How much do you spend on Christmas?

Kerry25x

What does Christmas normally cost you?

I do the shopping for presents from me and my husband. I'd normally spend about €150 on presents for my parents, €40 each on my sisters and then all the nieces and nephews gets gifts for around a tenner each (have a ton of them), MIL around €70 and then always a €60 restaurant gift voucher for brother in law. Normally a secret santa at worker with a €20 budget. Husband and I aren't great at buying for each other at Christmas, we have joint finances and spoil each other year round but don't make a thing of occasions really. So probably around €600-€700 on gift shopping.

Decorations wise we use the tree and decorations that we found in the attic after we bought the house! Christmas dinner is normally at one of our parents house.

Have a small baby this year who is too young for Christmas but no doubt spending will go up a lot in the future with santa, more effort with decorating and dinner at home.

What do you spend?

I try not to pay too much attention to the cost overall - but I do not think it is too high really. We never saw any reason to do the Santa thing with our kids so that probably saved some money in the long run. And we do not buy gifts for each other either. So most of the expense is the event itself and not really gifts.

Shao Kahn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184483#Comment_118184483

Boooo! Boooo! 👎️

Allow kids to be innocent, and have some harmless fantasy in their early lives.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184483#Comment_118184483

We never saw any reason to do the Santa thing with our kids

wtf? you never saw any reason?

JimmyVik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184483#Comment_118184483

I would say easily €1000+

Also please dont do that with Santa.

Parents on 1 kid in my kids class did this and runied it for all of the other kids in the class. There were tears for years. It was a full time job trying to keep the magic alive for the rest of them after that. Have to say things like "Well they probably got coal for being bold and want to ruing it for everyone" or "Santa only comes to those who believe". Stuff like that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184561#Comment_118184561

What in the world makes you think I do not do any such thing? There are endless and numerous ways to achieve that. Just because I said I saw no reason to do it in one particular way brought you to the idea that I do not do it at all? :) That's funny. Your concern for my kids is appreciated of course! But it is in this case misplaced I assure you.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184596#Comment_118184596

No I saw no benefit from it at all. Not to the point that I complain or admonish other parents who do it or use it. But I simply have found no reason at all to bother with the whole concept/procedure ourselves in our own family. I could find no motivation at all to use it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184629#Comment_118184629

I have not had that issue with my kids at all. They are no more inclined to pass any comment when another kid mentions santa - than they are if another kid says something about "holy god". If a kid asks them "what are you getting from santa" they merely parse that as "what are you getting for christmas" and answer accordingly.

That said I am not inclined to make any given single parenting decision based on how it might affect parents who make the opposite decision - as a general rule. So I am not really inclined to take it too much on board here either anyway. But since it is not an issue in the first place - that doesnt matter.

These days though I think it is the kids selling the narrative to the parents - not the parents to the kids. With so much internet and mobile phone access - all kinds of social media and media content - I think kids are clued in at a much much younger age that santa is a fantasy parents use. So in my day where the parents worked hard to keep the kids beleiving in it as long as possible - I get the feeling these days it is the kids working hard to keep the parents convinced they are believing in it for as long as possible :)

redlad12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184483#Comment_118184483

Do you get your children Christmas presents though? Seems like you never bothered with Santa but still get them presents , so why the money saved?

Wanderer78

...as little as possible, probably less than 200

Shao Kahn

I think santa is good for stimulating a child's early imagination.

No harm at all in it. Plus it's just good fun for the kiddies.

Imagination is just as important as knowledge. Perhaps even more important in some respects.

Unless we want everyone to grow up being boring accountants with zero imagination. 😋 (no offence, we obviously need some accountants)

mariaalice

Not much at all, we have a family kris kringle most presents are books when the children were small Santa came I have great memories of Christmas when they were small however I do think its a bit odd that parents are upset when a 12-year-old doesn't believe anymore.

