Alternatives to gift exchange for kids

[carwesty]

Every year at Christmas my family has a gift exchange for all the cousin's. They range in ages 1 1/2 to 15 and there are 10. We usually let them draw names. This year we decided against it as the economy has hit a few of the families pretty hard. Any suggestions on what else to do with the kids so they can have fun together. The only thing we thought of so far is splitting them into two groups since we have young ones and older ones and doing a scavenger hunt. Any other ideas would be great. Craft ideas, etc...

Thanks!

 

[LisaR]

My daughter just had a few friends over and they made chocolate covered pretzels. They had a blast doing it and it occupied them for a good two hours between melting the chocolate, crushing the cookies and candy, dipping, rolling and eating!

 

[Todd&Copper]

How about a cookie decorating party? You can either buy plain sugar cookies or bake up a bunch of cookies yourself, and buy/make colored icing and buy some sprinkles.

 

[Minnie M6]

Board games are always fun.......

Michael's has some fun inexpensive craft sets- foam or wooden. My DS9 loves the $1 wooden models that you put together and paint; for the younger kids the foam kits that you decorate are fun and less messy.

Love PPs idea of cookie decorating- we had the cousins over last year and did this and it was great! We also made some homemade family gifts from the kids to the adults- handprint aprons and baked goods.

They could work together to decorate a gingerbread house or two.

Whatever you decide, have fun!

 

[mom2cookies]

A friend and i just did this with some little ones 2 weeks ago. What I did was take graham crackers and made little houses with them. I " glued" them together using mirangue powder icing. It causes the icing to get hard. Then we bought a variety of candies like small gum drops, nerds, gum drop rings, etc. Then i had my teenage DDs and their friends help the little kids decorate their individual houses. When the little ones were done the big kids got to do it. We took our time and joked and talked while being creative.
If anyone would like i can pm them the directions for assembling the houses. I assembled them the day before so the " glue" had time to dry.

 

[sndfan]

This may sound a little "geeky", but then again, I'm geeky, so it makes sense.

When I was little and we'd go to Grandmom and Pop Pop's house, my cousins and I ALWAYS put on a "play" or a "show". We'd choreograph the whole thing, find stuff to dress up in and then perform for the rest of the family.

Since you are lucky enough to have a 15 year old in the group, he/she could help coordinate. It might be as simple as singing Christmas carols or doing a little dance. Since the 1 1/2 year old can't sing the songs, they might have bells to shake or something. You could print out copies of some carols and get some bells together before hand.

It would be nice to video the show and send dvd's to everyone after...a nice family tradition in the making maybe??

Enjoy your Christmas!

 

[Eeyore4me]

When I was little and we'd go to Grandmom and Pop Pop's house, my cousins and I ALWAYS put on a "play" or a "show". We'd choreograph the whole thing, find stuff to dress up in and then perform for the rest of the family.

My kids would be ALL OVER THIS!! Have Fun with whatever you decide & Happy Holidays!

Lauren

 

[michellejed]

Don't forget to do the dough ornaments, kids love these and they can all be creative.

There was a post on the 2 different kinds of dough to make, I can't find it right now.

Have fun

 

[sbaldasare]

My kids and their cousins love playing "Santa" bingo. We get candy and goodies from the Dollar Spot at Target for prizes.

 

[carwesty]

Thanks for the responses. I will have to check out the dough ornaments. That sounds like fun and the gingerbread houses too. I can pair up a younger one and an older one to help with craft items. Now I need to get started collecting items!

 

[TifffanyD]

OK the play idea reminded me of something a friend in HS did for her birthday party. Her and her mother wrote a play and then chose people to assign all the parts to. We were given basic costume pieces and had to listen to the narrator for our parts and such - we didn't even know what the play would say we would do right up until we had to do it. It was really cute and fun.

 

[merekc]

I know that you were looking for gift alternative ideas, but wanted to also throw out some gift type ideas in case you (or anyone else reading this thread) may be looking for cheap gift ideas.

These are some things I've heard other families doing.

1. Each family brings each kid a small gift ($1 store, homemade etc.) to fill a stocking. In your family's case, it would cost around $10 per family to get each kid a trinket.

2. Each kid brings something they've made or something they own and do an exchange or drawing with these gifts.

I do like the ideas of making things. Some additional ideas (sorry if they are repeats) ornaments with handprints or scrapbooks. Maybe everybody brings copies of pictures of themself to trade, so everyone could make a family scrapbook for themselves.

Good luck!

 

[Andrea from PA]

How about re-gifting/freecycling and have each child choose something they have that they never used/no longer use. For the older ones it could be a book, old video game, something Mom or Dad no longer use and are willing to donate. For the younger ones it could be a fast-food toy, stuffed animal.

They can then put number on each item & draw a number from a hat which corresponds.

 

[englishteacha]

What about a family "Amazing Race"? You could set up clues around the neighborhood. At each checkpoint they could do something, like sing a carol, build a snowperson, find a house with lots of Christmas lights and take a photo, etc. It would be like an interactive scavenger hunt.

 

[tzolkin]

How about re-gifting/freecycling and have each child choose something they have that they never used/no longer use. For the older ones it could be a book, old video game, something Mom or Dad no longer use and are willing to donate. For the younger ones it could be a fast-food toy, stuffed animal.

They can then put number on each item & draw a number from a hat which corresponds.

We do something similar with my mom's extended family, but the adults and kids are all included. One of us wraps all the gifts, so no one knows what they are (many are from the dollar store, but I really like the idea of having the kids pick something out from around their house). Everyone picks numbers and when it's their turn they can either pick a wrapped gift and open it or "steal" someone else's. It's always a lot of fun and something everyone looks forward to every year.

 

[Terry36]

you could also decorate gingerbread men and cupcakes!

 

[Coll0610]

We're cutting back this year so we are doing a "junk food / candy" gift exchange for the kids. They each bring their favorite snack or candy, costing about $2. Then we'll play the game where you draw numbers and then take a gift from the pile or steal someone else's. After they open the gifts, we'll have each person guess who brought what.