With Christmas approaching, I was hoping to draw on the collective knowledge of Ozbargain to try and understand how much the average person spends on Christmas presents per child.
Note: This information WILL be used in negotiations with Elgrande Junior
I was serious in asking these questions, and a little disappointed with no response from OP.
The age of the child is important, obviously, in regard to expectations.
OP's income is similarly important, as the spend value should be related to OP's wealth (or not).
plus number of kids too….. if 1 child you can go a little higher, but if the OP has 6 kids, then well, a lower per kid cost is needed.
Yep; I assumed only 1 child as referenced by OP (or maybe they have a favourite).
@GG57: Yes I assume the OP has one too, but asking us what we spend per child, has failed to factor in how many kidlets we have etc.
When there is 1-2 kidlets, maybe $150-200/each, but when you enter the 3-4 kidlet range, its closer to $100-150/each etc.
@JimmyF: Valid points.
OP did say 'average person', so should we assume:
1-2 kids, primary school age
Parents employed (1FT, 1PT)
Medium income levels, with mortgage and usual outgoings; no wage increases in the last 5 years
Can afford Christmas lunch
What do we assume about nephews / nieces and other extended family that we also need to budget for?
OP did say 'average person', so should we assume:
- 1-2 kids, primary school age
- Parents employed (1FT, 1PT)
- Medium income levels, with mortgage and usual outgoings; no wage increases in the last 5 years
- Can afford Christmas lunch
Wow… excepting the kids ages, apparently I'm an 'average person'.
1 child Jimmy
Age is 13
What are they asking for? A 13 year old is probably not going to be cheap.
I don't think it depends on those - the answer is "< $100" in all cases :D
This information WILL be used in negotiations with Elgrande Junior
Oh really?
I give the kids aaaaaanything they want!
An iPhone, MacBook and anything that's "in" at the time! :p
Let us know how your negotiations go haha
Is that you Elgrande junior?
I can't imagine why you'd need to negotiate with your kids.
You get what you get but you don't get upset :)
Tell your child he/she should be happy to sleep under a roof at night
Username checks out LOL
I make investments for each of my kids, usually an $80k Merc.
starts low so you don't set their expectation high.
Presents don;t need to be expensive anyway.
$0.
Too much!
It starts low and reasonable then I stupidly keep adding stuff.
Presence > presents. Most kids in ten years time will not remember what they got for Christmas, they will remember special moments. How many of your Christmas presents as a kid do you still remember? I remember one or two but I have much fonder memories of the big gatherings of singing and dancing and of the incredibly bad jokes my late uncle used to make. I honestly could not tell you whether my parents spent $10 or $1,000 on gifts for me.
"How many of your Christmas presents as a kid do you still remember?"
Whipped out my old boombox yesterday (crap internet was making listening to the radio annoying), I got it 36 years ago….
Thankfully radio is still analogue.
.
Bam!
I love this response so damn much…
One of my favourite Christmases was when I was 12… We'd been wiped out with a freak hail even in November (ie: no harvest, no income that year), but the folks made sure there was something under the tree, small gifts, but gifts no less, and we were together… It's not gift… It's the moments shared. This has stuck with me for the last 25 years.
<Insert the lump of coal and birch twig thrashing chestnut here.>
enough for them to move out
$800 cash. Don't spend it on presents.
Well, to be honest, it really depends on the child. If it is a good high scoring student, $800 cash. If not, maybe buy them a computer with an emphasis on video editing/data crunching and no discrete GPU instead.
No GPU acceleration :( poor kid
I've lost track. I buy stuff throughout the year when it's on offer. I put it in the cupboard and save it until Xmas.
Never buy children at Christmas, wait for Boxing Day sales.
Where do you buy children at Christmas/Boxing day sales?
Goodwill stores … first shelf near exit.
Couldn't eat a whole one anyway.
I find our families spoil my daughter so we just go with one gift she's asked for all year. Sometimes $50 sometimes $250.
my kids have come to learn if it doesn't have a sale tag on it, we are not buying it.
I love this
So if flights to Disneyland Paris was on sale they can get that, but they'll have to save up to get in? :P That's brilliant.
we teach them that everything they do has consequences and sacrifices. If you want something you need to give up something..
like if you want that toy, half will come out of their pocket money and the other half you have to earn through doing different tasks or learning something new. I can buy it now, but you'll only get it when you have satisfied all the requirements to receive it.
every scenario is different depending on how good they have been will determine how hard we make it for them to achieve their goal. we don't set goals that are unobtainable.
