Christmas - Large Families - How do you exchange gifts?

My husbands family just buy gifts for the kids. That's what Christmas about, the other adults will probably be happy to go along with it. Or you could do what my friends and I do and put a limit of £5.00 each on.

Family Gift Exchange Ideas

1

Are there too many people on your holiday gift list? Has your family grown as the children have gotten married and had children and grandchildren of their own? Is it getting too expensive to buy good gifts for everyone? Does it take too much time to shop, wrap, and shift your gifts? Your family may want to consider organizing a gift exchange -- here's how to do it.

Hold a family meeting or send a family meeting to see whether the entire family will be agreeable to organizing a family gift exchange in which each relative will be responsible to give a good gift to one other relative. Suggest a maximum amount to be spent on each gift. Family gift exchanges work best when children give to children and adults give to adults.

Step2

Decide the age at which a family member is added to the adult list. One suggestion is to make the adult list include every person who is old enough to drive because at that age the teens usually have jobs or discretionary income of their own. They are also usually socially engaged enough with the older members of the family to shop for and select appropriate gifts on their own.

Step3

Write the name of every person in your family on a sheet of paper. Duplicate this list. Cut one of the copies into little strips so that each name is on one slip. Sort the names so that the adults are in one pile and the children are in another pile. Place the names of the adults in a bowl. Pick one name out of the bowl and write it on the list next to the first name. If you picked the same name or that person's spouse, put it back and pick another name. The name on the list will be the giver. The name picked out of the bowl will be the receiver. Repeat the process with the children's names making sure that siblings do not give to each other.

Step4

Email the list of givers and receivers to everyone on the list. Keep a copy so that when you organize the gift exchange for the next year, the same pairs do not occur. Everyone on the list is responsible to ship the gift so that it arrives at the receiver's location in time for the holiday.

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Tips & Warnings

* Organize the family gift exchange list of givers and receivers at least two months before the holiday.

Between me, my parents, my brothers and their wives and seven children in total, the are now 14 people in all. It's too stressful to get everyone a gift for the Christmas Eve party and then buy for Christmas (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends), so we do a gift exchange. We get together the weekend before Thanksgiving (so we can go Black Friday shopping) and pick names. We separate adults and children. Children have a $5 limit. Adult have anywhere from $20 to $50 limit. When we get together, we all decide how much we can all afford this particular year to spend. Then the youngest ones (2yo, 1yo, 4mo) who don't understand the exchange, their parents bring something small from the Dollar Store for them to open. The older ones (9yo, 9yo, 7yo, 5yo) participate in the exchange, as well.

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What we do is have gift exchange with our own immediate family (husband, wife,children) and then we have a party with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. At the party, everyone brings a "white elephant" gift- usually something funny or honestly, just some junk laying around the house. We then wrap them & put numbers on them. We draw for presents and everyone gets a laugh at the things we open- this year I was the proud owner of some plastic drop cloth and a frilly toliet seat cover. It's a lot of fun, and there is no pressure to get something really nice or even spend a lot of money

I am one of 6, we all have 2 children each. We made a plan years ago, that we only buy for the children up to age of 18 (you run out of ideas by then and they are usually earning money themselves) .

We also do a dip in the summer so we only buy 1 sibling a present and only receive 1 present for a sibling.-(for Xmas)Names in a hat - we also have a rough price figure, £10 for nieces/nephews and £20 max for a sibling gift.

We do also all put money in for a 21st. This works well in our family and if someone can't afford the rough figure, then they spend less - no one judges. If someone can afford to spend just a few £ more, then they can.

Really it works well here, no one is judgemental and everyone is happy! Go for it!

Your siblings might be happy to switch to gift swap, grab bag or name drawing. As unfair as you may think it is to have to buy gifts for all of these people, your married siblings have to support their entire families all year. Christmas is an expensive and stressful time of year for everyone so bring it up - tactfully.

A child's Christmas memories are very important. Maybe you could just buy gifts for the kids. Try limiting your gifts to $5-10 each. That would make your total contribution to the Family Christmas a maximum of $70.00. Surely you can afford an average of $6.00 per month for your nieces and nephews.

Keep in mind that your siblings have to buy gifts for their in-laws, spouses, nieces and nephews just like you do. They also have the added responsibility of buying gifts for their children as well.

I imagine that some time in the future you will have children too, so try not to come across as cheap or whiny.

we draw names around thanksgiving. all adults draw and all kids draw and we put a limit on how much to spend. It is not about the gift or the money . It is about the Lords birthday. It is about loving one another. You don't have to give anything but your love. This gift giving gets out of hand. I think personally that just being together and having a meal. We should be thankful for that and our health. That is what Christmas is all about.

my family and i play this game where everyone participating brings a $15 gift. so for the ppl with 3 kids, themselves and a husband they would bring 5 gifts. and you would only bring 1. we had everyone label "girl gift" or "boy gift" or "neutral" then someone always pitched in and got a few extras, just in case. you roll a dice and the 1st one to get doubles picks a gift. then so on. you didnt open until the very end. and you were also allowed to steal anothers gift! it was a very fun game and everyone got to participate, although no one in my family is very young. so if you have all those young kids, im not sure what youd do.