Guide to Joint Family Christmas Gatherings

Organizing Family Holiday Gatherings

Family gatherings at Christmas can be a joy - or not, depending on the family and how it is handled. Sometimes there are just a few in the family, and a Christmas gathering is quite easy - but sometimes there are many people in the family. The most difficult part is to find a time when everyone can attend.

Pick an evening or day when everyone can attend the gathering. Let the entire family know what date is picked at least by September, so schedules can be rearranged - or better yet, people can work their so-far-unknown schedules around the Christmas gathering day. A perfect time for exchanging family gifts is Christmas Eve. Pick a house - we used to meet at my grandmother's house. All the gifts would go under the tree, and my grandfather would play Santa. When he got older, and it was difficult for him to move, one of his sons took over the Santa role.

Gift giving can get quite expensive for a large extended family. Have everyone put their names in a hat or jar, then have one person in the family walk by and grab a name out of the hat - for the adults, that is who you will buy a gift for that year. Buy one gift that both adults can enjoy. For the children, all of the aunts and uncles would buy the cousins gifts. Since there were seven brothers and sisters on my mother's side of the family, each child got seven gifts on Christmas Eve.

With one person playing Santa, the gathering stays well-organized and things do not get mixed up. Gifts can be placed in the vehicles after opening. Allow the kids to keep one gift out to play with.

For a dinner gathering, there are a couple of ways to make this an enjoyable occasion. You can choose one person's house to hold the gathering at every year, or you can rotate every year. To keep things simple, we would have Thanksgiving Dinner at my mother's house, Christmas Dinner at my grandmother's house and New Year's Diner at my aunt's house. Every year, everyone knew where the dinner would be and what time it would be.