So, how much?
I ask because my sister asked me to get her son a toy that turns out to be 80 bucks! I have one kid, she has two and so does my husband’s brother. I did say that’s about twice as much as I care to spend and I’d like to get a feel for how much others spend. Does it depend on whether you have kids yourself? If so, does it depend on how many you have compared to the other families?
I have my sister has a son and a daughter, and my BIL has a son. This year, my sister’s kids are each getting a $40 gift card - tho I don’t know why I bother with that nephew - he has YET to thank me for any gift, and he’s 14 this year.
I usually spend about the same on my other nephew - a small toy or game, and a gift card (he’s 10 this year).
Three of my sibs and one BIL have no kids, so my daughter makes out like a bandit every year.
Oh, stop whining 
.
I have two grown-up daughters. My sister has 2 grown-up children as well. My kids are not reproducing, at least not yet. However, my sister is a great-grandmother!!! So I have a niece, a nephew, a great-niece, a great-nephew *and *, now, a great-great niece, who all expect presents. Not to mention my niece’s husband. I draw the line on the great-niece’s husband, whom I have never met.
I have in the past given them gifts worth from $25 to $50, mostly gift certificates since they cost less to put in the mail. I rarely get a “thank-you” card or call, so I don’t know why I bother, but none of them are especially well off, and they are family, so I feel like I should help out somehow.
I’ve spent as much as $120 on a present for a niece or nephew if it was something really cool that I knew the child would love, but most of my presents to them have been in $30-40 range.
I have no kids of my own, so I consider getting cool gifts for my siblings’ children to be part of my duty as an aunt.
I spend between $20 and $30 on each kid (both my and spouse’s family.)
All but one of us have two kids.
And yeah, the only thank-you notes we get come from my side of the family.
Wow, I can’t imagine being asked to get an $80 gift for anyone.
Is there a special reason your sister is asking?
I agree – that is TOTALLY out of line, especially since you (the O.P.) have a child of your own. (I add that proviso since I am a childless aunt, thus expected to go a little nuts when it comes to buying presents for nieces and nephews. Even so, I would thinK LONG and HARD before going over $50 for a Christmas present for them. And I certainly wouldn’t do it on demand.)
Nothing. The first year my nephew understood Christmas I went and got him the hot new toy on the market. I was quite poor at the time, but my girlfriend worked at Woolworth’s and she had one saved for me and I paid it off slowly. My sister-in-law asked that I return it because her best friend got one too. I got him something else, but he got so much stuff he didn’t really understand who got him what.
After that I gave each of the kids a 50 dollar savings bond. One year I gave it to my sister-in-law and her youngest said “What’s that mommy?” And she said, “You know, that thing Uncle Khadaji gets you every year that you kids don’t like.” Since it was clear she wanted me to know that they didn’t appreciate the gift, I started spending my money on poor kids. and giving to Toys For Tots. So I spend nothing on them.
Three nieces, no kids of our own. We spend between $30 - $40 per kid, and probably closer to $30 on average.
I think being asked to spend $80 is a little nervy, IMHO. Of course context is everything, maybe she didn’t realize? Or just named something from the kid’s wish list without thinking about the price?
Now, I know I’m being catty to ask, but in the past, how much do you think she’s spent on gifts for your child? Of course, I’m sure you had the good grace not to speculate on how much the gifts cost at the time …
We’ve just got the one niece, and she’s only four months old, so this isn’t an issue that’s ever come up before for us. I made her a quilt for Christmas, and the materials for that ran…oh, ten bucks, maybe. I also ran across this adorable little scarf and mitten set that was labeled infant/toddler size at the Dollar Tree and picked that up for her too. So with our huge sample of one Christmas for one child too young to understand any of it, $11 is our average.
Call it about $20 or so. Now that they’re in High School it’s usually gift certificates (that’s what they want).
It varies every year.
I have 5 nieces and 1 nephew (with another on the way). Usually, I just look to see what’s out there. If I see something that’s just perfect, I’ll spend up to $40. Sometimes, I don’t buy anything. The family is enormous, so no one misses a present.
I don’t think I care for your SIL! I think you made the right decision.
