I thought I’d post what my extended family is doing this year in lieu of a gift exchange.
We always get together with my mom’s side of the family for a separate Christmas gathering usually the week before Christmas. We rotate which house hosts the dinner and everyone contributes a dish. It helps save time & cost. However, we’ve always done a small gift exchange. Each person contributes one $10 gift. We draw names and each person goes home with a gift. To make it interesting, you could either pick a wrapped gift from the pile or “steal” the gift from someone before you. It cuts costs by eliminating the need to buy a gift for everyone, but keeps it fun.
Since I’m hosting this year, I decided to change the tradition. I figured that we don’t need anything and neither does the rest of my family. Instead of purchasing a $10 gift to exchange, we are purchasing a $10 gift for Toys For Tots, Angel Tree or a similar program. We all have more than we need, so it was nice to give extra back to those in need. Gifts are NOT being brought to my house. We all agreed to purchase a gift and donate it ourselves. These are in addition to donations we had already budgeted for.
*I do purchase gifts for my mom, in-laws and grandparents. We also don’t exchange gifts with siblings or our niece & nephews.
How does your family exchange gifts?
We giv gifts to children, our mom’s, and grandchildren. No extended family, brothers, sisters, etc. We feel like we’re only doing it out of obligation and there is plenty of gift exchange without buying for neices, nephews, etc. They’ve never noticed and don’t think anything of it.