Do you feel that the more money you spend on a kid at Christmas or on their birthday, the happier they'll be?

Well, not if you spend it all on sweatervests and educational software.

id rather have a well thought out gift that suits me than an expensive one any day.

@holden

Hey, I loved the educational software that I got… :)

To answer the question, I certainly don’t think it’s necessary. Kids do seem to like to get cool new popular toys and gadgets, though. Doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune. Especially when they’re that young, it seems a bit extravagant to be spending a lot. Besides, if you give them a lot for one birthday, they’re going to get used to it and expect every time from then on. When I was little, I didn’t care how much money was spent. I got some cool things that I liked, that was enough. Also, for the party, all I cared about was that my friends were there and we were having fun. That could mean almost anything and wouldn’t necessarily require lots of money.

When they’re older, however, it may be a little different. I don’t want to get into a big thing about this, but I got a new car for my 16th birthday. Seems like people’s reactions to that are either “awesome!” or “you spoiled brat, you should’ve paid for it yourself!”. Whatevs. It’s a great car and I don’t “regret” my parents’ decision.

I have never had that much money spent on me for a party. My mom, would let me help her with all of the decorations, and let me help make the cake. That I enjoyed so much more than the party itself.
I personally love the small things. But to me, family is the most important.
@Val123 Just wait, till they are like 16
Have you ever seen the MTV show My Super Sweet 16?

My kids know I can’t manage it right now. When I have money I like to surprise them with gifts at random times.

@shego I love that whorefest!

I think it depends on the general upbringing of the children and the company they keep on a daily basis. For example if they constantly mix with kids that get what they want, when they want and they hear them bragging about their presents they may come to believe that size and price is the important factor when it comes to gifts. Kidss are often in competition with each other about such things (I’m sure we can all remember going into school after the Christmas break and comparing presents). It’s up to the parents to teach kids to appreciate the thought rather than the price.

I think with kids younger than 8, it’s quantity more than quality (at least that’s how I was). They’d be happy with lots of little dollar store things than something expensive. Kids who know better want many expensive things.

As my kids have gotten older, they of course want more expensive gifts. I was just talking to a girl at work today about her daughter that will be about 19 months old at Christmas time. I said, it’s so nice when they are that young because you can buy them $14 worth of presents and they never know the difference! I usually spend about $50 on each kid for their birthday. So last year, all my daughter got was an MP3 player, but that’s what she wanted and didn’t complain that she got gyped. Christmas I don’t really calculate price, but number of gifts.

To be real honest, I feel better the more money I spend on them. It makes me feel happy to buy them the things they want.

kids are made happy by things they want.

when i was a kid, i remember one time all i wanted was a magnet. a magnet in the shape of a horse shoe, like the ones in cartoons. when i got a nintendo NES instead i was actually quite disappointed.

@poisonedantidote I had two magnets like that as a kid. Looked just like on the cartoons. We played with them damn things all the time! I wish I still had them!

No, spending money does not usually = happiness. But I don’t think $180ish on a birthday, especially including party supplies, is particularly high. It’s just a few small/mediumish presents, and have you priced out a store-bought cake, decorations, goody bag stuff, etc lately?

We spend quite a bit on my sons birthday parties, and Christmas. We don’t do it because it equals happiness, we do it because we want to. We like to make it special, and sometimes that takes money.

Have you ever bought something for a kid and they were more interested in the wrapping paper? Yeah . . . I don’t think it takes much to make them happy.

@jsammons – too many times. My boys have always been happy with whatever they get. Their birthdays are in November then comes Christmas, so somtimes it’s easy not to spend too much. I do buy them special gifts on the fourth of July. That’s the day they came to live with us prior to the adoption. We consider that our family birthday and we all get presents. Then again in February, when “we all got adopted” we have another gift day.
Never expensive items, but things to make the days special.

They were 7 & 3 when they came to us. now 20 & 16, I can’t remember our lives before them.

@Skippy It really is the thought that makes a difference. They may not appreciate the small things now, but they will down the road ;)

We ‘bought’ my son a bunch of cardboard boxes, tape, glue, buttons, markers, etc one xmas and he built and took apart and built! we always gave a bunch of crafty stuff and they loved it. Our neighbors had money and bought all the latest battery run everything. My kids were a little awed at first but soon their girls were at my house.

My mom has never been a big spender for birthdays and Christmas; even now, she has a set limit and tries not to go over it. (Although she has purchased some big-ticket items for me, they weren’t “gifts”.)

Although I’m sort of at the age where I should be past the gifts thing, I always tell my mom that several small things are better than one big thing. (It sort of feels weird, though, when the only things you receive at Christmas are chocolate, chocolate and a bit more chocolate. That was a weird Christmas…)

And I always, always, always loved the treasure hunts. Loved them. Didn’t really matter what was at the end.

@shego My kids are all grown.
@faye Love it!!

@knitfroggy aye, great toys.

@poisonedantidote I bought my daughter some really high powered magnets in the toy section for her birthday one year. You were supposed to hit them together and make loud noises or something, I can’t recall. We had more fun putting one on top of the table and moving it around with the other one under the table. It was all fun until she tried to stick one to the TV and I had a huge green spot in the middle of the TV for several days. I was really worried I was going to have to buy a new TV but it corrected itself finally!