Oh, and on preview, in response to delphica, I generally give her a 20 - 40 range gift off my son’s list to purchase. I wish it didn’t have to be like that and she would just get him something she thinks he would like. Of course, when I suggest that I give her children something that I thought of, rather than something off the list, she vetoes it everytime.
In my case, it really depends how much money I have to spend on them that year. I’ve had it range from $5 per person up to around $75 per person, depending on the year. Then again, with four of them to buy for, it can get costly very fast.
Then again, I have no kids myself, so I figure it’s my duty to spoil them as much as possible. 
I don’t go by a dollar amount, I buy something I think each child will enjoy. One kid may get a $10 item and his/her sibling may get a $40 item.
The above post was made by me, not stormchaser.
I didn’t realize he was logged in.
I give each nephew and niece about $50 to $60 worth of presents each Christmas. I give them presents till they are out of high school. It’s not easy to say how much the presents are worth, since I give a number of lesser-value things that add up to about $50 to $60. And what do I count for the value of a children’s book that I’ve owned for decades, which I then pass on to a niece or nephew?
In any case, no one should ever ask someone else for a present, neither for themselves or for their children. That’s as rude as a bride and groom telling a wedding guest how much they should spend for a wedding gift. My brothers and sisters understand perfectly well that they don’t ask me to give anything specific. They are polite enough to accept my presents gratefully, and they don’t ever mention if they find them a little strange.
I have 2 nieces and 3 nephews. No kids or spouse of my own.
My brothers, my sisters-in-law and I have an agreement that we won’t spend more than $25 on gifts for each other or for the kids. (It was getting out of hand for a while, and we like it better this way.) So I typically spend $15-$25 each.
The kids still get plenty of things between their grandparents and their parents. In fact, the kids seem to like some of the less expensive things best. Last year one niece could not be persuaded to leave a can of yellow Play Doh. She got a whole set to go with it and many other toys, but she was enchanted by the silly yellow Play Doh.
I have 4 kids to buy for, two here in the States and 2 in Germany.
I’ve taken to stockpiling presents for the ones in Germany and taking them everytime I visit so that the next birthday(s) and Christmas(es) are covered. They get books and/or books on tape. Depending on the book(s), I spend $20-$40 per kid per occasion.
The kids over here are harder to buy for because a) they already have way too much stuff, and b) my soon-to-be-ex-sister-in-law and her family are believers in extravagant Christmases and shower the kids with more junk that they don’t particularly need. So…if I come across something I think they will particulary like, I get it (if it’s in the $20-40 range); otherwise they get something really small and a gift card, which they actually seem to appreciate, even if they only add to the junk stockpile with it. My brother has started to work with them on donating toys they don’t play with any more, but he’s got an uphill battle.
GT
I have 9 nieces and nephews, plus there’s a largish group of us who were friends and became sort of extended family over the last few years, so there’s another 10 kids there we buy for. On average, we spend $20-30 per kid. Last year I asked my sister for a suggestion on what to get her son, and she mentioned a remote control truck that turned out to be $60, NOT including the $10 battery sold separately. I told her that was a bit out of my budget, and she offered to contribute half the cost. (As it turned out, I was able to get a 50% discount on the truck, so I ended up buying him the battery pack too, and I let my sister off the hook.)
Is there another auntie or uncle who would be willing to go “halfsies” with you on a bigger gift like this?
My husband has 2 nieces and I have one niece and two nephews. It’s been pretty difficult to find something that each one will like and that thier parents haven’t already bought the spoiled little things. Last year (after much frustration) we gave up on that and started a new tradition.
We decided to get each kid their own ornament. To make it special, we picked a “theme” for each child. One gets snowmen, on gets santas, one gets bears, on gets birds, and one gets snowflakes. I really enjoy shopping for the ornaments, and I think it’s nice because when they finally leave home for college or whatever, they’ll have their own collection of ornaments to take with them.
In addition to the ornaments we get on combined gift for each family. This year his nieces got their ornaments and 3 Shel Silverstein books. My niece and nephews will probably get a movie or video game in addition to their ornaments. That’ll run us about $10 to $15 per kid.