Gift Exchange Fun

My family is pretty big and when it comes to purchasing gifts, not only can it get expensive, but kind of crazy. What do you get the guy, or should I ask guys, as I have three brothers, who not only have everything, but what they don’t have, they can just buy themselves?

 Then you have my sisters, who, rather than spend money on themselves, spend it on their kids—sound familiar, Moms? (Yeah, we’re like that…all selfless.) My sisters are tough to buy for, too though, because they have everything under the sun. They also have hubsters, and those ever-so-generous gents shower their brides with dazzling-sparkling-shining objects all year long (or at least pay the credit card bill at gun point with a smile on their face!).

 So, what we found works and is really great fun is a grab-bag. We set a price limit, write our names on paper, then each pick a name (and keep it secret until the big Christmas day exchange), and issue orders (because the women-folk in my family are bossy like that) to purchase uni-sex gifts (they can be kinky but uni-sex REALLY means compatible for males and females).

 On the day of our Christmas get-together, we put all the gifts in a BIG pile in the middle of the floor. None of the gifts have tags, so no one knows who purchased what, because it adds to the excitement! We then write numbers on pieces of paper. If you have twenty people, then you need twenty pieces of paper and numbers from one to twenty. Each person gets to pick a piece of paper, i.e. a number. The number lets you know the order in which each person gets to pick their present.

 The person with number one gets to go first, duh. He/she picks and opens a gift and that’s that. Now the fun starts with the person who has the second number, because this person can either pick a gift from the pile OR steal the opened gift from the first person! If the second person does steal the gift from the first person, the first person gets to pick from the pile of gifts. This process continues until all the gifts are gone. It gets really fun when you get a gift that becomes popular. One year it was a $50 Gas Card. Another year, a Steeler's Sweatshirt. And yet another year, my brother-in-law and I went back and forth with a coupon book. You never know WHAT gift is going to be THE ONE, so it’s fun, fun, fun. We also have a rule that a gift can only get stolen three times. You can make up your own rules and also your own gift themes. Like one year we did strictly Gag Gifts. I also think an As Seen On TV Gifts theme would be super fun!

 I just LOVE this tradition because, like I said, it’s fun! And anything that involves my family, giggles, laughs, and fun is tops with me! Try it with your family, maybe you'll have so much freaken fun it'll become a new tradition for yours too!