Christmas gifts for the family

Mcsweets · November 2013

So, my side of the family has always bought gifts for everyone that gets together for Christmas... meaning grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, cousin's kids, etc... Last year I mentioned that since our local family is getting so large (I counted it up = 25 people not including these guys in my belly!), maybe we should just buy for kids, and then draw names for adults. That idea was squashed....they did say that we didn't have to if we couldn't afford it. But, I still feel like it's still a lot of pressure... if we spend $25 on everyone that's over $600 in little $25 presents! I'm SERIOUSLY not trying to be cheap, but I just think it's gotten out of control and now with kids on the way we are being extra conservative.

Does anyone have any ideas of something we can MAKE for the adults? Something that would be heartfelt but not so pricey???

laurstarx · November 2013

That's crazy. We do an adult Polyanna and a kids Pollyanna every year. We are 30+. Buying for everyone is crazy! Lol

kmeyers0611 · November 2013

Wow.. I'm surprised the drawing names idea for adults didn't go over! That's what we do for our family and it makes everyone much happier! Everyone gets SOMETHING but no one has to break their savings for Christmas every year...

I made fleece fringe blankets for MH's family members one year (much smaller family than mine so we do gifts for everyone on that side). JoAnn fabrics had a really good sale going and everyone loved them, they're so cozy! problem is they are really time consuming to make and being preggers would make it harder... You could make calendars with family photos, perhaps. My parents LOVE those.

kimberpoo · November 2013

oh wow that is way too many people! we stopped buying for adults years ago. If I know someone is going to buy for us and I have to do something in return, I'll put together something edible or do something with photos. In the past, we've put family portraits from previous years in frames as gifts, gotten the small, cheaper ceramic baking dishes from the dollar store and then filled them with the dry ingredients for recipes with it wrapped up in cute cellophane and a tag with what wet ingredients to add and how long to bake it for (apple bread or something similar is usually a hit). I've also made fudge and put it in tins, filled mugs with yummy drink mixes (try to-go tumblers with coffee packets or something like that), and done the mason-jar-layered-hot-chocolate craft.

Good luck!

Mcsweets · November 2013

Littlejohn115 said:

That is nuts. We did something a little different the past couple of years with MH's family called "My Favorite Things." Instead of bringing individualized gifts for each person, you bring 25 of your favorite thing and share them with everyone. For example, one person brought the movie theater boxes of Junior Mints, one person did scratch-off lottery tickets, one person brought Sodoku books, one person did $5 Starbucks gift cards, etc. If you spent $5 per item, and did 25 people, it's still $125 but that's a lot better than the $600 you're spending now.

I looooooooooove Junior Mints!!!!!!!

memali26 · November 2013

This doesn't help you this year, but I do a little craft with the kids for gifts for extended family each year. Just something little, it keeps costs down but everyone is thrilled with it because it's by the kids

Last year was hand print snowman ornaments, the year before that was calendars with family photos and some of the girls' "drawings" I scanned into the computer. I think this year might be footprint ornaments - the "mistletoes" all over pinterest.

Could you do personalized ornaments for everyone this year? Buying them in sets of 9 or 12 plain solid color ornaments isn't too expensive, and then you could get some paint pens and add names, birthdates, wedding anniversaries, etc.

Mcsweets · November 2013

memali26 said:

This doesn't help you this year, but I do a little craft with the kids for gifts for extended family each year. Just something little, it keeps costs down but everyone is thrilled with it because it's by the kids Last year was hand print snowman ornaments, the year before that was calendars with family photos and some of the girls' "drawings" I scanned into the computer. I think this year might be footprint ornaments - the "mistletoes" all over pinterest.

Could you do personalized ornaments for everyone this year? Buying them in sets of 9 or 12 plain solid color ornaments isn't too expensive, and then you could get some paint pens and add names, birthdates, wedding anniversaries, etc.

