Monday, December 8, 2008

Bah Humbug?

I need to know. How much are other people spending on their children for Christmas gifts? This is a serious point of contention in our household, between Tim and I, not the kids.

Do you spend the same amount on each child, regardless of age or what is on their wish list? Do older kids score more dollar-wise than little kids? 

I don't want to be the Burgermeister (plus, Tim already has that job), but I just don't see iPod Touch and new snowboards in our budget this Christmas. Sorry.

I really want to inhale a big whiff of Christmas cheer and get in the spirit, but it's all feeling a little too commercial to me this year. The difference this year is that I usually heart commercial when I am in the thick of it spending the cash. This year's budget necessitates a return to Christmas simplicity, and I'm not quite sure how that translates to children.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't have kids, but I'm not going over $50 for anyone on my list this year. And I'm getting stuff that people need. My mom's been looking at the power drills for months now. So that's what I'm getting her. Is that wrong? I really just want to hang out with the fam, eat a little good food, drink a lot of good drink, and play Wii. I don't want anything. I hope everyone else feels the same. The best Christmas I remember as a child was when my sis, my bro, and I got the original Nintendo. That was our present. It came with two controllers, a gun, Duck Hunt, and Super Mario Bros. I don't think we got another game for a year or so. I also got a Sweet Valley Twins book and a bar of chocolate. So that was like $45pp (in 1988). Can kids be happy nowadays with so little? IDK. Good luck!

Anna Whiston-Donaldson said...

I've spent $150 total on each kid. Books, clothes, Legos, a karoke machine. My biggest problem is that ea. time I go to a store, I end up buying stuff for myself. M and I went to Target to get paper products for a Christmas party, and I cam home with 2 rugs. BIG rugs. She said, "Mommmmm, what about your VISA bill??" Now T wants to buy 2 (yes, 2) flat screen TV's. The kids are so not the prob at our house.

Anna Whiston-Donaldson said...

Sorry about my typos. I need to go to bed. :)

Margy said...

I don't have kids but the nieces are getting $25 bucks each plus I am digging up old Christmas morning photos of their Dad (my brother)when he was their age and putting the pics in cute frames I already have but don't like anymore. I hope they like it - my brother goes over the top so I don't even try to compete. My fav memory of not getting what I want for Christmas was the year I wanted an Easy Bake Oven. Instead Santa left me a note saying he cut a deal with my Mom who would teach me how to cook in a real oven. I was crushed at first but when Mom & I did cook together, I had such a great time & enjoy cooking to this day. So..I guess I wasn't very much help.

Lisa Wheeler Milton said...

The commercial is so overrated. They rarely remember what they received - can you? - and it ups the ante each year.

We're doing one big fun family thing and some other small things, including clothes because my kids are weeds, I tell you.

Try not to stress.

Amy *aka willa* said...

I usually spend about $100 on each kid, but this year because we are already on such a tight budget, we're scaling back to probably $40 each.

Our tree(s) have been up for a week now, we've watched Charlie Brown, Shrek and The Grinch Christmas specials. Sophia's watched her Barbie Christmas movie like a quadrillion times.

We're going to make cookies and take them down to the fire station/police department tomorrow.

We're going to watch the Christmas ships in a couple of weeks.

We'll go grab hot cocoa and drive around looking at Christmas lights.

We'll make a holiday video and post it for family across the country.

There are wish lists, and there's already talk of things that I can't afford in any year, especially not this one. I plan on taking my Christmas money to #1) OMSI store, and then #2) Local music store and then #3) Dollar Tree for stocking stuffers.

We're trying to make this year more about experiences and celebrating the entire season, not just the huge build up and crescendo to Christmas morning. Everything gets broken/lost/played out by that night anyway.

I'm really not all that worried about presents, actually. I have better things to invest in than stuff.