Holiday Shopping and Randoms

[wegrowsheep]

Never too early to start shopping, soooo:

For Christmas (or whatever brand of holiday you do), what's your budget breakdown for immediate family, IL's, nieces/nephews, etc?

And do you have any fabulous (frugal, extravagant, creative) ideas to share?

I have 11 nieces and nephews. DH and I have decided to go with gifts under $10 for kids. On my side, my brothers and SIL go with the "shop for the kids and our parents, not each other" approach. DH's side has always done a name draw with a $30 limit, so $60 per couple.

I've always done a baking theme for the kids' gifts (and candy, because I like being the favorite aunty!) so kids whisks and bowls, aprons, etc.

[carolyngrace]

Both sides of my family still exchange gifts with the adults. Which I think is ridiculous, since there are now three grandkids on each side. So we will probably do something homemade or cheap for the adults. Maybe $10 per person (14 adults total).

If I make stuff it will either be pottery or some sort of modern quilting project. Like tablerunners for hot pads.

For our nieces and nephews we usually spend $25-$30. They are totally spoiled because all of the aunts and uncles buy them awesome stuff. But they're all really young so it's fun for now.

We might buy Oscar one present from us, but that's it because the rest of the family will be buying him stuff!

[Deleted]

I do 95% of my Christmas shopping on line. I just can't even with the crowds. We mostly do gifts only for those people who are here with us in person with the exception being our parents. So far this year the plan is:

Family Santa Present: 48" flat screen for the basement playroom and an X-Box. (It is a huge exception for us to spend this much, but we've been wanting the TV down there for a while now.)

DS1: Custom bedspread/quilt & minky sheets, wind pants and fleece tops, a lego Star Wars alarm clock, Jurassic World DVD, game for the X-Box, chapter books, toothbrush, candy/gum.

DS2: A walker/activity thingy, stacking rings, blocks, toddler bed quit, sippy cups, mesh feeder, new flavors of baby food.

No idea what I'm getting DH. I know a book that he mentioned in passing a while ago that I bookmarked in Amazon. Maybe some hockey tickets. Probably some clothes.

IL's will get a photo book from MIL's 80th birthday weekend.

My mom is getting a necklace with a birthstone for each one of her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids in a crystal heart.

My dad, don't know yet.

We are also sponsoring a needy family this year so we will have to shop for them once we know who/what they consist of For that I will brave the stores, in the interest of taking DS1 to do the shopping, in hopes that he will absorb some level of understanding about being kind to and giving to others. I'm ridiculously excited to do this and deliver their presents and food to them.

[tiffbot]

We don't have any nieces or nephews yet. I hope to become an aunty someday but none of our siblings are even in relationships.

My mom's whole extended family still gets together for Christmas and any kids school age or younger pick names ahead of time. We haven't done that yet and the age range is about 1-14? right now so not sure what I'll be buying until we do the draw! But it's a fun tradition that us first cousins all did growing up and now our kids do it!

We dont have too many traditions with our own kids yet, it's only DS's third Christmas and our first with two. But we have decided Santa is going to get them bath toys. Mostly everything we have is geared towards baby for DS and they are starting to get bath gross, so it's a good excuse to get DD some new stuff and DS more age appropriate toys! Bigger gifts come from us rather than 'santa' so far.

ETA I also like to shop throughout November/early December.

[musicfrk2002]

I bought J 2 toys that I got on clearance. We will probably wrap up some of his bigger clothes and books he hasn't seen just to make it look like there is more under the tree than there is. <--FFFC?

My dad's side of the family will celebrate Christmas on December 5th this year. Each family chips in some money, and that goes towards gifts for kids 16 and under, so it will be split between J and my cousin. For the adults, we bring 3 wrapped use able items that cost $1 (or, white elephant type items) and play bingo. Everyone ends up with at least a couple items, which then get used, traded, or regifted the next year.

My mom's side is celebrating on December 19th. Same deal as above for the kids, except it will be split amongst 10 kids I think. Adults are exchanging homemade gifts. I have a bunch of plastic lace left over from when I worked for the summer park program, so I am making everyone a keychain:


As for immediate family, I usually spend $30-$40 per sibling. Last year we gave my parents tickets to a dinner theatre they'd been wanting to go to, and flew my MIL in from Nevada for 2 weeks.

[dmoney]

For the Grandparents we are making a calendar of the baby's first 6 months and giving it to the grandparents. For my Niece and Nephews there was a living social deal to create your own personalized Disney book. We still need to figure out what to do for DH's Niece and nephew as they are older. For siblings we don't do gifts anymore, just spend the holiday together.

[Bluedaisy]

We have small families- each of us has a single sibling and a single "sibling in law", plus our parents and then I have one set of living grandparents and we have one neice and one nephew (see my confessions thread about that....). We usually spend about $100 on each other and $50-100 on each parent. Then about $50 for each sibling/sibling in law. The twins we usually spend about $100 per kid. This year we have decided with BIL and SIL that we will only buy for the kids now that we both have kids. My grandparents I usually spend $25-$30 each.

