Family Christmas Gift Exchange Ideas
Christmas is said to be a time when family members come together to spend time with each other. This does not mean only immediate family, but extended family as well. The Christmas family get together brings along with it the prospect of giving and receiving gifts. Though gifts are said to be a way of showing our love and appreciation for other people, many times buying gifts for all the members of a large family can surely burn a hole in your pocket. Moreover, many times, the gifts that we give or receive, may not be something useful, which makes it a total waste of time and money. To solve this problem, we have family Christmas gift exchange games where a person has to give a gift to just one member of the family. Let us look at some ideas where every individual will receive a gift that he/she wants and you will not have to worry too much about your Christmas budget.
Ideas for Family Christmas Gift Exchange
Name Picking
This is one of the most common whole family Christmas gift exchange ideas and surely will be perfect if you are on a budget. Write the names of every family member on a pieces of paper, fold them and place them in a bowl or may be a hat. Starting from the youngest person in the group, every person should pick up one folded piece of paper and should buy a gift for the person whom they have selected . To make it more interesting, keep this is a secret affair and once all have received their Christmas gifts, they can guess who brought it for them. To ensure that everyone receives something that they want, ask each one of them to make a wish list on the paper that has their name.
White Elephant
A variation to the name picking family exchange gift ideas will be the white elephant gift exchange. A while elephant gift exchange is where you do not have to spend money in buying something, rather you an give away something that you do not use at all. This can range from some old gift that you got from someone and has been lying in your wardrobe for sometime or may be something that you brought, but did not use. Wrap this gift in a nice gift pack and gift it to someone who you think will love and appreciate it.
Exchange Game
This will be perfect if you want to hold a large family Christmas gift exchange. If you are a part of a large extended family with many uncles, aunts, cousins, children, etc., then most likely you may not be meeting them on a regular basis. As you do not know many of them closely, buying gifts for them may become a very difficult task. Here, this family gift exchange idea will come to your rescue. The first thing you have to do is to fix a budget for the gift which everyone can afford, for instance, no one should buy a gift that is more than $40 or $50 (can be more or less). Also, see to it that you do not buy a gift that is less than this because this will not be fair for other people. Once you have done with the Christmas dinner, place all the gifts on the floor and ask everyone to sit in a circle around it. Each person will pick out a number from a bowl, according to which the game should begin. The person who has got the first number should pick a gift from the lot and open the gift in front of everyone. Once this is done, the person who comes second can either grab the gift from the first person or select a new one. This game should continue till the last person receives a gift. The chances of grabbing should be restricted to 2 or 3 times, per person. This gift exchange will not only make sure that people get a gift that they want, but also will add fun to the party. However, children may not understand this concept and it is always better to give each one a gift separately.
Handmade Gifts
Exchanging handmade gifts can also be a great idea. This is also an expensive way to celebrate the joy of the season with your family and friends. You must make sure that the exchange should be only of handmade items, rather than those bought in stores. There can be wide variety of handmade Christmas gifts that can be exchanged. Home baked cookies, cakes, recipes, knitwear, crafts. embroidered cushion covers, photo frames and the like can be a good option for family gifts on this Christmas.
Apart from these family Christmas exchange ideas, you can also try a treasure hunt exchange gift idea where you will have to hide a gift for a person and give him or her some clues to find it. This kind of gift exchange will definitely be loved by young children. So, this Christmas, try one of these ideas and I assure you that every family member will enjoy giving as well as receiving a thoughtful Christmas gift.
