Friday, September 4, 2009

Gift Exchange Ideas - Yay or Nay

So, I had a thought the other day regarding gift exchange for Christmas this year. We don't want people to spend too much money since you've already spent enough to get yourselves to Chicago and for David and I that is gift enough, but because gift giving is such a large part of the holiday we thought we'd open it up for discussion to see if anyone would be interested in a gift exchange. Some ideas we had:
  • Stockings instead of wrapped gifts - We could do a name exchange amongst our whole group or even within each family so that each person would receive a stocking by one other member of the group or family. You would spend no more than $25 (we can go with a smaller amount as well, I just threw that number out there to start with) and can fill it with small gifts, candy, whatever as long as it's under the agreed upon amount.
  • Wrapped gifts - similar deal, we could do a name exchange so that each person gets at least one gift to open and set the limit at $25 (or whatever is agreed upon) or we could get a small gift for each person within the whole group or within our individual families, that is no more than $10-$15. To make it even easier, we could even choose specifically what the gift will be. For example, we'd do a DVD, Book, CD or other type of exchange.
I personally think that if we do decide to do gifts of some kind then drawing names is a good idea because it is the least expensive way to go and each person will get something to open on Christmas. And, as said earlier, we could throw every one's name into a hat and draw amongst both families or since this is the first time you'll meeting each other and don't know each other very well yet, we could just draw names amongst our own families as well. Let's us know what you think and take it from there.

5 comments:

  1. GENERAL PREZZINESS: Well, I have a handy dandy Amazon Wishlist...so that would make it QUITE simple for anyone buying anything for me. :)

    $$ AMOUNT: I think $25 (or even $30) is perfectly reasonable if we're drawing names.

    DRAWING: I think a big group drawing would be fun! A great way to get to know each other!
    However, I understand the newness of it as well, so I would be just as cool with a family specific drawing. Like I said, Amazon Wishlist makes either one of those options easy for me! :D

    SHAMELESS, SELFISH PLUG: I encourage everyone to have an Amazon Wishlist. You can even add a Wishlist Button to your browser so that you can Wishlist items NOT on Amazon! Sweet! :)

    CONCLUSION: Hmmmm....can I make this comment longer? Yes! I'm excited! Okay....that's it. I'll end now. :)

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  2. I too think the drawing thing would be good, if we had some sort of wish list to choose from $25 or $30 would be fine with me.

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  3. I think this is a great idea. Kelli and I have talked about also putting together short bios for each family member so that others can have an idea of likes and dislikes as well as a little about who each person is.

    We have also have an odd number of people, 9. Which makes this name drawing a little difficult. However, I will elect to have to people to buy a gift for to solve the problem.

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  4. Your ideas are great. Maybe swaps within each family would be a good idea. The wiah list sounds good. $30 gifts are fine. Need more info on how the wish list works. I plan on buying and using your address to send the gifts to. Carol likes to wrap presents. If it is all on Amazon, it will be easyu to ship. Can't peak though!

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  5. I cant say it enough, I LOVE presents, and swaps. They all sound wonderful to me. As Dad said, I do like to wrap presents, so the wrapping idea sounds great for me. But, the stocking idea sounds great too. I like it all. I agree with all of the above.

    Kelli&Dave, you both come up with great ideas

    Can't wait to meet everyone!

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