Start new rules for Christmas gift giving now!
Now is the perfect time to discuss with family and friends that maybe it's time to rethink gift giving for next Christmas.
In our opinion, Christmas is for the young children and once they reach 20 years old, cease to exchange gifts among every family member. Have each family only exchange gifts within their own family. Sure saves time and money, trying to figure what to buy! Merchants may not like this!
I think everyone may be relieved; discuss the subject now, not when Christmas is approaching. See what happens. This has worked very well in our family, for us it is the great-grands, others it is grands, cousins, nieces and nephews. Everyone in our family enjoys this.
Our children and grandchildren came up with this idea/suggestion about 4 years ago, we were in agreement too! Everyone in the family only buys gifts for our great-grands. Also, we have a heavily decorated interior Christmas house with trees all over the house and lots of white decorative lights! Kids love it, it's gotten to be a tradition! :o) It has always been the tradition that everyone comes to our house for Christmas dinner. It is truly a stress free festive time of year for everyone.
By Syd from Dunkirk, MD
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As our family has grown, we also have had difficulty deciding what to do for presents. We came up with something that makes everyone feel more like what Christmas should. Of course we all buy for the kids, yes Christmas is for them. But instead of buying for all the other adults, we each make a special trip to the grocery store and spend what we feel we can afford on food for the food bank. It is collected at whoever's house that hosts Christmas and delivered to the food bank just after Christmas. Even the kids get into the spirit of helping others. After the holidays is usually when the pantry at food banks gets low and with government cuts, they can use all the help they can get. If each family spent $25-30 it would go a long way.
That is an awesome idea! I'm going to propose the food bank idea to my family.
High school graduation is the cut off for kids getting gifts. All adults names are thrown into a hat and names picked. Works!
You could also write the names of everyone under 20 years old and have the family(those over 20) pick a name out of the bowl or hat. That way the expenses are kept down and the kids get a gift and everyone has some fun!
Another thing that can be done is an ornament exchange (this works great for holiday parties) all the ornaments get put on a table and everyone coming gets a ticket and then you call out the ticket numbers and handout the ornaments. A great surprise and gift exchange for the holidays!
My other favorite thing to do is have a holiday cookie party or a potluck dinner. You come with your cookie or meal and then you come with a container and everyone puts parts of meals or cookies in their containers and everyone that attends get to share the food with their families! It's a great way to enjoy each other company for a get together. Have some fun and bring goodies home to your family. This is great for a girl's night out!
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