Drawing names at Christmas for Gift Giving

Written on January 4, 2008 – 7:57 pm | by Shell |

We have done this for three years straight and from my experience, it has been great. We have a large group of family members to buy for when you count extended members of the family and trying to buy for all of them just gets too expensive and time consuming. So I suggested we put all our names in a hat and draw to see who buys for who.

There are some simple rules, if you don’t have a job or are a student, you are exempt and don’t have to buy for anyone unless you want to. Spouses can’t pick each other’s name. There is a $75 limit on gifts. These three rules have made it a pleasant and fun time around the Christmas tree.

This has worked quite well for the following reasons:

  1. You can focus all your time and creative efforts on one person.
  2. It saves money. Even with the $75 suggested amount you will save. Even if you spent $20 per person you would spend over that with only 4 gifts.
  3. The quality of the gift is much greater. Would you rather have a $20 or less gift OR a $75 gift.
  4. It opens up more gift ideas since you can now spend a little more.

I can honestly say this has made my Christmas less stressful and more fun. The only problem is trying to avoid getting the same name as the year before, but we allow anyone to trade names or we’ll do a redraw if this happens. Good luck next year! Here are some other holiday gift ideas to simplify your gift giving.

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