I have spent about $120 on each child (i think)

DS is getting 1 big present a cozy coupe and 2 free huggies presents (laptop and activity block) plus his xmas eve pjs and his xmas day outfit and a couple of things for his santa sack.

DD has 3 smaller presents a doctors kit, a tool set and a leap frog laptop plus her xmas eve pjs and her xmas day outfit plus a few things for her santa sack and a moonhopper from santa.

Also I'm not worried that they have different amounts of presents but do you always have to make sure they each have the same amount of presents??
I'm pretty sure mine are too young to notice this year, hehe Santa and mummy even have the same wrapping paper!

I haven't brought any presents. Dh brought a couple of things in USA, we won a bike for Harry in Feb. But dh did go and spend $800 the other day on Santa presents, which is ridiculous and I was really cross at him. His argument was he works hard and if he wants to buy nice things for his kids he would. They don't need them and I think it just makes them spoilt/expectant.

Personally RD I would prefer to set a limit of 120-150, like you guys have. Next year I'm going to pre-empt dh and agree on a amount and strategy.

I think thats a good limit Shipmate!

Next year we are not buying birthday (they will get a small token gift) or xmas presents and we are going in with both sets of grandparents to buy them a big wooden playhouse.

They will still get their xmas pjs and xmas day outfits and their santa stockings but the only other present they get will be the playhouse.

Just totalled it up yesterday and we spent $185 on the youngest two and $210 on the oldest. That doesn't include their Xmas outfit though.

Yeah, DH is the same. In the w/e he went out and bought 14yr old DS a playstation 3 which I was very against. He has PS2, so can't see why he needs the latest of everything. This is when DS has a $2500 trip to Oz, for school next year which DH has volunteered to go as parent help, so that $5000 on that.

And I've said its not fair on 16yr old DD who is only getting a fraction of that amount spent on her. Her's so far is clothes etc, which to be honest she needs anyway. But she is way too fussy, so knows about it all anyway.

Way too much.
Probably around $300 each kid.
I started shopping really early and putting things away, and forgot half of what I had bought! So they have ended up with more than usual.

In my defence though I have made them have a big clean out of toys they don't play with any more and we have taken them to the Salvation Army shop.

i didn't count. i love christmas though and plan for it all year i *think* i have bought less than last year but then at the same time i bought a trampoline as well, and my youngest is getting a bed/drawers which he needed anyway so we just coincided with christmas etc. but i try and buy things that they NEED rather than just toys for the sake of it, so they get lots of clothes and books and things like that... and i have made a bunch of things for T's 'new' room.

i think how things are given depends a lot on whether kids are spoiled or not, we also make sure we give back at this time of year and we talk a lot about people who are less fortunate than ourselves. we also talk about how different things cost different amounts so someone might get a small present and someone might get a big present but that doesn't mean the big present is better or cost more. and we talk about how it's not just about getting nice things, it's also about the good feeling you get when giving things to other people that make them happy, and being able to spend time with family, and things like that.

I am not counting either. I don't feel the need to justify why we spend what we do on our kids. It is important to me that the kids have lovely things and have Christmas like I never had as a child. We have a wonderful day spending it with family and my kids don't have any expectations and I don't feel like we spoil them.

I think I have spent about $200 on each of the big kids, I've hardly spent anything on the baby as all he really needs is clothes and I'll pick those up in the post Christmas sales.

I love going all out at Christmas but have been very controlled this year as it really is just not nescessary as we already have 3 bedrooms full of toys.

They have lots of aunts and uncles that buy for them also so they are getting gifts coming from all directions

FARK! That sounds like something my DP would do. he never does the xmas shopping because if he did, he would get silly like that and i would have to throttle him.

I would kill my DH. But thats only because we can't afford that. Otherwise I would be happy to let him do that

We spent about $200 on the biggest boy, spread over the year on layby, and the poor new bubba got $40 They both get alot from lots of family too

DH never does xmas shopping either. He said one night, I might go out and buy the boys their santa presents, I said OK cool, don't go silly!!!! (famous last words) I think all the time hes been away this year has made him feel bad, but the boys think hes a super dad, hes even joined as a Scout leader this year.

I remember one year at my parents home, between our kids and my brothers kids you couldn't see the lounge floor from all the gifts, it was just silly, in the end the kids were getting bored from opening things and not paying attention to the gift or who it was from, it made a huge impact on me and I try really hard to buy a few things, so that they appreciate what they get. I agree with you teacup its also a time to teach them about children less fortunate and other good life lessons.

