Last night I went shopping for my daughter’s birthday and Christmas presents for both of the Shibblets. It’s not something I look forward too, so much, but it’s not the worst shopping experience. This particular trip was to Meijers, which is a mixed grocery/general merchandise store in the midwest. They have a decent mix of toys, games, etc, although nothing too upscale. I’ll probably make another trip for a few more extravagant things to one of the local toy stores.
On last night’s trip I spent about $325, which was roughly the amount sent in checks from their grandparents/great grandmother. I’ll probably spend another couple of hundred on one more large item each and some books and maybe clothes. So total, for Christmas alone, I think will be around $400-500 for two children. Some friends of mine spend much more. I’m wondering, is this about in line with other’s Christmas spending habits? We don’t do much, if anything at all, in the way of gifts for adults. So I’m guessing we’re on the low-to-medium side, but would be interested to see where we fit in the mad dash for consumption…
I’m also intersted to know of any “Santa Claus” or Christmas traditions you do at home. I should mention that we also do St. Nicklaus day where the kids put their shoes out on December 6, where the kids put their shoes out and find them filled the next morning with sweets, fruits and a small toy or two. On Christmas night I eat whatever they’ve left for Santa, making sure some crumbs get left and some soot is smudged onto any notes. I’d put soot footprints on our carpet but Mrs. Shibboleth would kill me.
I don’t think we’ve ever spent more than $250-300 on our daughter, usually under $200. She doesn’t ask for a lot, and we do give her things for no apparent reason thru the year.
We did the Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny things for her, but she figured it all out at a pretty young age, and now that she’s 18, she’s long past that.
Hubby and I aren’t exchanging this year, and I don’t think we did last year. We tend to get what we want when we want it.
I don’t think my parents ever did proof-of-Santa stuff other than eating the cookies we left out. Although my dad did once point out on Christmas morning that some deer had been through our backyard… and we wondered whose deer they were…
I love shopping for my kids anytime. I would rather shop for them and my SO than for myself, so Christmas is a fun time for me. I think in total, we usually spend around $300 between the two of them. I would love to spend more, but that’s another story.
My sister and her husband spend probably about $200-$250 total for his two kids, but I think they’re going to try and cut down on the more extravagant gifts this year as they recently got a puppy.
They do a lot of Santa stuff. On Christmas Eve the kids write letters to Santa asking him for things; very general things like computer games, books, toys. I’m not sure how he explains how the letters get to Santa but they do. They also leave out cookies and milk, which I had the honor of Santa-ing last Christmas. I ate a cookie and left some crumbs, and poured out a bit of the milk. My sister and BIL leave a dish of carrots outside for the reindeer, which I also got to fiddle with. The little girl–she’s five–loves Santa, but I think the boy child is getting wise to the whole thing.
We probably spent about $100 this year including the tree. We don’t really do the mass market stuff. We tend to really shop around for really cool stuff at low prices instead of just splurging at one store.
Santa comes but he only fills the stocking. Everything else is from “Mama and Daddy.”
We allow the opening of one gift on Christmas Eve, which is from Mom and Dad and always contains pajamas. Christmas morning they run out and find something a bit special and extravagant, not wrapped, in front of the tree. That’s from Santa. He also fills the stockings. Mom and Dad’s gifts after that are clothes and books, then the grandparents buy everything else. And I do mean everything! The kids make out like bandits. All in all, I usually wind up spending around $300 dollars. Holy crap am I gonna be broke next month!:eek:
We’ve spent about $250 on our two kids this year. I could go get them more, but they get tons of stuff from their aunts and grandparents.
So what are the big presents parents are giving their kids this year? I got my 6yo girl two months of ballet and tap lessons, with a leotard, tights ballet and tap shoes to open on Christmas morning. My 3yo boy is getting a big pirate Playmobil set.(if only he was old enought to watch Pirates of the Carribean!)
Normally I keep spending on The Boy to $200 - $250. This year we’ll be going a bit over that for a drum kit, but that’s all he’s getting, plus a few stocking doodads.
Oh, and Christmas traditions. I’m afraid he’s gotten wise to the whole Santa deal, but he still likes to pretend that he believes. When he was younger, we’d leave the cookies out for Santa, and in the morning, he’d find a thank you note from Santa for the cookies. Santa is always included in his thank you notes, too.
For the years we’ve been living with KrustyKlown, we’ve also celebrated Hanukah, which has actually been a lot of fun for The Boy. He mostly gets little $5 trinkets for each day, but the last day is something a little bigger, maybe $10 or $15. And we always make sure to give him socks for one of the days, because that’s what KrustyKlown got every Hanukah and we think it’s hilarious.
Being Jewish, I adopted Mrs. Voyager’s family’s Christmas tradition, which is to have everyone in the immediate family group give to everyone - that is the presents come from everyone, not any particular person. We share the money after Christmas, shifting the burden depending on our ability to pay. This makes life easier since those who know what someone wants can get it. (Her parents are in therir mid-80s now, so we can take the burden of shopping from them without anyone feeling bad.) Another advantage is that we wrap up trivial presents, and joke about how cheap things were.
We probably spend around $1200 for six people, but it is getting lower as the kids get older and don’t need toys anymore.
As for Santa, we didn’t say yes or no, but let them figure it out. The youngest one never liked that Santa person, and said when little that her grandfather was Santa - basically correct.
We told the kids they would be getting something they need, something they Want-with-a-capital-W, a game, and a book from Mamma and Pappa this year. Santa only fills the stockings here at Casaflodnak. The Want gift for totnak is an easel and more art supplies; for flodjunior it’s an Xbox console and two games. With six years age difference between the boys, we have given up any pretence of spending the same amount on each of them, and instead try to give them an equal number of packages, chosen with equal care and thought.
We never do anything to make the kids believe Santa came. Flodjunior knows the score, and totnak will find out in his own good time.
