A Christmas Gift Exchange Creatively..

In my family, we have so many people to buy for, so we try to keep it simple.  We set a spending limit of $25.  Most of the time, the gifts are pretty practical, but it was pretty priceless and funny when Grandpa got the set of shotglasses and the little bottles of Pucker.  Haha.

The actual exchange requires us to place all the names of the participating family members in a cup.  All the gifts are wrapped and placed on a table.  A family member who is not participating pulls the first name from the cup.  The first name drawn picks a gift from the table.  Usually, no one picks up the gift they brought, but sometimes it does happen.  Haha.

The next name picked either gets to steal the gift opened or choose a gift from the table.  The next names drawn can steal from anyone or pick from the table, until all the names are drawn and all the gifts are gone.

Most of the fun lies in the steal.  I know from experience, when I have a gift I really like, I taunt my family members against stealing my gifts with idle threats.  I do strongly regret not stealing the Alton Brown cookbook from my uncle last year.

One thing is truly certain in my family.  We have some creative ideas, which I'd like to share with you.  In the past few years, we have exchanged:

* Movie passes with small movie sized boxes of candy

* Starbucks coffee or gift cards

* Homeade crafts...(My grandparents made money holding Christmas trees with dollar coins hanging from them.)

* Celebrity cookbooks

* Cookware

* Bakeware

* Store gift cards

* Restaurant gift cards

* Alcohol (whiskey, wine or specialty liquors), with shotglasses or special glasses

* Electronic and Board Games

* Books

* Homemade baking jars, containing all the dry ingredients to make cookies.

* Scented candles

* Collectible memorablia (movies and sports)

* Cds

* DVDs

* Specialty baskets (gourmet and bath and body)


Now, I suppose there are more ideas out there, but I think sometimes the more creative you get, the more ideas you come up with.  Take a simple idea and just expand a little on it!

appy Holidays!