how much did a present from your parnents cost for Christmas/ your birthday?

29 comments

1. Well, I was officially given the pickup truck I’d been driving for a year when I was 17.

   On the other hand, when I was 7 I was really stoked about my new Super Soaker.

   Actually, feel free to get me a new Super Soaker every birthday and Christmas.

2. I got my daughter a stand up paddle board this year which clocked in just over $400. That was the big gift.

   My dad got me a stand up paddle board too but mine was a bit more pricey.

   Normally we try to keep gifts in the sun $100 range but occasionally we do something big.

3. It varied wildly. My brother and I usually each got one “big” present” and a bunch of smaller ones. The big ones were like a PlayStation or bike so…a few hundred dollars.

   I was gifted a hand me down car when I turned 16.

4. I tended to get one more expensive present (~$100) and a few cheap ones.

   We do the same for my kids now, but the expensive present is more expensive because everything costs more.

5. Usually my mom allots approximately $300 per kid per holiday. So you could get multiple presents totaling that, or just one big present. Certain milestones (16th bday, 21st bday) we get other things that don’t have a set monetary value (ie my mom took me on a little Vegas trip for my 21st).

   I think my stepdad also allots around the same monetary amount, then each of my siblings and I typically spend $100-200 each in each other, and there are also other stepparents, grandparents, and uncles/aunts involved. If everyone wants to go in on one BIG gift that’s an option too (like for my 30th everyone pooled together and got me a very nice luxury purse I wanted, or a couple Christmases ago we all got my mom a new MacBook, etc)

6. My parents did about $300 a kid for Christmas. For our birthday we got about $150. We could choose to either have a party or a present each year.

   The only exception was turning 16. We all got a used car that was between 3k-5k. My sisters chose a big party and I chose a trip for my 16th.

7. There’s usually 1-2 “big” gifts depending on the age. When I was a kid, those RC car tracks mighta been the most expensive thing I wanted. I remember I got one of those electric jeeps in this time frame. By middle school age, gaming consoles or a new bike. High school, basically nothing too pricey and fewer gifts total but that ultimately leveled out when I got a car worth about $3k – $4k which was a hand me down from a relative.

   I wonder if this is common, birthdays for me was usually 1-2 presents total and they weren’t anything too expensive usually. I’m born in February so this was probably something that was forgotten for Christmas most of the time. I think my car was actually a birthday gift now that I think about it.

8. Im not sure if it’s “normal” or not, but it’s been years since my parents buy be a present in general. The upside to this is that they help me with a bunch of other stuff all the time. It’s rare for me to want something and not to just buy it myself.

   I think that’s a factor in why I really like Christmas. My family doesn’t see it as transactional. If you want to buy someone a present, go for you. If you don’t, that’s fine, too. I might not get a gift, but I don’t feel pressured to buy a gift either. I’m dating someone and i don’t think she as fast and loose as my family is when it comes to giving gifts, but we will have to see.

9. My parents don’t buy gifts at all. For our “gift” my parents either took us on some kind of trip, or they paid for some kind of experience. For example for my birthday they took me to the redwoods. But my brother wanted to go skydiving for his birthday, so him and my parents did that instead of gifts or a party. My parents are big on “making memories” vs. buying things for us.

10. My parents probably spent $25-50 per kid (there were 3 of us and we’re lucky they scraped that together).

    Now, I’m able to do $300 per each of my 3 kids and 1 stepson, plus $50-ish for all my nieces and nephews each.

11. I don’t know, it never came up. My favourite gift was a wooden chess set from my dad. Dog chewed up the light king because my mom left it out and I couldn’t bring myself to forgive her.

12. I think the most fair way to measure it is by the number of hours of pay my parents spent on an average present. Numbers in dollars won’t make much sense because inflation has changed their value over time.

    When I was a kid, a typical present would have cost half an hour to an hour of my dad’s labor, which equaled 1 to 2 hours of my mom’s labor since she was paid a lot less.

13. Way more than 50 dollars for my kids.

    Christmas is when they get their new clothes, or things they need for school, and things like toothbrush and toiletries for the year.

