Mum shamed over how many Christmas presents she bought her children.

It’s become a Christmas tradition.

Emma Tapping spends an entire year shopping, scrimping and saving to come up with an astounding pile of gifts for each of her three young children at Christmas time. This year she has spent just over $3000 AUD resulting in 86 gifts piled under the tree for each of her three children and that’s just for starters. In addition, “Santa” will bring them another 10 gifts, resulting in almost 100 gifts per child.

Proud of the results, the 27-year-old from the UK posted a photo of the haul on her Instagram account.

Just hours later, Tapping was shocked to discover that the photo had been re-posted and re-captioned by someone horrified at her audacious display. Since then she’s been inundated with comments from strangers, shaming her for spoiling her kids for Christmas. Some even claim she is abusing them by lavishing them with gifts.

Tapping has two daughters aged 13 and nine, as well as a 19-month-old son. She says she’s been shocked by the abuse and the accusation that she is failing to teach her children the true meaning of Christmas. She told The Daily Mail, “I was more shocked by the reaction of people who instantly thought I was a bragging parent with spoilt little brat children. I was shocked how judgemental people were. My attitude is what I buy my kids is my business, no one else’s.”

Now that the shock of the exposure has faded, Tapping is fighting back, taking to social media and local TV to defend her family. She wrote on her Facebook account:

Will i post another pic of my tree? You bet your grandmas nipples i will. Seeing as my picture has gone viral (without my consent!) here is my tree. I LOVE christmas I LOVE spoiling my kids in the festive season and I work damn hard to make sure it is every bit as amazing as it can be. So 2 fat fingers up to all the judgemental assholes and big thanks to all the normal, everyday people who dont really give a shit about SOMEONE else’s christmas tree or got into the festive spirit with me. Merry christmas everyone. Share share share.

It’s a bit rich for Tapping to claim her lavish Christmas isn’t anyone’s business, seeing as she shared a photo of it on the very public social media forum Instagram, however claims of child abuse are a bit extreme.

Still, I’m relieved my children are quite deprived and would never expect this many gifts. They are happy with the one or two they get from Santa and from their parents, and an additional few from friends and relatives. This is in keeping with my parenting philosophy to keep their expectations low so they are pathetically grateful for everything they receive.

Tapping says she isn’t rich at all and her children aren’t spoiled. She told The Daily Mail, “My kids know the difference between right and wrong, they appreciate everything they get and they don’t get spoilt throughout the year, we don’t go on expensive holidays. If they break something like their phone they have to save up their money to replace it.”

She says she begins shopping for Christmas in January, doesn’t own a credit card and never pays full price for anything. Her aim – to give her children the best Christmas possible. Tapping told UK talk show This Morning, “I’m not rich at all, which is the first thing I wanted to point out because it’s been put all over the internet after it had been taken from Instagram that I was rich and I spoil my children. I literally start from January, I shop all the way through, I use every bargain that I can and every sale that I can. That’s the way I do it, I shop all year round to make the pile as big as it is and start wrapping in August.”

Among all of the hateful, critical comments are plenty of supporters, including friends and family who say:

“I find it hilarious how jealous people are.”

“Merry Xmas Hun enjoy it u all deserve it.”

Still, $3000 AUD to accumulate 300 gifts for three children over a period of almost 12 months.

Can you spoil children with too many gifts under the tree? Is there such a thing as a reasonable amount of presents at Christmas? Would you secretly like to wake up Christmas morning to a tree covered in presents?

Tapping refuses to believe she is doing anything wrong and plans to continue her Christmas tradition in the future.