What's a reasonable holiday gift budget?

[trcy]

DH and I want to put away money every month for Christmas gifts. He wants to aim for $1200, I was thinking somewhere between$600-$800. We really don't need to buy for that many people. Here is our list.
DD
DS
My mom
His dad
3 family friend's kids (not the friends, just their kids) we keep these at $20 each max.
Another family we are friends with, usually $75-100 total for them
DH and I don't get each other Christmas gifts.
So your thoughts? What is a responsible amount to save? TIA!

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[SnuggleBuggles]

What about extras like teachers? I see no reason not to budget for more. That way you have the money if you want to spend it. If you don't then just roll it over for next year or another occasion.
Let's see, back when I paid more attention to the budget:
kids up to $300 each (some years less, some years we did a big family present instead like a Wii)
parents $75 each
never exchanged with family friends but would probably budget $40/ family

We always buy for siblings too and that's another $50-75/ each. We do a Secret Santa now with a limit of $75. I need to clarify that this year as several gifted like $30 instead...

[sadbunny]

I think how you view christmas really impacts how much you want to spend on gifts. I've seen some relatives (sister-in-law) buy multiple nice gifts for their kids and relatives. She grew up with very little for christmas and she wants for her children to really see the magic of opening gifts that she missed out on. She loves doing a lot of christmas traditions for them too. But I kind of feel like my kids have everything they need. And yes there are some wants but they would not miss them if they didn't get them. I know because when I've gotten them, they've forgotten about them in a week's time. So our budget is around $600 for everyone (including teachers etc.). My goal is to have something fun for them to open on Christmas day.

[bisous]

I think how you view christmas really impacts how much you want to spend on gifts. I've seen some relatives (sister-in-law) buy multiple nice gifts for their kids and relatives. She grew up with very little for christmas and she wants for her children to really see the magic of opening gifts that she missed out on. She loves doing a lot of christmas traditions for them too. But I kind of feel like my kids have everything they need. And yes there are some wants but they would not miss them if they didn't get them. I know because when I've gotten them, they've forgotten about them in a week's time. So our budget is around $600 for everyone (including teachers etc.). My goal is to have something fun for them to open on Christmas day.

I found myself nodding my head to your whole post and then you got to your budget and that’s mine too! For us it breaks down that we spend about $400 on the kids and $200 on grandparents, family exchange gifts, each other, and teachers. I think we were actually under last year.

[georgiegirl]

We’ve never really had an overall budget. There are certain people I have budgets for. Generally $50ish each on nieces/nephews, sibling couples, and parent couples (that’s about 400 or so). For my kids, it really depends on what they need. We are lucky to have enough money not to have to stick to a strict budget. We don’t go overboard though. When the kids were smaller, we generally budgeted about $100 a kid. Now, we spend more because they like/need more expensive things (iphone, video game console, etc.)


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[LD92599]

I generally do approx $1000 but that covers:

my huge annual cookie baking
our tree, cards, stamps, etc.
all gifts. we do have a small family and only 2 kids; I give to our 3 nieces/nephews but not to siblings.
I'll supplement sometimes w/ gift cards for parents from our credit card points.

[khalloc]

I tend to go overboard on Christmas for my kids. So now that they are older its like $450-$500 each. So thats $1000 right there on them. I spend like $100 on DH. DH has 3 sisters + bro-in-laws so another $50 for each couple. Plus 3 nephews, so another $25 each there. Now I'm at $1325. $50 on MIL, about $50 on each of my parents and $50 on my brother. So I guess $1500 covers all of that. But DH might spend $200ish on me and I dont do teacher gifts usually. I spend about $40 on the dog too - she loves opening gifts.

[firstbaby]

If you can swing the $1200 without impacting other savings goals, I would go for that. There's no downside to having more set aside and there may be something special that comes up with you want to splurge on (special day trip, holiday show, etc) and that won't impact your operation budget. I would also closely track what you spend this year to see what a realistic number is - you may be surprised once you factor in "small" gifts like teachers, mom's group gift exchange, charitable donations, etc what the TOTAL spend is.

I won't put a number on our holiday gift budget because it's an outlier with these other numbers :) We have our kids, 13 nieces and nephews, parents, ILs and siblings, significant others, charitable giving, kids we sponsor, teachers, etc and the number adds up quickly. We've always done 2-3 gifts total for our kids, but the older they get the more expensive their wish list gets. I start keeping an eye out for gifts in July / August and writing down ideas in August / September so that it isn't a crazy shopping blitz during the season.

[Melaine]

We don't really budget per se for the holidays but probably should. We definitely watch our spending. I think a lower budget is reasonable for the gift needs you describe, but for our family we tend to spend more across the board in the holiday season, so I suggest you broaden your category. We don't spend a bunch on gifts that go under the tree but we do have a lot more incidental expenses that savings would help with. Examples: new holiday decor, a fresh tree, holiday clothing, grabbing a cheesecake for a holiday party, extra traveling, eating out more frequently, special holiday shows (nutcracker play, White Christmas is coming to some theaters!), lights at the zoo. (Me never getting my haircut but suddenly splurging around the holidays). Just making a turkey dinner for family is pricey. I like the idea of putting money aside to take the stress off during December.