Do you try to keep the price of gifts even?

I try to keep it even in a very general way. I don't tally up numbers but I try to keep the impact for each kid roughly the same, if that makes sense.

I grew up with my parents trying keep it exactly the same between all three kids, mostly because my brother was (and is) a person who very carefully calculates the cost of everything to look for fairness or unfairness.

Only one kid. Problem solved.   

I don’t see why it would matter if a kid got one thing or ten things with the hundred bucks. As kids get older it gets harder and harder to find stuff that they will actually want and actually use, and oftentimes the things they want get more and more expensive so it’s hard for one person to get them even the one thing they really want.

When that starts being the case, cash or gift cards that they can save up to get what they really want and will use is the best course to take. Yeah, it’s boring but if the thing the kid eventually buys is something that will be useful to them, it’s money well spent. It’s so much better doing that than giving them a pile of stuff that will be just that—a pile of unused stuff which essentially equals a waste of money no matter what the stuff cost.

My MIL was the queen of useless gifts, and what that taught us was that we would really rather have one really great gift that we needed or could use instead of a big pile of random stuff we didn’t want and wouldn’t use.

My kid is 9 and pretty much hasn’t played with “toys” for at least two years. She isn’t into sports, likes art but already has a lot of supplies for that, and mostly wants to play video games or watch videos on her iPad. It was expensive, but because she uses it every.single.day for school and entertainment, it was definitely money well spent.

That is what we do in my family too.  The problem comes in when you get one item for a screaming good sale price, so we just pretend that we paid full retail when it comes to toys.  Clothes vary wildly on cost for kids, like I recently got a pair of super cute shoes for one kid for 5.00.  I wasn’t so lucky on the other kid’s shoes, but for clothes/outfits we just do equal number.  

In adulthood, I recall my mother always making sure we had the same number of items, and usually it would be gifts that were the same but different, like Yankee candles but in different scents, scarves but different colors, an ornament but different styles.

My parents didn't give us Christmas presents when we were kids-- only Santa did-- and I think it was at least equal in number, but I can only recall one Christmas present Santa ever brought me (a pink sweatshirt with cute little kitten appliques from a local department store that I really wanted but was not within the regular clothes budget).

My mother's parents went by their per-person budget, so the number of gifts could vary. When I was a kid, I remember making a list for them... my grandmother worked in a mall with a toy store. In their later years (by the time I was a teen), after my grandmother developed ALS and lost her mobility, they just switched over to cash, so then it was the same envelope for everyone.

I personally do equal amount money wise, per person.

Growing up and as an adult.... my Mom was all about equal number of gifts per person. 

I personally would rather receive one higher priced gift that I wanted, than receive four to six gifts of various dollar amount that I didn't want or ask for and are "filler gifts" to keep me quantity equal. 
If I had one $100 gift (or gift card) to open, and my sisters had multiple lesser priced gifts(totaling $100) to open....it's equal to me. But some people view that as I am getting less than the others.

Some people view gift cards as "not really a gift" and impersonal.
I view gift cards as the best gift ever! Going out to eat or shopping and someone else is paying (via gift card) is a gift in my opinion.

I do keep the number and rough value of gifts even for my kids. 

When they were younger it was more important that they had the same number of gifts and I worked hard to get the best deals possible, so even if they had a similar value, I might have paid a lot less for one over the other. 

With our nieces and nephews, once the oldest hit their teens, we gave everyone the same dollar amount. My kids loved spending their money and didn't compare how many things their cousins got with the same money. Are these grandkids siblings or cousins? I really don't think these kids will be paying attention to what the other buys, but the older kids will be aware of the equity in being gifted the same dollar amount.

I do both.

I have four kids, and they take turns unwrapping, so I make sure they have the same number of gifts. I also aim for the same general amount spent... usually within $25 or so of the others.

I have 2 sons, ages 20 & 26.  I have a dollar limit on each of them.  They can choose several less expensive gifts or one larger gift.  I don't care, but they need to be respectful of my budget.  We're all comfortable with this arrangement.  

This is where the 9 year age gap is a double edged sword. When you have one kid getting electronics and video games and the other getting preschool toys it’s going to be lopsided in both value and quantity. I would try to make the amount of unwrapping equalish so I’d wrap several things together for yds and stretch out ods by wrapping everything separately (Santa wraps here too). On the other hand we had a conversation with ods as soon as he stopped believing (right around the time yds came along) that his gifts were more expensive so he would have fewer gifts. We also didn’t worry much about dollar value because the one who might be able to do the math got way more spent on him. As they’re getting older it’s easier to keep things relatively equal but in a ballpark sense not exactly science.

I do pretty much what my parents did when I was a kid...not equal in either quantity or value but comparable. In other words,the number of gifts weren't the same nor were their prices but there weren't *huge* differences either.

I do the same. I buy gifts and don't worry that I've spent the same dollar amount per person. So long as I'm not spending $1000 on person x,y, and z but only $20 on person w it's good. lol Same with number of gifts, as long as there's not a huge difference (with rare exceptions) there are no problems.

Ditto. One of my girls is getting one small present and a check to make it even with her sisters. That's what she wants so she can put it towards new hardwood floors in her house. She is okay with opening one small gift while her sisters open many. I have always, always kept the dollar amount even. I never understood the everyone gets two presents for example and your two might total $50 while someone else's might be $150. That never seemed fair to me but it's all in how we were raised. I was raised that way and have passed it down because I liked it.

I would personally try to do both, but the value would be more important than the quantity. The recipient usually understands that, too, if they asked for something specific.

If you wanted to add quantity to someone who received an expensive gift, I would just buy small, clearly inexpensive stocking stuffer type items to wrap. They know their big gift is one thing and the smaller items are just nice to haves.

Not necessarily, but I try to keep the piles about the same. If one kid needs a new laptop or cell phone I’m not going to blow my entire budget by dollar matching with the others. It all works out over time and my kids are ok with it.

All off the grandparents are very careful about keeping dollar amounts the same, but it’s mostly cash these days. That makes sense to me because they’re not in the day-to-day balance with the kids.

My brother and his family spend exactly the same amount - if the gift for one of the children is less or more they will get the exact difference (even if it is 99p) in cash. I don't bother - if it is a more expensive gift they will have less to open but I don't get caught up in the value - there will be times when one need something of a higher value than the others but over time it all evens out (e.g., 2 years ago DD1 needed a clarinet upgrade which cost a fortune, but this Christmas DS needs a new tennis racket with is way more expensive that I will be spending on the DDs). I try to reinforce to my 3 that the value of a gift doesn't represent how much I love them. DS and DD2 get that completely - DD1 gets so hung up on the 'fairness' of it all (mainly because she wants the expensive gifts and then the volume of presents as well... She is my MIL reincarnated!) - - as long as its equal but more equal for her!!!