I do have a friend for whom Christmas was a huge even when the children were small it started with going as a family to pick the special tree followed by hot chocolate I suspect that might have been a reaction to the childhood they had.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184483#Comment_118184483

You really missed out on something special. Santa is so magical for children. The kids excitement in our house coming up to christmas is so special. In my daughters class their is a little girl who Santa never comes to either and its so sad for her. She is an only child and around christmas time all the other parents avoid asking this child to playdates days out etc. to avoid her potentially ruining it for all the other kids and actually making the child feel bad that they got nothing. You can see it that the child feels she is missing out or different.

zell12

Don't believe in Jesus, which is what Christmas is about, clue in name y'understand. So nothing is spent.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184830#Comment_118184830

maybe we should be calling it santiemas?

Thelonious Monk

Cheapplasticchinesetatmass

eeloe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184744#Comment_118184744

i fuckin wish.

i'm probably about 2k per year, while it drives me nuts, i do quite like buying gifts for my family.

thefallingman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184708#Comment_118184708

Honestly your two posts in this thread have shocked me more than any other i have ever read on boards and that's saying something. I can't help but feel very sorry for your kids.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184743#Comment_118184743

Nothing major to be honest. We try to focus on the time of christmas a lot more than the gifts of christmas. So they do not really get much in the way of gifts. Rather we try to make the time involved as much focused on them as possible. They get our undivided attention - we lay down memories and experiences they will treasure forever - and basically get much more of the "Christmas Spirit" that most of the Christmas movies keep trying to tell us that it is actually all about.

But even if they were getting gifts anyway - I think not doing Santa can (not always) save money. Mainly because Santa being this all powerful demi god thing - it is harder to but frugal in the face of the kids expectations. I remember as a kid myself when money must have been hard my parents coming to tell me that Santa wasn't doing so good this year so perhaps I needed to be a bit more reserved in my requests on my santa list that year. :)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184757#Comment_118184757

Agreed. Imagination and fantasy and play and role play and all that is massively important and I focus on it and developing it and playing with it and stimulating it as much as possible as a parent. The great thing about this - in the sprit of the actual topic of this thread (my post was not meant to derail or hijack the thread OP sorry!!!) - is that it can often be attained without any financial costs at all!

What I have noticed however is that at no point does actually believing it to be true - become a requirement in attaining any of that. So while actively telling a child something is true - that isn't - might indeed be a good way to stimulate such things - it is by no means a requirement.

I personally - this is me now and no value judgement on anyone else - prefer doing it without that requirement. And in fact there have been times with my children where we got so into something we were playing or doing that it was !them! that actually suddenly reminded !me! that "this is all just pretend daddy!". As if they were afraid we were getting so much into the imagination and fantasy that I had lost sight of reality :)

Do yea you will get no argument from me on anything you wrote there!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184807#Comment_118184807

The kids excitement coming up to Christmas is very special here too. Hell they basically start a count down sometime around May :)

There are multiple paths to the same destination. I can understand that people who have walked one path so many times in their life - first as kids themselves - then later as parents or similar - that the idea there are other paths to the same destination can at first seem like a shock or surprise. And that anyone on this before unseen other path must somehow be "missing out". But I can assure you that it is not necessarily so.

But trust me the moment I feel my kids are missing out on anything - I will be the first one to act! So far the exact opposite is true. Not only do I not think they are missing out - I have no idea whether or not other kids are missing out on some of their things.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184946#Comment_118184946

And as I said above - anyone's concern for my children is of course deeply appreciated. It is good to live in a world where the well being of my children is of a wider concern than just their parents.

I can assure you however that your concern - and any undue stress it may be causing you - is both unwarranted and misplaced. If you can find anyone who puts more time and effort and dedication into making their kids as happy and well brought up as I do then send them my way so I can learn from them.

But it is indeed interesting to me how deep seated the narrative of Santa with Christmas has become that any concept of a child doing one without the other elicits such shock and concern in the first place. That amazes me really.

boardlady

Taxacruel has dropped this bombshell before so I wasn't shocked! I had something similar as a child. I was told very young that there had been a St Nicholas and that he had died ... etc etc. BUT, we still did christmas, it was just that i knew from DOT that it was my parents. It was magic enough that they managed to buy the stuff, hide it for weeks and then make it appear under the tree on one morning! I never felt left out or lacking in any way. In fact, I liked 'knowing the truth' while my peers shited on about Santa 😂

thefallingman

I just think there’s few magical things in life and as a father I know how quickly they grow up and that magic is gone forever it just seems weird to me that’s all taxahcruel but happy your kids are good and I’m sure you’re a great parent 👍

Lillyfae

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118185080#Comment_118185080

I just hope your children enjoy the smell of your farts as much as you seem to.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118185287#Comment_118185287

Yeah life is really magic even without adding things to it. I have written many times on boards before about some of the magical things I have only done because of my children that I likely would never have done without. It goes both ways. Children can bring or restore magic and joy in life that we ourselves as Adults may not have had, or may have had and lost.

