I have a 4 and 6 year old. How much do you think is appropriate to spend on birthday gifts for their classmates? On average, I spend about $12 to $15. I was totally shocked at their last party when I had one parent give my kid a coat from Lord and Taylor. At first I though, it was just a gift bag to be showy, but the label on the coat actually said Lord and Taylor. I had another lady give my daughter a dress up chest with 3 beautiful gowns. These were not cheap, thin gowns either. These were very high quality, nice fabric and neatly sewn. I consider those over the top gifts. I don't know the parents, I just let my kids invite their whole class. I loved the gifts, but wasn't that a bit much?

I usally spend between 20 and 50 on a gift for my DS classmate depending on how well he knows them how close they are. I think anything in that range is fine. I think anything over 50 is insane for a child you dont know. however if people are willing and able more power to them as long as they are not expecting everyone to have the same budget when it comes to there childs party.

It makes me wonder if maybe some of the things aren't "regifted". Or maybe it was found on clearance... OR maybe they just don't really have a budget!! That would be nuts to me. I try to keep it around $10-$15 depending on if we know the person, maybe $20 if they are good friends. But we have a budget we stick to. And the way I look at it, the child doesnt care how much it costs so long as they like it. WOW though, nice gifts for your kids!!!

i have 3 kids and work only part time. i don't even spend $50 on family members. i'd say $15 is fine. lord & taylor? where the heck are you from? my neighbors are cops, teachers, shop owners etc. my kids were pretty excited to get a slip 'n slide this spring!

When I get gifts for my DD's classmates I usually spend $10-15. That's pretty normal for most all of the parents around here. I just don't see me spending a bunch of money for her classmates when I don't even do it for my family.

$25 to $50 for friends usually.

I think $10-15 is very reasonable. My youngest son is 10 yrs. old and they like to go to the game store and buy used games for each others Playstations!

in general $10-$15, my parents always let me spend a little more on my best friends, but most of the time it was in this range.

Now those expensive gifts they may have found them on clearence also. Everytime my mom and I went to the stores we would go through the clerance isle and pick up a few things that we would have on hand for gifts. This way if a party came around and that week or month the extra money wasn't there then I could go to the box and pick out a nice gift. Some of the things I had given were over the $30 range, but we only paid in the $10-$15 range.

Wow! I am amazed that anyone spends that much for on a classmate. I don't go over $10 and to be perfectly honest, I like going to the dollar store and getting 5 or 6 things that match or are coodinated, hence $5 or $6 dollars and everyone always thinks it's such a great gift. Even for $10, they could get 10 small things and they'd be thrilled. I don't know about where you all live but the dollar stores near me have some really cute, fun stuff, not just the cheapy junk anymore.

KimAZ

$10-15. If the kid is a cherished friend, *maybe* I will go up to $20. These are kids, for pete's sake.

I think this also depends on the size of your childs class. Growing up my class only had between 45-50 ppl in it... At the time, the girls had girl parties, boys had boy parties... so in reality it was really only about 20-25 different people throughout the year to buy gifts for (and it probably wasn't even this many) For my family this was a reasonable amount of $.

I have heard that some schools in our area though say that if you bring invitations to school for ppl then you have to invite the whole class, not just certain ppl.... so things have changed. And if you have to buy a gift for every party that you're invited to and you have 50 kids inviting ppl, yes that can get expensive, expecially if you have more than one child...

I do the same thing that leily posted. I shop the clearance isle. When I find good stuff I buy it and then we have it when parties come up. I also agree that these parties are over the top.

I spend $15 on my DD's friends, $20 on their best friends.
In my neck of the woods, $50 would be over the top for a kid.

I usually spend between $15- $20 for kids' gifts. It's hard to find anything for less than that.

People around here don't necessarily have much money. We live out in the country so there are some very well-off people and some very poor. I would never expect anything from other kids at parties. Really, just the fact that they came to the party is enough for me and it should be enough for my kid. The presents are just extra to add to the party.

Since we're in a small town, there are only about 30-35 kids in my son's entire grade, half of which are in his class (2 teachers per grade).

I'm a member of the $10-15 club. DD had a birthday party yesterday and got a $20 gift card from one friend and that was a big deal. IMHO, anything over $20 for kids, particularly when they're not close friends, is overboard. My parents only spend $50 on the grandkids for goodness sake, and they're not hurting for cash. I think, in general, kid's birthdays are getting out of hand. And we wonder why so many kids have that spoiled attitude and sense of entitlement.

Sorry, getting off my soapbox now.

At the school where my kids go the classrooms have a limit of 8 dollars for kids gift exchange that way when the ones that really can't afford to buy gifts don't feel so bad. It is hard to find gifts for that price BUT.....I have found hello kitty stuff, ya know like the mini pencils, erasers and paper and the girls LOVE that.....as for the boys (when he was in elementary school), Toys R Us used to have a clearence bin full of figures for boys...like spiderman...one day they had their figures marked down to 1.00....I bought enough for all year, like for his friends birthdays and Christmas, and also the schools fall festival for prizes....I got 50 of those suckers , most all of them were different and it was fun watching my son pick out the ones he wanted to give during the year.

You hit a nerve with this post! I think kids parties and gifts are WAY out of hand. I can't believe how much money parents spend on their kids to celebrate a party. I live in a very affluent suburb. Money is not an issue. These kids have parties like rockstars. It is absolutely ridiculous. What is it teaching our kids? In my opinion, it is only teaching them greed and one upping. Don't get me wrong, I have NO problem with parties and celebrating bdays. But, I've been to kids parties here that rival small weddings. It is insane. With this said, I spend $15 or less for gifts. Sorry for the rant.

about 10-20 is what I would spend. (often I take my 40-50% off coupon from hobby lobby or joann and get a craft kit and spend even less!)

But who knows, mabye it is a regift or a clearance find.