
The bull had vanished.

 

[Enerchi]

Thanks Kenny! I do my best not to get sucked in... and I'm pretty resistant!... but I just find that's the way things are marketed! I'm always amazed at the commercials on TV - buy your loved one this car and then they will love you... you know, that kind of thing!

Wishing you and your SO a wonderful and VERY MERRY Christmas!!

 

[kenny]

... but I just find that's the way things are marketed!

So you have no choice?

 

[isaku5]

My DH just bought all 3 kids snow tires for Christmas - yah, what a THRILLING gift, I know, but its all about safety! - and that came to about $1300 for all 3 kid cars. That is not normal for us to spend that much on just our kids alone.

I would say I normally try to keep it in the $500 - $750 range, but there were 2 years in a row that I paid for 2 full family of 5 trips x 1 week in Cuba, so both those years, I ended up spending about $5000 on just our family alone! That also was not normal!

I need to belong to your family, Enerchi!

My really frugal cousin took their son and his two girls to Florida two years ago and this past year they took the younger son and his fiancee to a 5* resort in Jamaica. They barely thanked her???? If they were mine, that would be the last trip I financed....ever!!

 

[Maisie]

I spend £150 on each of my 5 children. My husband and I have a £20 limit.

 

[zoebartlett]

I don't have that many people to shop for, so I've never reached that amount. We buy something for my sister, my parents (either a joint gift and/or an individual gift for each one), my husband's parents, and we either re-gift or buy something for a Yankee swap that his family has every Christmas Eve. Sometimes I pick up chocolate truffles for coworkers, too. If I'm seeing friends around the holidays, I'll get something for their children and them. That's about it. It doesn't cost nearly 1K, but some years, depending on what the gifts are, it can still add up.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I honestly don't know because I forget what I buy--then find more things....this year my memory is particulary bad for some reason.
I *think my DH is around $1500...not much for my DS, but then my DH has bought him computer stuff...

cheers--Sharon

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

This year I will spend about $2000 after I'm done and that's only if things work out the way I budgeted.

DH has a crazy sister....
and I have a crazy mom... These two people... RAWR

 

[ame]

I would say we average in the $2000ish range total. We're pretty generous with his family esp. since there are so few of us, and this year was a big one, with his mom getting the iPad. But we also stepped it up a bit with mine, and even more with the family we adopt. My immediate family believes in going big for that. The entire mom's side of my family contributes, and we blow them away, but my immediate family goes even farther. We've gotten a tv for one, when we found out their TV got damaged after a storm, we try to think of things a person that age might like. We've given a check for money as well to help with rent/bills. I personally get excited when one of the kids is into doing art, and asks for supplies. I get an Art Bin, and fill it with the best stuff, Prismacolor pencils, sometimes markers though I find Crayolas tend to last longer despite the lack of color range, good pencils in varying hardness ranges, watercolor pencils and watercolors in tubes, a small palette, brushes, erasers, a ruler, watercolor paper, drawing paper, etc. I really go for it. I know this child might grow out of this interest, but if not, these are items that they will hopefully cherish. Last year the toy of the year was that LeapPad tablet thing, and the family had two children requesting it. They were raised by their grandmother, and by some miracle, Target restocked the day I was there, and I wandered over just to check. They had two green and two purple. They had asked for one of each. I grabbed one of each and held them close to my chest like they were my most important thing of my life all the way to the register. lol! We had only two days left before all the stuff was due to my mom's church so I we had a backup plan in the meantime, the Vtech option. I could not believe the luck. And they were on sale. So I got them, and someone else had games on mad sale, so after I took those to my moms my sister and I went to get games for them. It made my life I think to know those kids were gonna get what they wanted, and then some, and to know that grandmother was gonna see those items for those kids and think "oh my god, someone got these things for strangers". It just makes me mush. I wish they would give us another family. We used to get two, but enough people want families. I just hope the others that ask really give it their all. We really enjoy helping someone out. We need nothing. We practically can want for nothing.

 

[diamondringlover]

I am currently around $1500 give or take.

 

[rosetta]

Nothing. We save our money for the sales.

 

[Dancing Fire]

hey Ladies... please don't buy an expensive gift for me,remember it is the thought that counts..

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

hey Ladies... please don't buy an expensive gift for me,remember it is the thought that counts..

DF! You can't say that now!! I already bought you an elaborate overly expensive gift!

