What are some ideas for our family Christmas gift exchange?

Question

My family draws names, we have a spending limit, are there any ideas other than drawing names? Something that still cuts down on cost by only having to buy 1 gift. Grab bags or anything like that?

Answer 1

we did it once where the girls buy a girl gift and the guys buy a guy gift, then you can either just pick a present or pick numbers or something to see who gets what. we also did a game of everyone buying different gift cards (each person bought 3 $10 cards) and put them all in white envelopes then you just pick three different envelopes and keep what you pick. or you could play a game of it where each person rolls one dice and who ever gets #1 picks a card, then next person to get #2 can either steal that one or pick a new one, and keep going till all the gift cards are gone. If stealing and you all ready have 3, then you need to exchange one with whom you're stealing from. it gets pretty fun!

Answer 2

My office at a previous job played this game. Everyone brought a wrapped Christmas ornament. We'd put them all in the middle of a table, and take turns rolling the dice. If you got doubles, you could choose an ornament. When all the ornaments were taken, you could steal one from somebody when you got doubles. You have to set a time limit on this. At the end, the people who didn't have an ornament would steal one from the people who had more than one...everyone gets an ornament. We set a price of $5, but I know I spent more. One guy made an ornament out of something he took out of the computer, some kind of board. But it was really cute. I'd have been happy to get it.

Maybe you could get gift cards to restaurants, and everyone wrap them up. Use those instead of ornaments. I'd like that, and you'd have a fun activity. I don't normally like to get a gift card (seems lazy on the giver's part...put a little effort into your gifts, I say) but this would be fun.