LOL my hubbies the opposite....tight

my brother & sister in law tend to go crazy at christmas but as they said one day they missed out on a bit when they were kids so enjoying giving what they can to their children

Admittedly we go a bit crazy with our kids. They are very precious to us and they miss out on a lot of time with me. It's probably guilt spending but I really enjoy it.

We'v probably spent in the $150-200 per child but I hven't added up so not sure. 80% of it I have picked up over the year (some stuff half price etc) so the actual $$$ that we have spent this time of year is small.

I am not sure to be honest, but I have been quite careful, not so much about the amount but what they are getting. Like you Suomi we had a MASSIVE cull last week and took 3 rubbish bags up to the Salvation army store, my oldest found this a bit challenging, he understood the concept and wanted to do it, but he found it hard to let go!
I returned some big items I had bought in the mid-year sales ( a Harry Potter lego castle!) as I just thought it was over the top, and the plan had been for the boys to get an iPad as a combined gift from my family, but I also pulled the plug on that too, as I just felt like WTF is left if they get all that for Christmas?

So, they are getting a day trip to Rainbows End from my brother, that he and Dh will take them on, lego city Rocket that Santa will give to both of them , with instructions that they must play nicely together and apart from that it is virtually all books that I bought from Amazon UK.

DD is getting a home made play kitchen and I ordered some wooden food from the States that hasn't arrived yet, fingers crossed.

My DH is a bit like yours SM, he wanted to buy them an $1800 play house! I put the cob wash on that too, I know with my Dh he wants to give his kids ANYTHNG that he can, we were talking the other day about how he only eats once a day, and the bad effect this has on his blood sugar, and he said that because food is so expensive he does not want to waste our food and only wants to eat once a day s there is more for the kids! Men are so weird, I can't believe he thinks like that.

I have to fight their Nana every step of the way, she is way over the top, Christmas is full of tension every year as she resents how strictly I tell her what she can and can't buy, I just try to re-direct her urge to indulge into things that are actually useful, I don't want spoilt kids and a house full of crap.

We've done about $100 per girl I think however as we bought most of it on sale, there seems to be HEAPS! Too much infact! We're going to go thru it in a couple of days and work out what to give for Xmas and what to keep for either birthdays or Xmas next year.

We always try to do a similar amount but as they get older and their tastes change, they'll probably get different amounts (as long as it's all evens up over the years). For example, X might get a laptop at 13 but as an 11 year old H won't need one and she sure as heck won't be getting $1000 spent on her as well lol

I have done $100 per girl from us, and then not sure what i spent on the stockings.
Braxton is getting 3 toys and then the stocking which has clothes and toys and bowls in it.
Though i had brought other things like clothes, and made skirts etc but Meh....i also try to make xmas nice for the girls coz i missed out a lot as a kid, and my dad always had to make it up to me, coz my birth mum was selfish and i never got anything.

Shippie - to the 800 but oh thats sweet of your DH, what did he buy must have come home with a lot of bags

Lol - my DH usually doesn't even know what I've bought the kids so he sits there on Christmas morning as in the dark as they are But this year he has apparently bought the kids something really awesome, but he won't tell me what it is. It was meant to be a family gift for me as well, but his Mum told him I would divorce him if he didn't get me something for me (she seems to live in constant fear that I am going to leave him because of his hobbies ) so I'm guessing it is something outdoorsy to do with hunting/fishing/tramping/boating.

I scored some cheap second hand outdoor toys for J off trade me so we are going to set up a playground for her for Christmas morning. We had a plan to give C DH's ipod touch because he doesn't use it, but we can't find it, so I ended up spending a bit on a second-hand one off Trade Me. She has been told that because we are spoiling them (we couldn't be bothered trying to hide the playground stuff of J's) they will only get a stocking from Santa (we spent about $10 on stuff for those). Usually most presents come from Santa. I also had already bought some toys for J from the Farmers Toy Sale so I gave them to my family to give to her because otherwise I felt that she was really getting too much.

For me it is less about the money spent and more about what they want (and what won't clutter up the house too much ). I also tend not to buy expensive things new.

I'm spending a lot of money on DH for his 30th which is on Boxing Day - but again only because what I want to get him is expensive, rather than because I went out with an aim to spend X amount.