 

[stargurl78]

I think I've spent about $450 so far and I'm almost finished. DH and I have a $100 limit and we buy for both sets of parents, my brother, and we draw names with DH's siblings but we don't get anything too extravagant or pricey. I also buy something very small for my best friend, my closest aunt, and a few people I work with.

 

[artdecogirl]

We are under 1000. we do not buy for that many people, and not for one another unless one of us finds something unusual.

 

[Dancing Fire]

hey Ladies... please don't buy an expensive gift for me,remember it is the thought that counts..

DF! You can't say that now!! I already bought you an elaborate overly expensive gift!

oh,you shouldn't have...

 

[woofmama]

We usually spend about 1k, around $200 on both sons, and the rest spread out over nieces, nephews and our parents. For each other DH and I vary. Some years it's around $100, other years It's more. Really depends on our finances.

 

[jaysonsmom]

We spend around $1000. The adults don't exchange gifts so $1000 is spent on our 2 kids and 4 nieces and nephews..

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I usually spend a couple hundred or so on each child, granddaughter, and husband, so that will be about $1000, we give gifts to our parents and just $20 gifts to nieces, then some small teacher gifts, so that might be an additional $500. Some years I personally receive small gifts and other years I get a jewelry gift that might cost much more than all the other gifts altogether. So the total is usually around $1500 without my gift added in. I have bought very little so far, though! I need to get busy and get on Amazon!!!

 

[Laila619]

Not much. We don't really do Xmas gifts for adults in our family, and we're the only ones who have kids, so there are no other kids to buy for except ours!

 

[distracts]

We spend about $100-$200 on my parents, $50-$100 on my brother, and $25-$30 on other family/friends we get presents for, which is a variable amount each year just depending on who we feel like giving gifts to. My extended family is huge but we just do gifts for college-age and younger. Fiance's family is huge but he just does gifts for his immediate family. I guess we might be in the $700 range with that stuff. We usually spend about $200 on each other and then Fiance would get himself a big splurge present and get a big splurge present for the house. This is the first Christmas we've spent with mostly merged finances and so our big gifts are shared. We're getting furniture for the house (which is even what he wants for himself) and I'm getting a setting by DanielM for my mint garnet. We probably won't have any of it by Christmas!

 

[SB621]

We spend more then I would like, but at the same time I love shopping. I should also say that since we celebrate Hanukkah we do 8 gifts per person in my immediate family usually plus for all the kids. For distance family/ adults we usually just send a gift per person or a family gift basket. It depends how often we see them/ what is going on with them that year/ etc. My family has always done it this way, plus I have a huge family so things add up quickly. Typically we spend upwards of 3-4k. But once again we have large families so you are talking about gifts for around 50 people with multiple gifts for children.

This year we did things a little differently that we made donations to a charity for a majority of the adult gifts. It didnt' save us any money as we stuck to the same dollar amount we would have spent on them. So far that went over really well and I think we might do this in the future moving foward vs buying gifts.

 

[rubybeth]

$674.38, though I'm not sure exactly what my DH spent on me, maybe another $100. This includes our Christmas card and stamps, which were about a quarter of that cost, $175.10. I am a money geek and keep track in a spreadsheet, and I order things online and shop throughout the year. I have bought presents in July and then forgotten I had them tucked away, so I have to keep track somehow. I total it up so that we can budget for next year and be prepared. We buy presents for immediate family (parents, my sister, DH's grandma since he grew up in her house), close friends, and then little things like chocolates for the co-workers in my dept. (4 people). We spend maybe $15-25 on each friend/couple, and try to get thoughtful gifts (a magazine they'll love, a cookbook of their favorite cuisine, games, etc.) vs. expensives ones we aren't sure they'll use.

 

[mercoledi]

We have 14 kids to buy for every year. 14. So probably about $450 on all of them together, then another combined $150-200 on parents, maybe the same again on close friends (n= and hopefully that will be it.

DH and I don't exchange gifts, it seems unnecessary and we've used up all the really good ideas we had in the first 10 years of our relationship. I sometimes buy him books, and he does all the laundry and dishes year-round, which is all I really want!

I'd love to one year buy all the kids donations to Oxfam instead of presents, but they're just not that kind of kid (DH insists I not, and they're all his cousins or his cousins's kids or grandkids so he gets a vote).

So what's that? $750-1000 before gas and travel expenses?