christmas budgeting

[BiggerPiggyBank]

Years ago, maybe 15-20 years, we had a similar problem and one of my
sisters had a creative solution which is fun, and that we still do
today.

Back when four of my sisters were seriously building and completing
their families (I, like another sister and our brother, don’t have
children) gift exchange became a very serious problem. There were alot
of issues, (I’ve already deleted a very long explaination – your
welcome! LOL!) but just briefly, not the least of the problems was the
differences in situations between the sisters financially (the married
sisters had more to spend on Christmas than the single ones – our
brother lives across the country.) Also, single sisters would have to
buy anywhere between two to four gifts per sister (for husband, and
any kids) while, at the same time, she has less money, while the
married sister would give one gift back to her from her whole family.

It became such an accounting problem with bad feelings, that like Kim,
we also decided to quit exchanging gifts with (now) extended family.
Our parents, of course got gifts, but only the sisters who were Moms
would give outside her own family, and then, only would give to the
nieces and nephews, knowing her child(ren) would be on that same
receiving end.

But, that got really boring for the adults. So, one of my sisters
brought home an idea. It was The Grab Bag Gift Exchange Game, its for
the grown-ups only.

We’ve been doing it for many years now, and its
alot of fun.

What we do is, everyone participating buys one gift. It can be
anything, but is supposed to be for anyone – men and women alike.
Then, after the kids open their gifts, us grown-ups put all the grab
bag gifts in the center while we’re in a circle around them. We
choose who goes first, 2nd, etc., by pulling numbers from a deck of
playing cards.

The first person pulls a gift out of the center and
opens it. The second person pulls a gift from the center, opens it,
and has a choice between keeping the gift or swapping it for the one
the first person pulled. The third person has a choice between the
first three gifts, and so on.

As you can see, you never really know
what you’ll end up with until its over. Its really fun.

There are only a few rules, but all are important.

1) Set a dollar amount – its currently about $20 or $30 in our family.
2) No bad feelings rule!! This is crucial. No fighting over a gift –
if you really want a particular gift, its only twenty bucks.

Got out
and buy one!
3) Its for grown-ups, remember? Each person participating must buy
their own gift. No one is allowed to play “Mom” and buy someone elses
Christmas gift for them.

Go out and buy your own.
4) This one is still being debated, but one problem we have is
sometimes the only gift someone really wants is the one he or she
purchased. The others don’t interest that person. This is common
enough that we’re thinking of putting in a “you can’t choose your own
gift” rule, because its less fun of a game if alot of people choose
the gift they brought themselves.

The element of surprise is gone.
If you do make this rule, add a rule that you have to save the receipt
(maybe tape a gift receipt to the inside top of the box, like one of
my sisters does with all of her gifts).

Sorry for the length, but I hope this idea helps someone else avoid
some of the arguements that happened in our family so long ago.

Loraine

[Author]

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