I added them to the comment, I submitted too early before.
I added them to the comment, I submitted too early before.
Oh yay, thank you so much, these look fantastic.
I have an older sister and two younger brothers. We realized years ago that we were just exchanging gift cards back and forth, so we decided to stop buying gifts for siblings. My sister has four kids, so I basically just buy for them and for my parents, and that’s it. My family has never been over the top about gift-giving, so it’s no big deal to keep it simple. For the kids, I usually spend $25-35 each. For my parents, around $100.
My mom usually gets a trip for Mother’s Day, birthday, and Christmas that costs around $1000 (which we take on the Fourth of July) - that’s not happening this year, so instead, I’m considering something significant for her house - a new washer (hers broke recently), a hot tub, landscaping, something like that.
My siblings and aunt/uncle usually get $20-50 each, depending on the gift.
I used to take friends to Broadway/off-Broadway shows ($10-40 range) but with COVID, I’ll likely only buy a few friends gifts that feel just right for them.
My dog gets gifts year-round, so I won’t be getting her anything big, maybe a cute Christmas outfit and some treats.
I also gave the super $50, but since I’m currently living with my mom, that’s a bit of savings too.
This year, I plan to buy gifts for my immediate family (mom, dad, brother), my boyfriend, and two close friends. I’m also thinking about sending hand-knitted items to my grandparents (if I finish knitting on time) this year. I always chip in for the charity gift drive my workplace organizes.
For friends, I’ll spend under $50 each. For my brother and parents collectively, I’ll spend about $400. For my boyfriend, I’ll probably spend around $250.
For my husband, I typically spend $500-$1000 each year, except for one year when we were both lazy and didn’t buy anything for each other.
For my sibling and their spouse, I spend about $200-$250 each.
For my husband’s parents, it’s about $200 each (though in reality it’s probably $50 for dad and $300-350 for mom).
My parents live overseas and don’t celebrate Christmas, so I don’t buy gifts for them.
For his three siblings and their spouses, I spend $100 each.
And for his uncle and aunt, I usually get $100 combined.
My husband’s birthday, our anniversary, and Christmas all fall within two weeks of each other, so I decided to combine them and get him a couple of bigger gifts (AirPods Pro, which he actually got in April because he is nosy, and a pizza oven).
Everyone else gets gifts in the $40-60 range, except for my local friend and my best work buddy who are likely receiving something nicer.
Husband around $300
Mom and stepdad around $200
Dad and girlfriend around $125
In-laws around $200
Siblings (5) about $50 each equals $250
Friend Secret Santa about $100
Co-workers about $50
Total: $1225
But I have a budget of $1300 set ($25 weekly throughout the year)
We are quite frugal with Christmas. It’s just my husband and me since we are both only children. We buy gifts for our parents and that’s it, usually about $100 each. We have large extended families, but everyone has agreed to skip gifts at this point. We don’t really exchange gifts with friends either, and we don’t expect anything in return. We do send a lot of holiday cards, over 100, which usually costs around $150 (I splurge to have the addresses printed because it takes so long to write them all out, plus it looks better).
My husband and I typically don’t buy gifts for each other; we’ve used the money for travel instead. But since we don’t have trips planned at the moment, we might do stockings or a few small gifts, maybe around $50 each.
I only buy for family.
For my family: sister, mom, and dad. I spend about $50 each on average? My dad is tough to shop for, so he usually just gets a book or two.
For my boyfriend’s family: him, his 2 sisters, mom, and dad. I generally spend around $50 each for them and about $200 for him.
Total is about $550 - I budget $100 a month for gifts separately. Half goes toward Christmas, the other half toward birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, and random gifts.
I like to give gifts to my neighbors because they are wonderful and always look out for me. I typically give them a group gift like movie tickets and a gift card for snacks. I tend to do the same for friends and their kids, something for the whole family to enjoy. Then I’ll add something more personalized for my friend.
Due to everything going on, I won’t give movie tickets this year, so I’m considering Grubhub gift cards instead.
The people I get gifts for are whoever I am dating, and my godchildren.
I do Secret Santa with my three closest friends with a $50 limit.
At work, we have a white elephant gift exchange with a $20 limit, but that probably won’t happen this year due to COVID since we’re all remote.
My husband and I spend around $300-$500 on each other, depending on the year. We might be getting a puppy this Christmas, which will be our gift to ourselves, so let’s say an average of $400 on gifts for each other.
For our moms, I plan to spend $150 each (his dad has passed away, and I don’t have contact with my dad).
For my brother, I allocate $100; my husband is an only child, so there are no sibling gifts on his side.
I also budget $30 for the three dogs owned by my mom.
We plan to spend $50 on my husband’s mom’s neighbors, who we visit on Christmas morning (they are like family to my husband).
I’ll spend $50 on each of my husband’s grandmas.
My three attorneys at work get $100 for the team lead (we’re super close friends, and it’s combined with her birthday) and $25 for the other two attorneys.
