how much to spend on gifts for 1st, 2nd, etc birthday parties

SunAndRain

I have two gifts to buy, one for a one year old and one for a two year old.

What is a reasonable amount to spend.  I don't want to go under or over board.

 It seems like gifts fall in the <$15 or >$40 range.  Is $20 cheap or about the right amount?  I figures something for $25 but that requires two gifts (because nothing actually costs $25 in kid land, apparently) which is OK but I'd rather give just one.

Nechie122

Who are the gifts for? I'd obviously spend more on my nephews than some kid in DD's daycare class. Need more context!

shannm

Depends on who the kid is.  If they are close family, I would tend to go higher in amount. 

If they are friends, I think $20 is fine.  Books are always welcome gifts in my house. 

Curls218

I agree w/PP.  If it's my niece/nephew I'd spend more.  Or even if it's a good friend's child or if it's the child of someone who has gone above and beyond for me (like our friend who is lending us $100s of worth of baby stuff, we got their child an extra nice gift).  But if it's a random friend of your kid's then $25ish is fine.

Karla CS

I'd agree, it depends on the relationship to the child.

For the most part, at one year old, they don't really care all that much.. Once they hit the 2-5 range, lots of little things seem to go over pretty well. 

honeybee72

Yeah, relationship matters. We spent ~$50 on the DS of a couple we're close with. OTOH, I spent about $15 (each, I have twins, so the total was about $30) on one of the girls from their DC class.

Helenahhandbasket

My go to gift for kiddos under 3 is clothes. 

My budget would be 25.00 as well, so if you shop sales (like at a Carter's or TCP) you can get usually get 2 outfitts.

Iblamethebeer

I think little kids get way too many presents and it's a burden on parents to deal with the "plastic fallout" from birthday parties.

For a 1 year old I would buy a toy in the $10-15 range.  If it was a niece/nephew or close friend I would add a $25 check for the baby's college fund. 

For a 2 year old I would probably spend $15-25, but would strongly consider at least part of that being in the form of something like a gift card for ice cream or some disposable items (stickers, bath crayons, bubbles, bandaids, etc).  Again, for a close friend or niece/nephew, if I had a perfect gift in mind I would spend more, or I might give more college money.

 

cecilyandgautam

I know not everyone would like this, but we ask what they want/need and if they don't have anything specific, then we just write a check for their child's college fund. A lot of us are strapped for space and we don't want to add to the clutter. 

honeybee111

First of all, I agree with it depends on who the gift is for.  I spend $50-75 on my nephew.  Random kid in DD's preschool class is about $20-25.  One of the best gifts we got for DD's 2nd birthday was a whole bag of art supplies, crayons, paint, paper, stickers, travel art stuff, coloring books, etc.  It's great for when we're out of the house, and I need to bring something to keep her busy.

azuremama

I must be cheap, because I wouldn't spend much for a kids' present. For DS's friends (age 4-5) I do $15 or under and I would probably do less for a 1-2 year old. Maybe it depends on the area, too. I'd spend a little more for someone related to me, but I mostly feel like kids have so much stuff already.

kristinc01

Wow everyone seems to spend way more than me.  I just went to a three year old's party and gave them 3 matchbox cars for a total of less than $5.  He was a boy - seemed to love it.  I try to spend around $10 or $15 at the most until they're over age ten.  We have a lot of nieces and nephews and are invited to a lot of friends' kids' bday parties as well and I can't be spending $20+ each time. 

I will say one of the reasons that we are cheaper is we only invite grandparents to celebrate our kid's bdays so it's not like these ppl are giving my kids big presents and I'm giving their kids cheaper ones.  For a one year old, I would check out Target's one dollar area to see if they have any of the Sesame Street books for $1 each and get a few.  For a two year old, I might give bubbles or sidewalk chalk or a small nerf ball.

cchill01

cecilyandgautam:

I know not everyone would like this, but we ask what they want/need and if they don't have anything specific, then we just write a check for their child's college fund. A lot of us are strapped for space and we don't want to add to the clutter. 

Absolutely agree! We usually do a $40 check for birthdays. If they parents want to use it now on clothes or food, great. If they want to save it for college, great. Our kids have so many toys, they just don't need any more stuff. When the kids are a bit older, I will probably do a small gift and a $25 check.

LoCarb

family I spend more.

school kids - $15

a close friend of mine kids - $20-25

Strunella

I'm generally in the $25 range too.  I'll spend more if it's a close friend. 

PunkyBooster

For friends I buy books or Lego toys. Puzzles are good too. I rarely spend more than 15 on birthday presents for ds friends.