Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

my darling will only be 2.5 months at christmas, so we won't be buying him anything besides stuff we'd need to buy him anyway.

going forward, we will probably do for him something similar to what we do for our nieces and god children (just on a grander scale...b/c you know, he's mine )...we'll put money in his savings account, buy him a gift or two, and TAKE him on an adventure.
the kids really look forward to our adventure gifts now and I want to impart that to Luce.

I am not really a big fan of toys at all to be honest. unless they are either learning toys or something that they won't outgrow...like a train set or a backyard playground.

we also want him to understand (after a certain age) that the trips we take as a family, the extra curricular things he will do, are also gifts that we give him throughout the year, including special shows (like the Christmas Spectacular, Cirque du Soleil, Transformers on Ice whatever the case may be.

I am a big fan of the act of opening gifts though, so I'll have to be creative with the tickets and such on Christmas Eve/Day.

ETA: we don't really have an idea of budget. this year may be $100...next year we could take a trip to Milan that will be $2k. it's more the "what do I want him to experience/have" rather than dividing up a certain dollar amount to have "enough" gifts under the tree, ya know

Message edited 11/23/2009 11:37:17 AM.

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

My DS will only be 5 months so I plan on getting him a few toys but nothing crazy. I think my mom and dad will spoil him though. DH and I only get each other one small present and we get our family members one small nice present. We do not go crazy. We don't have the $ to spend and be extravagant.

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

DD will only be 2.5 months; DH and I are buying her one gift each and then I want to start a collection of some sort for her.

I also prefer experiences to gifts so I'd like to "do" something as a family. Not sure what yet!

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

I would say around 100-125 more or less + we also put money in her college fund every bday and Xmas. (more than what we put there every month)

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

Probably $50 or so each child. They get lots of toys and clothing from family and friends - in fact I still have a few toys in storage from last year.

We buy so much for them throughout the year and nothing holds us back. Its not incredibly important to me to spend a whole lot of money at Christmas for toys they only want to open and play with for a brief moment because thats what happens every year. They get overwhelmed with all their toys and after a short period of time they get tired of them all. We like to spread it out throughout the year and buy something small that they could open at xmas from us. The family and friends could spoil them to pieces! lol

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

Well the past few years was around $150 a child. This year it's around $200 for both. But I also sold a lot of things on ebay and bought some toys that way.

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who responded. I appreciate it. I was just really curious what everyone else does.
And Jess, I love the idea of DOING something as part of the gift. I don't know why I never thought of that, especially since my sister and BIL take their nieces (including Ava) to the city every year to a show and dinner or to the tree, etc., as part of their gift. I love that idea!

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

This year will be different since we are struggling. We seem to be struggling every year but we just recently were hit with costly car repairs, so adios Xmas money...

Usually we sped about 200.00-300.00 each on the girls (they want items like cameras, Ipods, Ugg boots, etc - they are teenagers) and about 150-200 for Cailen (I usually buy clothes for him with this as well since he needs it)

This year we are buying some action figures for Cailen - he doesn't need anything major, and the girls one nice item each - so a total of maybe 300 for everyone.

I am using the money I made working my 2 extra jobs - so hopefully we have a little more, but truthfully, we need it to pay our bills.

One day we will be able to spoil them a little more, but until then, we hope they know how hard we try for them!

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

Especially this year, with DC#5 (#2 for me, #5 for DH) on the way and an extension on our house about to begin, I am buying everything online and keeping it as low as possible. I refuse to spend more than $100 per child, and since DD is only 13 months and has no idea about Christmas, she is getting 3 presents which totaled about $50.

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

My family buys him so much, I really don't spend anything on gifts for him.

They will easily spend $500+ on toys, and they buy all of his clothes throughout the year.

I put money into his bank account for Christmas and his birthday. I just can't see spending any more on toys.

Re: I have a very personal question if you celebrate Christmas....

We have one daughter age 20 months and we spent about $250 on her.

Step2 Kitchen $100
Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair and Personalized Cover $89
Fisher Price Learning Zoo $48
Stocking Stuffer gifts $20

The kitchen was $169 and we got for $100. The Pottery Barn chair I got brand new on eBay for $60 (with money I got from selling used stuff), the chair cover wsa $29. The Learning Zoo I got on sale and the stocking stuffer gifts I got on sale as well.