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Hmmm we don't really budget for gifts per se. We set soft spending limits on how much we will spend on other people's presents. We have also cut down on costs by instituting a secret santa gift exchange in DH's family. So each person only has to buy one $100 gift. That saves us a ton of money.

We do splurge on gifts for each other and I'm sure once LO is here we'll splurge on her as well.

Every year starting in November we decide how much we will need for the following year, divide by 12, and save that much each month. That way we have our budgeted money set aside by October for shopping. The first year was tough because we didn't have the money already, so we had to go light on gifts, but its really great now not to blink an eye at christmas spending. We enjoy the season so much more!

Normally we go crazy and spend way too much. Trying to be more reasonable this year. We do secret Santa with our extended family.

For 2 years, we had a "family fund" line item in our budget where we'd allocate money on a monthly basis for any expenses we'd incur on extended family over the year. This included Christmas, birthdays, holidays, and any travel to see them. We basically estimated what we'd spent the previous year and divided it by 12. DH has a LOT of relatives and their family is REALLY into gift giving and card sending for EVERY. LITTLE. OCCASION. I wanted to do the family fund allocation because I wanted DH to see how much money we spent every year on his family (I only have 2 parents and 1 brother and we just give 1 gift for major holidays, instead of his family, who give multiple gifts for every single holiday). After seeing how much money we had to put away every month, DH agreed we needed to buckle down and cut down the expenses.

We stopped doing the budget line item after 2 years after we agreed to reduce spending per person and I started getting into a predictable rhythm on those expenses. For instance, there are a TON of family birthdays in April, then there's Easter, then Mother's Day, then Father's Day, so we start shopping right away in January, February, and March to balance those months out. I also bargain shop all year round for Christmas and keep a big box in my closet where I dump gifts with post-it notes IDing who the gift is for (because I will forget). I literally opened a Kohl's charge just to buy Christmas presents for DH's family. Once you stack all these different online coupons (which is always higher for cardholders) and throw in free shipping (always a code out there for cardholders), I can get things for pennies on the dollar. So I start intensely shopping for Christmas in June and usually have most things wrapped up by August. There's usually 4-5 gifts I have to wait to buy closer to the holiday, but I can always budget for it in September and October, since November and December will be expensive in terms of travel and what not.

For travel, we watch fares beginning in August for Christmas time and usually pull the trigger in September. We get cheaper tickets by flying in mid-December (December 13-17th is usually the sweet spot) and then returning either the evening of Christmas Day or on another day that's cheaper. This year, we found the cheaper flight was on New Year's Eve, so we extended our stay with the inlaws until then. We also switched DH's business card to Southwest and have been putting all of his expenses on it and just scored basically free tickets for Christmas time.

We budget for it on a yearly basis, and we have also cut waaaaaaaaay back on those that get gifts from us.

@Mrs. High Heels: Same! lol!

@Mrs. Champagne: WOAH. That is super cool. Thanks!

I have a cash rewards credit card we use to pay for EVERYTHING throughout the year and I always wait to cash out my rewards until it's time to pay for Christmas gifts. That usually covers 1/2-3/4 of the gifts. The rest we pull from savings.

We don't because we buy very few gifts. I think each kid is getting one gift this year. We/they just don't NEED anything. That said, the holidays aren't a big deal to us, we don't do Santa, etc.

@Mae: We generally do this too and it's worked out really, really well.

This year I just spent the bulk of our points on plane tickets, but in the past we’ve easily had $700 worth of points or more racked up by November even with using points for things throughout the year and I’ll use those to order a ton of gifts online. I also like to hit local craft fairs and stuff, and I don’t really track what I spend there, I just try not to spend too much.

We also don't buy for a ton of people, which helps.

@Bao: maybe i read it wrong, but it looks like you start high and then put in less every week? But that means the first month you put in over $200, which is a ton if you arent used to saving! I guess i am just simple haha if tou just set aside $100 per month you would have $1200 in a year...i like that math better i think.

I tend to buy gifts throughout the year so that it isn't a big expense all at once. But we also budget for gift spending and don't usually end up spending all that we allot because we don't buy a lot of gifts (my family draws names so that cuts down on it a lot).

@Bao: ooh I might give this challenge a shot in 2015! Or a modified version!

I set a dollar amount for each person we buy for. I try to do most of the shopping on black Friday weekend.

We don't have to buy for too many people - we draw names on both sides of the family so that's two people on each side (DH draws a name, and I draw a name). Plus on my side we all buy for my parents, and all the grandkids/nieces/nephews. There are three grandkids on my side and three on DH's side.
We do buy for each other, and our son. We set limits for that as well. We try to keep all Christmas spending under $500 total - it just gets to be so much and Christmas time is definitely tight for us!

@Bao: We set a budget for each person we buy for, estimate for wrapping/décor, groceries and travel expenses depending on where we are going to be for the holiday. Then we take the total and divide by 10 and then put that amount away each month so that by October I have all the money we need for the whole season. This is the first year we have done this and so far it has been fantastic, way less stressful than usual!