Spoiling Christmas

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 18 December 2009

With average weekly earnings at approximately $1200, we're intending to spend almost one per cent of our gross wages on toys for the kids this Christmas. Doesn't seem like that much when looked at in terms of affordability but it's still an awful lot. Just because we're able to spend that much on kiddie gifts at Christmas doesn't mean we necessarily should.

The almost $600 we're preparing to shell out on the kids seems especially gargantuan when viewed through the prism of the season's most popular toys. Go-Go Pets - battery powered toy guinea pigs, Transformer action figures, a new version of Monopoly and the ever-popular Barbie dolls and Lego sets are this year's most coveted playthings. None of these is particularly expensive. Buying them all wouldn't add up to our intended cash outlay. Presumably, it's the number of our purchases, more than the prices of individual items that is inflating our spend. But how much is too much? How many Barbies or Lego blocks can one child play with? And how do you determine the ceiling?