With whom do you exchange holiday gifts?

[Traci]

Poll in a minute

Aside from buying gifts for the kids in your family -- with what other adults do you exchange gifts.

[Traci]

I'm not very good at making polls -- I just realized that none of my options even fit me - oh well -- do the best you can.

Another thread made me curious about others' giftgiving practices.

My spouse and I usually decide on something we both want for Christmas and don't actually exchange gifts. This year it was a new video camera.

I buy for my parents, his parents, our siblings, and my grandma but the gifts are small - a bottle of wine, a basket of fruit. Nothing elaborate.

The real presents are for the kids in the family.

[LoneGirl]

I buy for my parents, my brother and his wife, my niece, my two best friends, and one relative for our family get-together (we have a big family, so we each draw a name and buy that person a gift - $20 limit). This year I also bought gifts for a less fortunate family. My sis-in-law's church has a program where you can sign up to provide gifts to a needy family, and she was given a family of 5 to buy for, so I offered to help and buy some of the items. I probably had the most fun shopping for those items - I know it sounds cliche, but it really did feel good to buy stuff for people that can't afford to go shopping much and buy themselves nice new things.

[Traci]

Originally Posted by LoneGirl

I know it sounds cliche, but it really did feel good to buy stuff for people that can't afford to go shopping much and buy themselves nice new things.

I know what you mean. I get my kids involved in a similar project each year. Last week, they got to personally deliver some of the gifts and see the looks on the other kids' faces. My little one came running back to me for more gifts to hand out and shouted, "THIS IS THE BEST PART OF CHRISTMAS!!"

(I try to remember that when they get inundated with stuff 3 days later and still find something to fight with each other about. )

[1695814]

[nerd alert] I come from a big family...especially when you add in the spouses that have been acquired over the years. So, a number of years ago I set up an MS Excel spreadsheet to randomly assign names to each other. I set it up so that you didn't get yourself (of course), your spouse, or the person that you got last year. I think it's pretty cool. [/nerd alert]

[LoneGirl]

Originally Posted by 1695814

[nerd alert] I come from a big family...especially when you add in the spouses that have been acquired over the years. So, a number of years ago I set up an MS Excel spreadsheet to randomly assign names to each other. I set it up so that you didn't get yourself (of course), your spouse, or the person that you got last year. I think it's pretty cool. [/nerd alert]

Hey, that's actually a good idea. Would be much more efficient than my family's method of drawing names out of a bucket and having to re-draw if you draw your own spouse or child! Plus, I know my mom gets frustrated because she has drawn the same uncle's name for about 4 years in a row now!

[1695814]

Originally Posted by LoneGirl

Hey, that's actually a good idea. Would be much more efficient than my family's method of drawing names out of a bucket and having to re-draw if you draw your own spouse or child! Plus, I know my mom gets frustrated because she has drawn the same uncle's name for about 4 years in a row now!

exactly! Those are the two main reasons that I set it up this way.

[Lucy]

Hmm, I said "family and a few close friends" but I don't know that I actually gave anything to the friends. I did give gifts to the friends' kid, and I did pick stuff out that would appeal to friends, too. . . But they gave me something, so it was sort of half an exchange.

Oh wait - I did buy her a magazine subscription - and I'm SURE he'll enjoy the toy I bought for their kids. So maybe I answered right.

I enjoy buying gifts for the family adults. It's an excuse to spend time thinking about what they would like.

[Griffin 7]

Originally Posted by Traci

Aside from buying gifts for the kids in your family -- with what other adults do you exchange gifts.

Do you mean adults in the family? And are you including joke gifts?

[satogaeru]

We get gifts for the kids and then donate money to charities in each other's names. I chose "kids only" in the poll because you don't have a "kids and random strangers only" choice. Sheesh.