Probably one of the many that moved me the most was when we tried "Windowing" Chicken Eggs. It was quite the project.

Basically you cut a tiny "window" in a live egg and then seal it with transparent covering to keep the internals sterile and safe. But now you and you kids can use equipment to every day watch the actual development of the chick inside. From tiny all the way up to the yellow fluff the kids simply can't wait to see hatch so they can hold it and love it and name it.

Weeks of magic and awe and wonder and love and excitement and anticipation and joy. As I said I do not judge anyone who does do the Santa thing. There is no harm in it. It's just not for me. But it is interesting that tolerance does not go both ways. Try windowing sometime and then tell me that not being told a magic fat man is coming into the house to leave presents is somehow making them miss out on the joy and magic of life. :)

There is plenty of magic and wonder and imagination and joy to give children in life. Doing different ones to other parents does not make me any better - or worse - than them. Or my kids lives any more or less full than theirs. :)

EmmetSpiceland

@[Deleted User] this is shocking. Utterly shocking.

How on earth do you keep the kids “in line”, during the months of November and December, without the threat of Santa not coming? Actual parenting?!

Shocking.

Hehe (tongue similarly in cheek) I know man! And on Christmas day when I want to get drunk and have fights with the in laws - I can't even ignore my kids by telling them "go play with the things santa brought you and leave me alone!!". I have to actually - gulp - spend actual quality time with them over the entire holiday!!! </tongue>

Strumms

I’ve no idea, I never count it...

id guesstimate about 500-600 euros...max

about 200-250 of that would be on my folks... then I’ve a fair few other family members I’m close with and they have kids ...and my girlfriend and her family are all very generous people too.

FishOnABike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184830#Comment_118184830

Yuletide, Winterval, Saturnalia, Brumalia, Alban Arthuan ? Many of our Christmas traditions - Christmas tree, Yule log, Holly, ivy, mistletoe pre-date Christianity. Mid winter has been celebrated long before Christianity.

One good way to keep some Xmas expenses down with the kids is to "absorb" the costs into other things you would have been spending money on any way.

The kids are pretty into arts and crafts anyway so around this time of year we set about with them making Christmas decorations. For the walls and tree. A lot of that will be Christmas themed of course - being Christmas. But we like to pick two entirely random themes to build and create things to put on the walls and tree. This year we have gone for Covid and since I am 42 all this year - all things related to Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

So a lot of the baubles hanging off the tree this year will be shiny covid viruses and space ships and little android Marvins by the looks of things. And for the tree a few clever plays on the word "needles" (get it - the needles on the tree and so on). And the kids have been reading the HHGTTG books to each other which is sweet too. Interesting watching which parts of the humor the younger gets, the older one gets, and which they both entirely miss.

They quite like building and making things as presents for all the grand parents too. Looking forward to what they come up with for that this year!

Gonna be a big dinner in the house for Xmas this year it seems. Everyone coming here. It's a lotta people.

Neames

I used to buy gifts for brothers, sisters, their kids...cost a small fortune and sometimes wasn't even thanked. Received nothing in return.

Pulled the plug in this years ago.

Now I buy for the Mrs and our kid. Cost of Christmas about a grand...I buy them both something fairly decent.

BeerWolf

€2000 would be the limit on my budget for Christmas gifts.

Not much at all. The nieces and nephews have everything they need. And they don't value money so dont give them any cash. I like to go out for a nice meal or afternoon tea, that sort of thing.

elperello

Every day is Christmas nowadays.

About €200 for extra completely unnecessary indulgences.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184483#Comment_118184483

You're dead right, all Santa does is make kids materialistic and believe Christmas is all about getting stuff.

Christmas should be more about families and get togethers and being grateful. Fecking Santy🙄