My husband also spends around $100 on various co-worker gifts.
Total: about $1250.
For my parents and sibling, I spend around $100 each.
For my sibling’s girlfriend, I spend about $25.
For the office gift exchange, it’s typically $25 (though likely canceled this year).
My siblings and I have this tradition where we combine our money to buy each other one big gift that we really want. For example, my sister wanted a hang board (she’s a climber) from Kickstarter, so we shared that cost three ways.
We do the same for our parents, pooling our money together for something nice. I think we’ve decided on gifts at around $50-$60 from each of us.
I want to get my husband a new iPad, it’s the only thing he really wants (but he doesn’t want me to buy it alone), so my siblings are going to contribute whatever they can, and I’ll cover the rest.
For my in-laws (mother, father, and grandmas), my husband and I have decided to take them out to eat during the holidays. We believe they’d appreciate spending time together more than receiving random gifts since they have everything they need and we are 12+ hours away from them.
I buy gifts for my immediate family (mom and sister), partner, and my cousin’s kids. My sister, mom, and partner can get gifts in the range of $50-$100 each. Each of the kids gets a book, bringing it to around $100 for them (there are six kids). For friends, I usually make food or beverages based on their tastes, which usually runs me about $500 all together (because I make infused liquors, which can get pricey given the base spirit).
I give gifts to my parents, my spouse, and my sister. We are a bit distant from the in-laws, so we decided not to buy gifts for them for now.
I usually spend about $50-$75 on my mom, dad, and sister. My spouse and I don’t consistently buy gifts for each other; sometimes we prefer shared experiences like travel instead of gifts.
We also pick up small gifts for a few of my husband’s colleagues at work, typically around $10-$25 each.
My gift list varies slightly each year, but this is about the average. I buy for my boyfriend, his parents and brother, plus small gifts for two of his cousins who are at his parents’ house on Christmas morning. For my family, I get gifts for my parents, my niece (she’ll be 3 this Christmas), brother, sister-in-law, grandma, and typically two white elephant gifts for parties. I also get something for three of my closest friends. Here’s roughly what I spend:
Boyfriend: $200-300
In-laws (his parents and brother): ~$50-75 each
His cousins: $30-40 each
My parents: $100-150 each
My niece: $150 (this could be more because this is her first Christmas where she will be aware of what is happening and knows what she wants)
Brother: $100
Sister-in-law: $30
Grandma: $40-50
White elephant: around $20-30 (generally alcohol and a small gift)
Friends: $20-30 each, and because we usually meet after the new year, I typically pick items for them when they are on sale!
I’ve started some shopping already, and I feel like I’m going to overspend this year. I’m aiming for experiences as gifts instead of physical items. I initially planned to spend about $350 for my niece, but she stayed with my parents for a month, and I spent a lot in the meantime making memories. I believe the money is better used for experiences like taking her to lunch and having a picnic while she was here (she lives in another state full-time, and I’ve never had more than four days with her).
Parents: $1000 (cash transfer; different country with an unreliable postal system)
My ex (we are on good terms) gets a small gift, probably around $25-50.
For my brother: $200, but ugh, I never know what to get every year.
For my dog: spoiled silly with treats, around $25.
My neighbor (we are also on good terms): typically a $25 bottle of wine and chocolates.
For my dog’s trainer (I’m incredibly thankful to her for helping my dog overcome his issues): $100 (including a dog toy for her dog, something nice for her, and cookies for the training office).
Best friends: we agreed on no gifts, so $0.
For my best friend’s two kids: $25 each; they are too young to understand, and their parents aren’t hugely into Christmas, so I usually just get a toy or book.
For work, Secret Santa is around $20.
In regular, non-COVID years, I would usually budget an extra $100-200 for hostess gifts if I get invited to any parties, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening anytime soon.
I buy gifts for my two siblings and their spouses. Typically I spend $75-100 each. I generally spend the same on my parents, but they’ve insisted on nothing this year since we treated them generously for their birthdays at the beginning of the pandemic (around $350 each, definitely money well spent for gifts they couldn’t have justified otherwise).
I have extended family on both sides, but we agreed to stop doing gifts a long time ago.
My husband’s parents are both gone, but he participates in a Secret Santa gift drawing with his extended family; it’s a $50 limit per couple. We do gifts for his cousins’ kids (which to me seems unnecessary, but whatever - seven kids at $25 each). We also tend to spend $100 each on his sister and niece. This totals about $450.
Both of our kids have birthdays in November, so I tend to buy all their gifts early and then split costs. I average around $150 during birthday time and maybe $250 at Christmas. That makes it a whopping $800.
We usually do a white elephant exchange at work with around a $20 maximum, but I’m not expecting that to happen this year.
My son is in his first year of middle school (remote) and my daughter is in preschool. I usually give each of his teachers $50 (he has seven teachers) and $25 for my daughter’s two main teachers and $10 for support staff.
I usually allocate about $300 for my spouse. Overall, I probably spend roughly $2,500.