PORTLAND, Ore. — According to a study from T. Rowe Price, 37 percent of parents with children aged 8 to 14 years old would be willing to dip into their savings to buy Christmas presents.
A study last year estimated parents were planning to spend about $330 per child on Christmas presents.
A lot of this shopping, according to NBC News, can be tied to "emotion-driven" spending.
So how can you stay sane this holiday season without overspending?
Experts recommend you and your spouse create a budget -- and stick to it.
You may have to forget short-term happiness of buying your child an expensive Christmas present in order to invest in the future instead.
“A child’s wish list is not a directive for parents to spend themselves into a sea of red ink,” Bruce McClary with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling said. “While buying your children everything they want for the holidays might lead to a few happy moments in December, depleting your savings or piling on more debt to purchase those gifts can cause misery that lasts well into the new year.”
And Liliana Lengua, director of the Center for Child and Family Well-Being at the University of Washington, said you should manage your kids' expectations early on. For example, tell them wish lists for Santa are perfectly OK, but make it clear Santa won't get them everything on their lists.
