Christmas gift exchange with extended family

[momz]

I have not seen a thread about this yet. I am looking for ideas.

It is looking more and more like we won't be gathering with extended family for Christmas this year. My family has a tradition of drawing names on Thanksgiving for gift exchange, so each person has only 1 to buy for instead of 18.

Anyway, we did not gather for thanksgiving and likely won't for Christmas as well. We are brainstorming ideas on how to carry on our tradition, but modified since we won't be together. Here are the ideas so far:

1. Have a Secret Santa. Santa sends a gift to their person every quarter (will have a dollar limit, so nothing extravagant). then, next Christmas, we reveal who each one's secret santa was.

2. Santa sends gift the person's home and we open our gifts during a zoom call.

3. Skip gift exchange this year and resume next year

4. The giver arranges a time to take gift to the receiver. They meet individually, can open them together properly distanced.

Please share your ideas.

 

[barkley]

i like the idea of a zoom party. set a time, maybe make it a pajama themed event and everyone takes turns opening their gift. the quarterly idea is nice but consider the cost of mailing stuff 4x vs. once (price has gone up so much recently).

 

[Hikergirl]

If it were me I'd suggest skipping it this year.
If there's little kids in the family, I'd just send them their gift so they can open it on Christmas.

 

[luv2sewtjr]

We are canceling our extended family’s yankee swap since we aren’t gathering for Christmas.

 

[RogueX]

We used Elfster and people would make a wishlist. A name would be drawn and you would buy for whose name you were given. A price range can be set, etc. We've set up a zoom call so we can see eachother open the gifts.

 

[Kittyblue]

I think option 2 would be fun. It's the closest you can come to getting together, and the gift exchange is probably a lot more about hanging out together and having fun than the actual gifts.

 

[BadPinkTink]

We use Amazon Wishlists and are sending the gifts to the recipients home. We have created a code so we know who the giver is and who the recipient is , First Name = Giver, Second Name = Recipient. We will open gifts on Skype on Christmas morning.

 

[antmaril]

I have Christmas gifts for my eight great nieces and nephews (ages 2 to 19). We won’t be getting together for Christmas this year and I plan to drop off the gifts at each household. I won’t stay to watch them open the gifts. We are playing it safe this year. Hopefully, next year we will all be together again.

 

[ronandannette]

I have not seen a thread about this yet. I am looking for ideas.

It is looking more and more like we won't be gathering with extended family for Christmas this year. My family has a tradition of drawing names on Thanksgiving for gift exchange, so each person has only 1 to buy for instead of 18.

Anyway, we did not gather for thanksgiving and likely won't for Christmas as well. We are brainstorming ideas on how to carry on our tradition, but modified since we won't be together. Here are the ideas so far:

1. Have a Secret Santa. Santa sends a gift to their person every quarter (will have a dollar limit, so nothing extravagant). then, next Christmas, we reveal who each one's secret santa was.

2. Santa sends gift the person's home and we open our gifts during a zoom call.

3. Skip gift exchange this year and resume next year

4. The giver arranges a time to take gift to the receiver. They meet individually, can open them together properly distanced.

Please share your ideas.

Well, sadly, me and mine have already agreed to go with #3 since any kind of in-person contact is prohibited. It will free up some cash for donations which we will do instead this year.

I do LOVE your idea #1 though. If it were me I'd really look forward to that, and it's very different, in keeping with the theme of such a different year.

 

[NAB]

I bake cookies for my siblings every year since my mom couldn’t anymore. We used to pick names between 6 of us but most stopped when we had our own families. My one sister and her 2 kids are my godchildren so we have kept up with exchanges.

This year my husband and I will drive the 2 hours to my hometown and deliver the cookies and gifts but will not stay or go in. They will be left on the porch.

My sister and I will FaceTime each other on Christmas Eve to open the gifts so we can see their reactions.

I’m just hoping we don’t get locked down before I can deliver stuff. To expensive to mail stuff out and hope they get stuff in time. Heck the cookies could end up crumbs. I see how packages are handled...lol

 

[prairie_girl]

My family uses a website to get a name chosen for us and then we buy for that person. Cuts down on a lot of useless junk just because you feel like you have to buy something for your third cousin twice removed. We have a dedicated driver who is going to distribute all the gifts since we’re all in the city and we’ll do a zoom chat to open gifts.

 

[AppleDumpling]

My family is doing #2. Some of us are mailing the packages, but I’ll probably hand deliver them. My furthest away is a little over an hour drive, so I can just take a ride and leave gifts on the porch.

On DH’s side, we only give to the nieces and nephews (all single young adults). Two of them are in other states far away and probably staying there; for them, we’re considering either just sending cash/gift card, or a food gift, (something like a fruit/snack basket or a box of steaks).

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I like the Zoom idea. That way everyone can get together virtually, open gifts, see what everyone else got, chat, etc. It's a good way to keep the tradition alive without an actual in-person gathering.

 

[kerry1379]

Our extended family has a neat Christmas tradition that works whether we are all able to meet together or not. We have a large extended family that lives all across the country so this works best for us. We chat together online and agree on an individual or family that might be in need of a little financial help. Whoever knows that person or family and lives close to them gathers money that we all send to them (no set amount, just whatever each family is able or feels comfortable contributing). The money is collected, converted to cash, packaged up in a fun way, and delivered. The family that delivered it (usually anonymously but not always) reports back to the rest of the family about the experience. It has been an uplifting experience for us and something we look forward too. This year, the masks will make for an easy anonymous delivery!

 

[DisneyHardin]

I think mailing the gifts (or dropping off on people's porches if they are local) and then opening on Zoom sounds fantastic.

We usually do a small gift exchange with my aunts and cousins with a pizza party on Dec. 23rd. My aunt who hosts sent out a text that, understandably, she was cancelling this year, so we decided to still "meet" on the 23rd over Zoom and just catch up, but we are going to forgo gifts this year.

 

[Heigh-Ho]

I'd skip it this year but try to arrange a zoom chat just to say a few words with each other on the day. I agree with someone else if there are kids send gifts.

Another idea might be in lieu of a gift exchange for each other maybe in the spirit of helping out those in need each household does something charitable in their own community like adopt a family, angel tree, donate money or supplies to a local animal shelter or non-profit organization, etc. It can still be in theme of not spending a whole lot (I know sometimes those adopt a family or angel tree can get up there in cost).

 

[JenBush]

#2 is what my friends are doing this year. We’ve been having zoom parties since the beginning of quarantine.

 

[ronandannette]

Our extended family has a neat Christmas tradition that works whether we are all able to meet together or not. We have a large extended family that lives all across the country so this works best for us. We chat together online and agree on an individual or family that might be in need of a little financial help. Whoever knows that person or family and lives close to them gathers money that we all send to them (no set amount, just whatever each family is able or feels comfortable contributing). The money is collected, converted to cash, packaged up in a fun way, and delivered. The family that delivered it (usually anonymously but not always) reports back to the rest of the family about the experience. It has been an uplifting experience for us and something we look forward too. This year, the masks will make for an easy anonymous delivery!

I'm sure there will be no shortage of worthy candidate families this year. Thank you all for doing this.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

We have to travel to see our family for Christmas & are skipping it this year. They're all still getting together, but will be having another Christmas with us as soon as we can get a Covid vaccine. (We don't feel it's safe without one.) We plan to celebrate Christmas with them twice next year. Hopefully, one will be in June or July & the other at Christmas. If you definitely want to exchange gifts this year, I like your 2nd idea.

 

[elphaba91]

I think the Zoom idea is best by far. It’s a lot more fun to see what everyone gets and then you’ll all get some together time.