We budget $1000 for all gifts - including teacher gifts. I'm pretty sure this year I've spent less than $250 on each kid. They are getting one shared Santa gift. Most of the gifts from us are kind of boring - clothes, PJs, ski mittens...
Honestly, for us, Santa gives them the shit that's hard to wrap or is "presentation-worthy." There's definitely room here to have put more thought into it.
This was our plan, but we really screwed it up this year and had too much that Santa was going to bring, so I ended up wrapping the cursed Octopod in it's weird octagon box. And then, H went out and bought 3 TMNT action figures with weirdly shaped cardboard/plastic clamshell packages. I should have made him wrap those...or at least pick DS up at school so I could day drink.
Post by erinshelley21 on Dec 12, 2017 15:10:52 GMT -5
I'm glad we are talking about this and I decided to go through it all. I try to spend about $50 on the the main nieces and nephews. I spent $61 on one of them. It just so happened to be the one that took the money from me lol.
Honestly, for us, Santa gives them the shit that's hard to wrap or is "presentation-worthy." There's definitely room here to have put more thought into it.
This was our plan, but we really screwed it up this year and had too much that Santa was going to bring, so I ended up wrapping the cursed Octopod in it's weird octagon box. And then, H went out and bought 3 TMNT action figures with weirdly shaped cardboard/plastic clamshell packages. I should have made him wrap those...or at least pick DS up at school so I could day drink.
We gave DS the Octopod and some action figures last year. The Octopod stayed out from Santa, but I removed all the action figures and put them in different boxes.
As an aside, I also get all the shit out of their wrapping and containers, add batteries/put together as necessary - then put them in a real effing box that can actually be wrapped. It cuts down on all the trash at Christmas time and the kids can play with them right away while I leisurely drink my coffee.
[/quote] As an aside, I also get all the shit out of their wrapping and containers, add batteries/put together as necessary - then put them in a real effing box that can actually be wrapped. It cuts down on all the trash at Christmas time and the kids can play with them right away while I leisurely drink my coffee.[/quote]
Us too!! As a result, my kids stop and play with every single gift! So present opening goes on aaaallll day looooong.
For all those hard to wrap toys just find a bigger box and put the toy inside and then wrap the easy box. The giant cereal boxes from Costco work wonders. One year my parents used copy paper boxes from our office to wrap weird shaped stuff in.
My parents have also gotten into the habit of wrapping a picture or a miniature item for big items (think wheelbarrow/ladder for my brother) and then giving him a scavenger hunt to find it.
Post by mustardseed2007 on Dec 12, 2017 16:27:49 GMT -5
650 on the 2 kids(including that Star Wars Speeder), 250 on DH (too much), I asked for 1 thing and it's 130.
We spend a lot (or it seems to me like it's a lot) on Nieces and nephews also. At least we don't buy anything for the adults in his family and we buy a secret santa gifts for my extended family.
DH is into woodworking, so he usually makes a big present. Last year he made a toy box and this year he is making a train table. I’ll probably spend an additional $50ish per kid: pjs, personalized ornament, and book or small toy.
How much DH and I spend on each other varies a lot. We often use Christmas as an occasion to make a large purchase that we would make anyway (nice winter coat, power tools, etc.). Sometimes that can be up to $500. If there’s not a particular large purchase, I’d say we typically spend $100-150 on each other.
Not counting daycare and other service providers, we probably spend $500-600 on other family members, gift exchanges, hostess gifts, etc.
mustardseed2007 - but do you buy all year too? Like for us - i haven’t bought new winter clothes for me, and DH would buy a new Surface anyway. It might not be so bad....
mustardseed2007 - but do you buy all year too? Like for us - i haven’t bought new winter clothes for me, and DH would buy a new Surface anyway. It might not be so bad....
I don't buy much all year for the kids but they have everything they could ever really need anyway. Really I guess that we were doing really well until I decided that we should buy them a power wheel car, that kind of busted everything wide open.
We do about 100-150 on DS which includes his stocking. I try to keep h and I at $50 each but he always blows past that. My cousins kids I cap at $10 each and everyone else is about $20-$30. Since we have such large extended families it ends up being about $800 for everything.