Anywhere between £5-15 ish for her 'normal' school friends, then for really, really good friends, a bit more.

Amazon often have really good offers, and quite often I end up giving what looks like a 'big' present for under a tenner!

I used to buy all birthday gifts from Northcote Rd, but it cost a small fortune, so now I'm afraid I buy online!

The Book People have fantastic deals on books, quite often I buy a collection of books and split them up for gifts.

Cards again used to be Northcote Rd, but so, so expensive, so now I either get my daughter to make them, or Sainsbury's (the big one on Clapham High St) has cards which are fine for 25p or 99p so I stock up on those.

I do think that kids are getting SO much, my daughter had 35 kids at her party last year, and whilst she loved opening 35 gifts (!) it did seem excessive.

Not really sure what the solution is though...

£10 max for the present and the kids either make cards, or I reuse the front of old cards given to them as present labels. Cannot be doing with expensive cards just for school friends.

Nursery (24 children in my child's class): 8 including card (so the present is usually 5-6)
School age (17 children in my other child class): 10-12 incl card (very good friend up to 15). But most my child wants to make the card.
Family and close friend: it can be anything up to 40. I don't have a set figure as it really depends what we finds, what we think that child would love, etc. We found a sleeping beauty dress for nothing (i think it was 12) for Christmas but still bought it as I new my niece would be so over the moon and she is. It is the thought that counts.

I used to spend £10-£15 on each gift, but now that my eldest is at school we go to so many parties that I try to keep that number to £5-£8. I wrote about it here: http://californianmuminlondon.blogspot. ... hdays.html

I spend between £10 and £15, sometimes slightly over if it's the very best friend. I think over £20 is too much. I also don't like when my kids get too big/expensive presents.

I try to work to ten pounds for school friends maybe up to 15 if its something I know they would like or a closer friend…

If its a family friend maybe a bit more … Don't forget that when they start school they could be going to thirty school parties a year….

My child has just come of age of going to birthday parties, and I always want to get something nice, but obviously there are a lot of birthdays! How much is normal to spend on (older) toddlers? My husband says £10 which I think is too stingy. 20? 30? I wanted to spend £40 on the latest present but that seems too much. Help!