Irish Mammies will spend an average of €254 per child this Christmas and several will lie to partner about how much they spent

One-third of mothers lie to their partner as to how much they've spent on children's gifts

Christmas is just around the corner and with just over four weeks to go, MummyPages.ie, Ireland's biggest online community of mums reveals new research highlighting the Christmas shoppinghabits of mums in Ireland.

The in-depth study examines where and when mums do their Christmas shopping. Most surprising of all, the research reveals that 84% of mums in Ireland still prefer to buy their Christmas gifts in-store rather than online, this is a stark contrast to our UK counterparts where 72% of mums prefer to shop online.

When it comes to spending, two-thirds of mums set a budget for their Christmas gifts, helping parents to keep track of the average spend of €254 spent per child at Christmas time.

Interestingly, MummyPages mum research also identifies the most popular toy categories by age group.  The 'Digital & Gaming Device' category ranked first place in three age groups: 8-12yrs, 13-16yrs, and 17yrs+, while it ranked third place for children aged 4-7yrs with one-fifth of mums buying a digital device for their child in this age group. This rising trend of digital media consumption by children is worrying for parents, with one in four mums already struggling to balance their children’s screen time versus outdoor activities.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING HABITS OF MUMS IN IRELAND:

WHERE: When it comes to deciding where to shop, only 14% of mums in Ireland choose to shop online with the majority (84%) opting to shop in-store, whereas insights from our MummyPages.co.uk community revealed that 72% of mums prefer to shop online.

HOW: When buying Christmas presents 93% of mums buy one main present and a number of smaller presents, 2% buy one main present and 5% of mums buy a number of smaller presents.

CHRISTMAS SPEND: MummyPages mum insights reveal that 28% of mums lie to their partner about how much money they've spent on their children's gifts. While 27% of mums admit arguing with their partner about how much money to spend on the children’s presents. To help keep track of family finances over the festive season, 64% of parents in Ireland set a Christmas budget.

COSTS: According to MummyPages research, the average spend per child on Christmas presents is €254. In Ireland, 21% of mums admit spending €100 or less per child, 39% spend between €101-200, 24% spend €201-300 and 16% of parents spend a whopping €300-600 per child.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING RULES: When it comes to deciding on what to buy children for Christmas, one in five (20%) of mums admit disagreeing with their partner on the type of presents to buy their children. Interestingly, over half of mums surveyed (53%) try to buy a mix of presents that consist of something practical, educational, fun which follows the golden rule of buying – “Something they need, something they want, something they wear and something they can read.” Worryingly, only 10% of mums try to make sure all gifts are age appropriate.

MOST POPULAR TOY CATEGORIES BY AGE GROUP: As part of MummyPages Christmas Shopping Habits research, the online parenting community asked mums what they intended to buy their children as their main Christmas present this year. Sadly traditional toys categories including Books, Board Games and Crafts ranked low on the scoreboard in all age brackets.

The most popular categories are: General toys and games that are linked to television and movie characters, in addition to Sports related gifts and Digital device / Gaming gifts.