    50 dollars would not even buy a pair of sneakers.

14. My parents would spend around $250-$500 and my grandparents would spend about $800-$1,000. I was very spoiled.

15. Depended wildly on what my parents financial situation was bc they were horribly unstable, but christmas is usually where my dad would try to pull out all the stops he could for those sweet, sweet manipulation points. Though a few years we were poor enough for the angel tree. So probably between $0-400~ per kid depending on year. (The larger estimate based on one year in particular)

    With birthdays as a kid, still unstable af, but honestly I can’t remember ever getting things i actually wanted, usually random shit like bedding or clothes that didn’t fit me aside from the occasional years i got a sketchbook or a CD i liked. But I was also a kid with a holiday birthday so no one really gave a fuck about me that day anyway. As an adult tho my mom has been getting me things done I couldn’t afford myself and I’m hella grateful lol. (Shout out to mom for the wisdom tooth extraction and new bed)

16. The typical present was a mid-sized Lego set.

17. It just depend. Some years I would get something like a laptop or snowboard for a big present, then a bunch of smaller gifts too.

18. My wife and I probably spent about $2k USD on Christmas this year. We have one daughter, she has 10 siblings, and I have 2 siblings and we got everyone something. The biggest chunks of money by far going to each other and our daughter. The biggest ticket item was a $325 pair of rabbit fur boots I got my wife. Birthdays I have no idea, we have a lot of birthdays and I often forget what I get anyone.

19. From my parents? Ha. My mom literally told me that she forgot me one year. Most years, our Christmas presents were whatever was donated by the parishioners at church for the angel tree. I wasn’t a huge fan of Christmas as a child.

    Now I totally overcompensate as an adult. One year we bought our kids a swingset that was about $3500. Last year we took a cruise. I love spoiling my kids for Christmas because I never got that.

20. We never really assigned values like that but it varied by year.

    Also, what’s Dutch Christmas?

21. Depends on the year. Last Christmas was my last Christmas living with my parents before I moved away to college, so I asked for some stuff I thought I could get a lot of mileage out of for the next few years, so it ended up being bigger, but most years a given present typically averaged out to be like 25 to 30 dollars, not including stocking stuff.

22. Usually about $150 for birthdays and a bit more for christmas.

    We spend about that now on our daughters’ birthdays, but for christmas we usually buy one “big” gift for the family and then spend maybe $50-100 on smaller items for each.

23. I’ll go woth most expensive Christmas present and that was a TV my dad and stepmom got me for my dorm room. It was at the time probably a $200 TV. Most expensive birthday present was probably the WWE Elimination Chamber Microagression set that my mom got for me one year. It think it was $30.

24. Last christmas I got two 20 dollar games and a 115 dollar box set of manga

25. My parents spend $100 on each child for Christmas officially, but my mom will see things she knows we like and get them for us on top of a C note. So it is usually closer to $150

    Birthdays are $100-300 depending on a few things and what you want for your birthday. Like this year my truck needed fixed so my dad fixed it and my mom gave me a new pair of work jeans. Together well over the $100 limit for labor and parts, but my mom still felt bad because less money was spent on me than my brother (we share a birthday)

26. I’m a very generous gift giver. That said it was common for me to spend $1,000+ on each of my kids for Christmas and $200+ for their birthdays. Now that they’ve both entered their later teen years they’ve expressed that they don’t want that much and would rather just have a single large item ($300-ish) and a couple smaller gifts. They’re pretty great kids and I’d like to show my appreciation for that, but they don’t want me to.

    🙁

27. Unless there’s something I specifically want that may cost more, I’ve always been fine with $25-50 amazon gift cards lol

28. It varied greatly depending on my parents financial situation at the time. Some years it was pretty minimal, probably $10 or so. Other years it was much bigger. Biggest one ever was a large electric train layout in the basement that in terms of monetary value was worth over $10K I’m sure… but it was all antique stuff that came from my grandparents house, so it cost my dad probably $50 at the time for lumber, plus a couple hundred hours working in the basement with the door locked at night so we didn’t know what was going on.

29. About $200 total for each one