We actually did personalized ornaments 2 years ago

They turned out really great!

knittinlins · November 2013

For the extended adults in my family we do a gift exchange, white elephant style with numbers and stealing, but good gifts. Everyone who brings a gift can participate so it works great for the open door Christmas that my family has. Families that only want to buy one gift can participate together or even just show up and laugh and the stealing and antics.

I believe the upper generation (my parents and their siblings) do a name draw, but it is just for them. When me and my cousins were younger I believe they drew names for our gifts as well.

Hope something works out!

farmrose · November 2013

I started doing cookies/candied nuts/etc for extended family-my husband's aunts and uncles etc because it just gets out of hand. Granted cookies and such can get expensivefor all the baking supplies plus time consuming. But I love to bake so it's fun for me and everyone appreciates it. One year I found cute Christmas plates on sale and made cute little "trays" with cellophane and everything.
If you don't like baking check out pinterest-there are lots of cheap ideas-bath salts, scrubs, scarfs (knit, crochet or sewn), a cute wreath-use your hobby lobby/joann/michaels coupons. The men can be a little more difficult. But my dad is never disappointed with homemade fudge!

Mcsweets · November 2013

I wonder if I could make these? What do you guys think?:

Then I could add a small bottle of liquor of some sort? I know rumplemintz sometimes people like in it???

kmeyers0611 · November 2013

Cute!! I would love that gift

ceh789 · November 2013

@Mcsweets Your family sucks for rejecting the drawing names idea, seriously. In your place I would lower my per-gift cost to $5 max. Spending $600 on gifts for adults is absurd. I love the cocoa in a jar thing you linked.

Some other ideas:

* Vanilla Sugar Scrub

* Cookies in a jar

* Soup in a jar

* Flavored sugar

* Framed photo of you and giftee doing something together (this could be either a childhood photo or a recent one)

* $5 GC for Starbucks, Target - some other place they can buy something for $5

Mcsweets · November 2013

I honestly don't think they were doing it to be rude. They said they like shopping for everyone, which is why they gave me the "out" and said if I couldn't do it they totally understand. They just enjoy it so prefer to keep it as it is...

clo1982 · November 2013

@mcsweets, I think that is a great idea! You could also do baileys...they always have little baileys bottles and that stuff is good with ANYTHING!

If there are multiple kids in one family you could also do a group type gift...like a game that all 3 (or whatever) kids could play together. My aunt used to do 2 DVD's, some candy and bags of popcorn and that was the gift for our family. It was like a family night in basket that probably cost less than $25 per family.

I always feel so bad for people who have to do crazy gift buying at christmas. It should not be a time when you have to stress about spending money on people. My sister's IL's are BIG (I mean BIIIIIG) spenders for Christmas...but her BIL pulls in about $650K a year, and her SIL is about $200K a year so it isn't as big of a deal to spend $1K on their parents...no I'm not kidding...plus buy ALL aunts/uncles, sister and brother plus their spouses, and the 6 kids gifts. my sister and BIL get so stressed out about it every year and when it was brought up to tone it down, her MIL (BIL's mom) flipped out on him for 'ruining Christmas and being cheap.'

bumpuser9058414 · November 2013

It's not sentimental but a while back when we had the huge family party everyone put in a scratch ticket and bought presents only for the little ones. It was so much easier. That's a lot of money to spend!

Mcsweets · November 2013

clo1982 said:

@mcsweets, I think that is a great idea! You could also do baileys...they always have little baileys bottles and that stuff is good with ANYTHING!

If there are multiple kids in one family you could also do a group type gift...like a game that all 3 (or whatever) kids could play together. My aunt used to do 2 DVD's, some candy and bags of popcorn and that was the gift for our family. It was like a family night in basket that probably cost less than $25 per family.

I always feel so bad for people who have to do crazy gift buying at christmas. It should not be a time when you have to stress about spending money on people. My sister's IL's are BIG (I mean BIIIIIG) spenders for Christmas...but her BIL pulls in about $650K a year, and her SIL is about $200K a year so it isn't as big of a deal to spend $1K on their parents...no I'm not kidding...plus buy ALL aunts/uncles, sister and brother plus their spouses, and the 6 kids gifts. my sister and BIL get so stressed out about it every year and when it was brought up to tone it down, her MIL (BIL's mom) flipped out on him for 'ruining Christmas and being cheap.'

