Hey Mia - It's still a work in progress, but my goal is to only give one "large" or main gift for each child. I had been trying to stay within a certain $ amount, but this year I'm trying something different.

10 year old - Still not 100% sure what to do here. I'm flipping between books (he loves to read) and a metal detector (he's into finding things).

8 year old - Legos - he loves legos (I stay away from the designer kits and stick with just the basics).

2 year old - not much, just a train engine to go with his train tracks

For the extended family (cousins, aunts, and what not) we are already starting to back. We'll do a loaf of friendship bread surrounded by cookies on a Christmas tray (from the dollar store)

For the hubby - it's going to be a book of coupons (good for one night out with the boys, good for one back rub, things like that)

We are focusing more on doing for others than we are on buying gifts. We'll see how it works .

Hi Kelkat, those are some good ideas. Focusing on doing for others is great, experiences versus things certainly last much longer. I am seriously rethinking what I'll do next year. Extended family is difficult for me because we don't live close and xmas and birthday's are the only time I ever spend $ on them (no family dinners, etc.)

I recently saw some great sales for some of the things you mentioned -

http://www.Scholastic.com is having their annual $1 teacher sale (books included) (the public can buy as a 'homeschooler').

http://www.sortfloorbooks.com has Free shipping right now (orders over $14.99) - they have many great books for just $1 or $2. Searching is a pain, but you can look under the categories or search authors, etc. I shopped by opening Amazon.com to search and read reviews of the books. I bought Captain Underpants, Zombie Butts From Uranus! (ha ha), and the Ultimate Nose Pickers Collection (ha ha again, lol).

http://www.ssww.com has a 576 piece Lego set for $28.95 (LEGO Big Bulk Set) - they have other Lego's, too. Spend $29 or more and Enter code W2646 for $10 off plus Free shipping. (so buy something else cheap and just spend around $20).

I've previously ordered from all of the above and they are reliable. I hope that helps. We bought our oldest a 'cheap' metal detector a couple years ago and it really didn't work that well, I should have done my research better. What sort of trains does your 2yo have? We have had the Geo-Trax for several years, they're very tough and all of mine still play with them.

Mia

Kelkat, my dh just bought a gigantic bin of legos from Craigslist for very cheap money.

Hi mia,

it seems that you have decided to spend a lot on this occasion. this festival really deserve this .

But i have decided to celebrate the Christmas without any expense. it doesn't means that my celebration will be less than yours. i will enjoy this occasion more than previous years.
i will take a loan for Christmas celebration . Why not you too using the same way of celebration..

Hi Leonbaker27, welcome to the boards. I'm curious about how you will take a loan from Christmas, how you will do it without any expense? I have children so there will always be expenses, but I'd like to know your plans.


I am spending a lot, and five years ago I would have spent 2 or 3 times as much - and put it on a credit card and then spent the first six months of the new year paying it off (not really, because I would have continued to use my credit card). I'm proud of my determination and ability to only use cash for this holiday, we worked hard to get to this point (debt free except mortgage, spending less than we earn & still saving well but also having fun money to spend).

So far $114
and i think i'll spend another 30 before its over. but there's a number of reasons i was able to keep it low.
1. i bought my dads gift in the summer
2. My moms gift is something that i owned but she really wanted so i gave it to her as a christmas present. [I'm very lucky that my mom will like such a gesture and not consider it cheap.]
3. My nieces and nephews are too young to understand money so i bought one thing for each that they will like and didn't worry that the prices were so low. [ages 1,3 and 6, the 6 y.o. should know more about money but unfortunately his parents haven't taught him much.]
4. The 'big' present for my partner is something i've been working on for the past 4 months, so the cost has been spread out.

I just wish the family draw had a lower price tag. $25 for each family. Oh well, its the price i pay to keep family happy.

It's great that you have decided to keep track of your expenses this year! Wow, I can imagine that with kids Christmas would get quite expensive.

I have spent $100 on presents, mostly for my boyfriend. Books, a cosmetics set with aftershave and shower gel, a Moleskine pocket calendar and I've knitted him a pair of woollen socks. I think I might get him something else as well, as we usually get each other several smaller gifts.
Besides him, I'm giving gifts only to my parents, my boyfriend's parents and four friends.

I think I'll make my friends something myself, I've already knitted one pair of mittens.

I hadn't thought about other expenses, but I will definitely need to spend money on food (and chocolate!), candles, flowers, wine...

Hi. My husband and I decided years ago that Christmas wasn't a big deal to us personally, so we don't exchange gifts with each other [we do on Valentine's day, birthdays and our anniversary]. BUT it's a big deal to our families, so we do buy them gifts. We pick a theme for our gifts to them each year [but this is just us, it's not like families who pick a price range]-- this year it is honey and bees -- and make a game of getting theme-related gifts. That way, we can accomodate different levels of gift giving (for example, some friends will only get a nice jar of local honey, while close family will get big gift boxes full of a variety of honey/bee themed presents). We think the theme idea is a hit with the giftees, one of the cousins wrote a nice thank you last year telling us about how the family tries to guess from the first present what the theme is, and it is fun for us since it makes gift buying more like a treasure hunt. It also helps us to avoid spending a lot of money on whatever is being "pushed" by marketers. We try to pick themes that let us buy locally and buy handmade whenever possible, but we always include books and CDs which we buy from local small business owners. I know people get great deals on line, but we do feel that keeping our money in our local economy is a good thing.