This would be me! 'Sorry kids, it's full price, so we can't buy it.' I never buy anything full price so it fits :) (including food)
are we talking Santa age?
those presents are 'free'
.
If you don't believe in Santa, Santa won't believe in you 🤣🤣🤣. Never fails
~$500k income household.
About $1000 per child.
We used to do 1k per kid when they were younger. Now they are 21 and 17 maybe $500.
Wouldn't you give them more if anything due to inflation?
Yeah, it should be more. However, there is probably something else in the play such as change in attitudes as they grow up.
I gave my kids the gift of life.
That should be enough
Life is accompanied by the inevitability of death though
1k per kid? Y'all are nuts.
I have 4 kids and they all have birthdays within two months either side of Chrissy. I buy stuff throughout the year and divvy it up between Xmas and their bday. It works out about $200-$250 per kid for both Xmas and bday combined.
The baby gets barely any presents from me! He doesn't know. Family gets him crap anyway. He plays with wrapping paper. I buy presents when they turn 2yo/second Christmas.
I give my kid a vanguard investment fund.
true, little kids are more interested with the boxes than the actual presents
Back in my day i was happy with Toy Story on VHS
Original or a dub?
Because you're talking original, that's well fancy.
Zip.
Little turds are a constant drain on you through the year, why throw more good money after bad?
Gotta scale it. Start at maybe 50, gradually work up to 100 at around 14 and keep it there. The really good stuff is saved for birthdays, and even then 200 max once they reach their teens. I wonder how many rich people spending 1000 on their kids' presents realise they're probably raising spoilt douchebags?
it's not the amount of money spent or the type of presents given that determines whether they are douchebags. they are douchebags because the parent raised them to be douchebags. the kids are a reflection on the parents.
I think there is a definite correlation between kids always receiving very expensive gifts and being entitled douchebags, can't be sure it's the main cause but from my experience there is a definite correlation.
There should be a <50 option as Christmas is not about the presents.
Christmas is not about the presents.
ROFLCOPTERS.
There's always one goody-goody to reply….
I had kids so that they could buy ME presents!
Funny, but rather delusional….
Enjoy an endless supply of macaroni art.
Cost will also depend on how much you spend during the year and on Birthdays. Christmas is usually between $100-$200 for my 2 year old, the only other time he gets big ticket (bike, scooter, membership to something, etc) is his birthday or if grandparents buy it. We also rarely buy him any thing extra during the year which isn’t educational (books, flash cards etc) or clothing. I’m looking to increase the budget to $250 as he gets older.
Three children. $100 each for Christmas and for birthday. Major birthdays (e.g. 18),$200, with a party. We were on modest incomes, and it's true that the way you celebrate counts a lot. Some of their happiest memories were pirate,/pop parties running around in the garden doing treasure hunts.
We'll normally get the eldest one big present and a few little ones.
Lego is bloody expensive, especially the big sets - that's what the big present normally is. So $100-150.
Plus the little items comes to around $200.
Somewhere around $200-$250 I think?
~$130K combined income.
Knew someone in my teens who also got presents (not chocolate) for Easter which I thought was unusual
I'd probably say about $200ish but depends on the age. The other way is 1 main present and then cheaper gifts. I usually tried to buy things on sale or through the year so that initial budget could be equivalent to $300+ depending on how many bargains I found.
Kmart = buy a present for each child for < $10!
$1
0
too much toys sitting there already enough for 10 kids……….
depends on yearly performance review of the jr and whether they met their kpi's
Usually $150 S200 spend on each each except for the
Xmas before starting high school when they get a mobile phone for Xmas with a prepaid annual Kogan plan
I have 3 kids and one on the way. Our combined income is over 200k at the moment. 100 each plus a gift for the 'house'
spend more money before xmas lol..
The amount spent is relative to your income and level of debt.
And you shouldn't negotiate with terrorists
they can pick 5 items each from Daiso.
3 kids, combined income of 1300 per week. So far spent at $400 on the oldest, $200 on middle and $300 on youngest. per child (10,6,4). Plus a trampoline for them all.
Age of child?
Your income?