Every year the same thing happens. You know perfectly well that the teenager does not want a jumper and the twenty-four-year-old would rather have the money towards their rent, and you still feel as though handing over cash is the lazy option. So you buy something, and in January it goes to the charity shop.
Money is not the lazy option. It is the most useful gift most people receive all year. What makes it feel lazy is not the money, it is that nobody has worked out how to give it properly, so it turns up as notes in an envelope or a transfer with your surname in the reference. This guide covers both halves: what to give, and how to give it.
The short answer
For a child, most UK families land between £10 and £25. For a teenager, £20 to £50. For an adult child or a grandchild at university, £50 to £150, and often more from grandparents who are deliberately helping with something specific. Nieces, nephews and godchildren usually sit at the lower end of whichever bracket fits their age.
Those are observed conventions, not rules, and the variation between families is enormous. The figure matters far less than two things nobody talks about: whether the children in the same family got comparable amounts, and whether it arrived in a way that felt like a gift.
Rough ranges by age
| Who | Typical | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Child under 8 | £10 to £20 | Often goes into a savings account they never see |
| Child 8 to 12 | £15 to £25 | The first age where they genuinely want to choose |
| Teenager | £20 to £50 | Reliably the most wanted gift in this bracket |
| Student | £50 to £100 | Arrives in the most expensive term of the year |
| Adult child | £50 to £150 | Varies hugely and often replaces presents entirely |
| Niece, nephew, godchild | Lower end for the age | Consistency between siblings matters more than the figure |
The questions people actually ask
How much do grandparents give grandchildren at Christmas?
More than anyone else in the family, usually, and with the widest spread of any relationship. Many grandparents give in the range of £50 to £100 per grandchild, some give a token amount because there are nine of them, and some give several hundred because they are quietly helping towards driving lessons or a deposit and Christmas is the occasion they use to do it. All three are normal. If you have several grandchildren, pick a figure you can repeat for all of them and for the ones not born yet, because the amount you set now becomes the family benchmark.
How much should you give nieces and nephews?
Less than you would give your own children and the same as each other. Somewhere around £15 to £30 for children and £25 to £50 for teenagers covers most families. The important part is that it matches across siblings and, if you can manage it, across the cousins too, because children compare and the comparison lasts longer than the gift.
Should every child get the same amount?
Within one family, yes, with age being the only acceptable reason for a difference. Across families, nobody can police it and you should not try. The thing that causes actual upset is two siblings of similar age getting visibly different amounts from the same person, which reads as a judgement whether or not you meant one.
Is it rude to give money for Christmas?
No, and the belief that it is comes from a time when posting cash was the only way to do it. What people object to is thoughtlessness, and money is only thoughtless when it arrives with nothing attached to it. A card with something personal written in it, and an amount you chose for that person, is not a lesser gift than a scarf you chose in eleven minutes.
How much money do you put in a Christmas card?
Whatever you were going to give, but the card is the wrong place to carry it if it has to travel. Cash in a posted card is uninsured, visible to anyone who handles the envelope, and the reason Royal Mail advises against sending it. Put the message in the card and move the money separately, or use something that keeps the two together without the envelope.
What do you give an adult child who does not need anything?
Money, towards something they have actually mentioned. The difference between a gift and a handout is entirely in what you say about it. Naming the thing in the card, whether that is the holiday, the course or simply a month of not worrying, turns the same amount into a present with a reason behind it.
How to actually give it
This is the part that goes wrong, and it goes wrong the same way every year.
- Cash in a card, handed over in person. Still the best version when you are in the same room, and the only one where the card and the money arrive together.
- Cash in a posted card. Uninsured, and advised against for good reason. If it goes missing there is nothing to trace and nobody to ask.
- A bank transfer. Safe, instant and completely stripped of occasion. It lands in their banking app between a direct debit and a takeaway, labelled with your surname.
- A gift card. Keeps a sense of gift but locks the money to one shop, often carries an expiry, and tells the recipient exactly how much you spent.
Most Christmas money now has to travel, because most families no longer spend the day in one house. The moment it has to travel, every option above makes you choose between the money being safe and the gift feeling like one.
That choice is the gap BloomVest was built for. You pick an illustrated card, write your own message, and the money goes to their own bank account when they open it. Nothing to post, nothing to lose, and nothing that looks like a bank transfer at the other end. Payments and payouts are handled by Stripe.
A few quick answers
When should Christmas money arrive?
Before Christmas Eve if it is going to a student or anyone paying for travel home, because that is when it is worth most. Otherwise any time in December is normal, and slightly early is better than slightly late.
Do you write the amount in the card?
No. Never write the figure and never apologise for it. There is a whole guide on this below, because it is the single most common way a money gift gets undersold by the person giving it.
Is money a worse gift than a present?
Ask anyone between fourteen and thirty. The honest answer is that a well chosen present beats money, an averagely chosen present does not, and most presents are averagely chosen under time pressure in the second week of December.