Does anyone have ideas about an activity other than exchanging gifts at Christmas?

Question

Money is tight for some members of our family this year, so I am trying to come up with an alternative to everyone buying gifts to exchange at our family Christmas dinner. I have thought about drawing names and making gifts for each other, but even that can be expensive and time consuming. Surely someone out there has enough imagination to come up with something fun that we can do without everyone having to stress over it. Ages involved are from 5 years to 50's. I think our family agrees that Christmas is too commercialized and it wouldn't be a bad thing to get back to the real spirit of the season.

Answer 1

How about you all draw names and bake/cook something that starts with the first letter of their first name.

OR

You can each draw names and write something - a memory, a happy time that you can think of about that person. That would surely be a heart warming Christmas!

Answer 2

When our family started growing with marriages and grandchildren, we stopped our usual Christmas exchange and now we only buy one gift for one person each year. We start with a list of all the names, then we draw names for each person on the list. You buy a gift for the person you were matched up with. I think we all felt better about it, because the gifts were getting out of control and it was expensive. You can always do a small gift trade off in addition to this or stocking stuffers for the kids.

Here's another idea. You could also look into doing a "family yearbook" where everyone can have their own page or two to write whatever they want, include photos or draw pictures etc. celebrating your year together, or whatever theme you want. I found this cool website where you can create a professionally bound, personalized book for $29.95 ($18.95 for softcover), 20-40 pages, full-color, free software, and as far as I can tell, no hidden bologna. You can order a copy and start a personal library every year to share at Christmas time. If anyone else wants a copy they can order from the website. I will link it below.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You could have a Birthday party for Jesus, the Reason for the Season. Sing Christian Christmas carols and make a cake for everyone to share -don't forget to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Have each one that wishes to do so share a talent such as singing a Christmas carol or reciting/writing a poem about the true Reason for Christmas or do skits or play an instument. The able could volunteer to serve the Christmas dinner and/or assist in the cleanup afterwards at a Salvation Army Hostel, unwed mother's home or something of that nature Usually The Salvation Army takes "Sunshine Bags" to those in hospital on Christmas Day through their League of Mercy. Visit emergency workers on Christmas day that must work -fire fighters, police etc- and sing them a few Christmas carols as a thank you for their services and maybe take along some home made decorations, treats and hot chocolate or something like that. Find out if The Salvation Army has any special band concerts or other musical specials that are free except for a voluntary donation -sometimes they do.

Answer 4

My family has gotten so big that we have started doing a Christmas ornament exchange.

The rule is simple, anyone wishing to participate must bring a wrapped Christmas ornament - they can spend any amount they wish, .99 to 10.00, shop where ever they want, etc.

The ornaments are all put in a big basket and everyone gets to draw numbers from a hat to determine when they get a turn to pick an ornament from the basket. The first person picks up an ornament, unwraps it.
The next person gets to chose either to take the ornament that the first person is holding or to pick one from the basket. If they choose the one that is open the person that they took the ornament from gets to pick from the basket, but this time they don't open the ornament, they just keep the wrapped item.

We go around like this til everyone has an ornament they either took from someone else or have from the basket. Only the members who have had an ornament taken from them are sitting with wrapped ornaments.

At this point they can swap the unwrapped ornament with any of the open ornaments or decide to keep the ornament sight unseen.

Once this swap is finished, there is no more swapping, everyone opens up their unwrapped ornaments.

Its alot of fun and since its ornaments it doesn't matter what age or gender the person is recieving the item. We try hard not to let someone end up with their own ornament.

Answer 5

My family does what we call Yankee Swap. Its sort of like a grab bag but different. We usually do a range of $10-$15 but you could do $5-$10 or whatever. Everyone brings a wrapped gift in the price range and they all go in a pile. You put #s in a hat(whatever # of people there are) and everyone picks a #. the person with 1 starts and they have to choose a gift and open it. You continue in order of the numbers and everyone after #1 has the option of either taking a new gift from the pile and opening it or "stealing" someone else's gift that has already gone. If your gift gets "stolen" you choose a new gift and open it and you're stuck with it (unless someone steals from you again). Once you get to the last person you go back to #1 and they can swap gifts with anybody that they want.

It's a lot of fun. One year someone brought a $10 vacuum there ended up being a swap battle for!

Answer 6

I think one of the very best gifts anyone can give is their time. So "coupon books" for things like a favorite meal, backrub, game time or chores are really neat.

I also really like the idea of writing something meaningful about a person and giving it to them. Particularly for the older folks, this gift means way more than some stupid store bought thing that collects dust. Putting the letter, note, postcard, etc into an inexpensive frame and/or decorating it with drawings, collage, etc is also a good way to make it even more special.

A photo album special to each person/family or a general one for everyone to have as a reference would also be good and very inexpensive if you use the digital photo services.

How about focusing on together time at the gathering rather than opening gifts? Singing carols, playing games, telling stories are always popular. If someone has a video recorder to record the event, copies could be made and shared.

Happy Holidays!!

Answer 7

Our family divides up in age groups. Each family member buys one $5 gift, wraps it, and puts the gender and age range on the outside tag. We then draw numbers and with #1 going first, we choose a gift from the pile. #1 opens their gift, #2 then can choose a gift or take #1's gift. This continues until everyone has a gift. If #2 takes #1's gift, #1 get to choose another gift. #3 is allowed to take gifts from #1 or #2, etc. You are only allowed to have your gift taken twice, then you are protected. The last person has the entire group to choose from or the last gift. At the very end #1 is allowed to keep or trade their gift with anyone who isn't protected. It's a lot of fun.

Answer 8

What about having a Pot Luck Meal and renting a movie or two? Then maybe singing some Christmas Carols as you walk around the neighborhood in the evening looking at the decorations others have put up? Then coming back and having hot cocoa together and discussing what you all saw?

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Ginger bread houses are really great for all ages. I remember one year we did them it was so much fun!! The candy is like no problem too, dollar stores sell alot of it! After dinner you could start making them or even before so you can munch on them afterwards. Or even if the houses are alittle much for the young ones, they could decorate big ginger bread men. You could even pair up an adult with a kid so the adult could help with the construction and there would be great family bounding!! God bless!