That is absolutely nuts!!!!!!! I

Baileys too!!! Maybe I'll do that instead

amdecker1016 · November 2013

i completely understand!

since we've been married i've been doing couple gifts.

this year i'm making them game gift baskets, because Toys R Us has most of their games $10 right now. then sticking like two cokes and some candy and popcorn in the basket.

might cost me around $15 if i play my cards right and go to the 99Cent store.

but then again, i only have five couples to do.

or i have done the cute dry ingredient in a mason jar for different types of cookies or brownies. pinterest has a lot of cute ones on their.

one year i made them all wreaths.

i just googled this so i have alot of ideas.

heres where i got a lot of great ideas

https://frugalliving.about.com/od/gifts/tp/Gifts_for_a_Tight_Budget.htm

Mcsweets · November 2013

@amymheidecker - I have saved that link!!!

pepperedmoth · November 2013

Mcsweets said:

I honestly don't think they were doing it to be rude. They said they like shopping for everyone, which is why they gave me the "out" and said if I couldn't do it they totally understand. They just enjoy it so prefer to keep it as it is...

Oh good. That makes it better. I like shopping for gifts too, but my entire list is 8 people so . . . not the same.

I liked all of @ceh789's suggestions. I'd add:

-Home-made chocolate truffles They're really very easy --- I use a recipe out of Alice Waters's book Simple Food.

-A recipe book. I'm a good cook so family members often ask me for my recipes; one year I compiled them and made it all look pretty.

-Home-made ornaments never go wrong. I'm not super crafty except for knitting but there are a bajillion cute ideas on Pinterest.

-Bath salts --- sooooo easy, just epsom salts with whatever you want to add in a pretty jar.

-You can buy a length of nice fleece and just cut it into scarves. I'm not a fantastic sewer but with a good rotary cutter, one of those clear quilting rulers, and a self-healing mat, this can be really easy and actually look good (DON'T just hack at it with scissors!). You can cut fringe at the ends or add tassels. Maybe embroider initials.

-Have you ever made salve? You just buy a big hunk of beeswax, melt it in a double boiler, gradually mix in whatever oils you want (I've used olive oil in the past) until it's the right consistency (let a drop fall onto the counter to cool it quickly and check) and add whatever essential oils. Pour into tiny jam jars.

Mcsweets · November 2013

Thanks!!

SurpriseAt39 · November 2013

I tried to convince my family to 'rotate' or 'draw' names.
They hated the idea. We did it one year and everyone got upset because they found the perfect gift for everyone else, but weren't supposed to buy for everyone.
So the next year we tried again, and most family members bought for everyone anyway.

Our limit was $50 a couple...dropped to $25 a person (divorces). Then they tried kids only...still didn't work.

I just quit buying.
I hate shopping.

erind0213 · November 2013

https://followpics.net/santa-hot-cocoa-mix-treats-clear-cake-decorating-bags-filled-with-peppermint-chips-hot-chocolate-mix-marshmallows-insert-a-spoon-dipped-in-chocolate-for-stirring-then-tie-the-bag-glue-a-whit/

This and a mug?

jfb29 · November 2013

I know of a family who decided they would stop buying gifts for each other. Instead, at Thanksgiving, they pass around an envelope and everyone puts whatever they would spend in it anonymously. They then adopt a family (or 2) for Christmas and all go shopping together and deliver the gifts to the family. They apparently have a great deal of fun shopping together. I suggested something similar to my family since really none of us need anything and it lasted 2 years before we went back to the exchange. We still did small gifts for one person.

One thing you could do if this would be something your family would like is do one big group gift and buy a goat or heifer for a family in a developing country through Mercy Corps or Heifer International. You could put the family name on it.

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Christmas gifts for the family

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