For our little one I know he doesn't need anything and totally won't understand but I have the picture of myself in front of the tree my first Christmas so I want LO to have that. In my family "Sanata" always brings the big present and it's never wrapped...it's set up under the tree and totally ready to use (batteries in etc.) so we plan to get LO a Jumperoo and have it sitting under the tree for pictures.

Fore neice and nephew we always ask what to get them and then buy pretty much exactly what their parents tell us because we really don't know them well. Also this year we're giving out some photo gifts "from" LO.

[erbear]

We're making something from LO for her grandparents (a photo album, I think, and some salt-dough ornaments).

For our nieces that are 5 and 6, we'll spend around $25. We have a bunch of older nieces and nephews (12-23) that don't get gifts anymore. My great niece will likely get a small gift.

LO has a ton of gifts but we bought them using kohl's cash or gramma used her tru card.

[mcp6286]

Christmas is both our FAVORITES and we usually go way overboard.

DH's family does a Pollyanna for his parents & siblings with a $50 limit. Then we all get stuff for the kids. My crazy BIL & SIL don't do anything for the kids except one gift each from the dollar store (Santa is the next thing to devil worship and they're also just cheap) so Dave and I typically spoil the kids rotten...like $200-300 a kid. Obviously can't do that anymore now that we have the baby so we're easing it down to $100/kid this year and then $50/kid next year. I feel so bad about it but luckily his younger brother just got married and his wife is also all about Christmas, so I think she'll make up the difference I know it's my own fault for setting the bar so high but there's nothing I love more than shopping for the kids!!! It's the highlight of my year....Black Friday woot woot!

My parents get us all gifts and my siblings also do Pollyanna with a $50 limit. Hayley is the first grandchild/niece on that side so I expect she will be spoiled!!!

DH is getting a nice set of knives (I swear that's what he wants) and a $20ish stocking.

[ravinraven216]

Oct 30, 2015 16:25:11 GMT -5 budders said:

Oct 30, 2015 16:11:12 GMT -5 mcp6286 said:

Christmas is both our FAVORITES and we usually go way overboard.

DH's family does a Pollyanna for his parents & siblings with a $50 limit. Then we all get stuff for the kids. My crazy BIL & SIL don't do anything for the kids except one gift each from the dollar store (Santa is the next thing to devil worship and they're also just cheap) so Dave and I typically spoil the kids rotten...like $200-300 a kid. Obviously can't do that anymore now that we have the baby so we're easing it down to $100/kid this year and then $50/kid next year. I feel so bad about it but luckily his younger brother just got married and his wife is also all about Christmas, so I think she'll make up the difference I know it's my own fault for setting the bar so high but there's nothing I love more than shopping for the kids!!! It's the highlight of my year....Black Friday woot woot!

My parents get us all gifts and my siblings also do Pollyanna with a $50 limit. Hayley is the first grandchild/niece on that side so I expect she will be spoiled!!!

DH is getting a nice set of knives (I swear that's what he wants) and a $20ish stocking.

What is a Pollyanna? I've never heard of that.

It's just another type of gift exchange, in the same vein as Secret Santa and white elephant gift exchanges. "Pollyanna" is a Pennsylvanian term for it. We did one when I was little because our family was too big to do otherwise.

DH's mother's side does a white elephant exchange, but I've become so fed up with how childish his oldest cousin and her husband act during it, I'm inclined toward not participating ever again. They make me so angry. 

[ravinraven216]

Holidays are complicated and who we buy gifts for depends on who we're seeing. Both of my parents have their birthdays around Christmas, so I just get them each something extra for the holidays. All LO's grandparents are going to get a calendar with pictures of him and one or two additional consumable items. I'll probably get wine and a massage gift card for my sister and something for my BIL for his first real (non-college) apartment. If we go to Louisville, that side does a white elephant, but as I mentioned above, I'm kinda over it and won't participate. I'd secretly get something for DH's cool cousins' family, though.

DH and I have been doing stockings for each other and a family gift to share, like a zoo membership. For LO, I'm going to get Star Wars clothes from Build-a-Bear to dress my stuffed black bear in, a book to read/chew on for Christmas Eve, and some fleecy, Yultide pajamas. Grandparents will probably get him toys.

Overall, we'll keep our budget to no more than $500.

[mrsdee1982]

I just finished these for the grandparents, aunts and uncles. I think they came out pretty awesome

(Her name in gold doesn't show up in the pictures well, but it looks really nice in person)

[wegrowsheep]

mrsdee1982 that's super cute! I need to do something like this with all of mine while they are still little...

[jessila]

We also spend a lot of Christmas. Exchanges happen with parents, siblings, and nephews/niece. That alone takes us to 17 people and I budget $50/person. It doesn't mean I spend the whole amount but it helps me to have an actual number budget.

I have no clue what to get DH this year. His birthday is December 6 so December always requires extra thought. Last year we bought each other a Roomba. I want to do something similar this year because it requires less thought on my part. I suggested a new couch for our living room but he said that was too expensive bc he wants leather.

I think O will be getting his next car seat for Christmas. He's 27" tall and the height restriction is 30" for his.

We also do a white elephant with my extended family. I pushed it last year because we'd been drawing names and I always got my uncle who I don't really know. I think our budget for that is $30?