Drawing Names for Christmas?

ElusiveButterfly - I know exactly what you are saying! I had a bit of a large family - 4 of us kids and all with families, but I too still got things for all - I made them or did baked goods baskets and things like that. I guess I can see if there are couple dozen you have to buy for and although I can make things I thihk they would want, they might not want them so I"m wasting my time and all, but still - I do know what you mean! My family started that in recent years, but it was more I think cause my one sister in law is a rather high ranking in NASA so her income and tastes are much, MUCH higher than mine and I think she just didn't want to lower herself to graciously accept my penny-anny gifts. I hand make - crocheted - afghans for everyone one year - used all the amazing decorative stitches, not just the plain ones - shadow box nad bow ties and such. She gave hers to her mother. Anyway, I started doing baked goods baskets with lots (and I mean lots!) of unusual and common cookies and breads. EVERYONE loved them... but her - she gave hers to her mother! So it was her idea to draw names so I went along with it, but I was asked every year if I was going to do the food baskets and I said no, we are drawing names, remeber? They missed it but it was their idea! But the thing was - with her high price attitude, there was nothing that I could afford to buy her that she'd want. We did one few years ago where we all bought a generic gift - he or she could use it, and just drew numbers and did a white elephant gift exchange. Know what my SIL did? Her gifts for the exchange (hers and my brothers) were a gift card to Borders and one to Target. So when it came her turn to choose a gift - open or unopened - she chose her OWN gift - the gift card from Borders! Someone else then chose that from her and she chose again unopened - and choose her Target gift card! It was at the end and no one else could change with her, so she walked off with her own gift! Now why Target as that is so below her, I don't know but it was pathetic. We don't do any of it now... I miss it but am not to sad about it. I have my 2 kids and their kids and that's enough!

My cousins always did that. There were 11 children in the family and after child 5, they just couldn't do it any more. Even making things for 13 people, hard to do, esp. for the little children. My Great Grandparents, who knows what they did, but there were 21 kids (three sets of twins) in that family. I didn't set a limit in the past because I made a lot of money and the rest of my family didn't. Now, it's $10 a person, at the most. If I can get away with less, so much the better, esp. since the food and X-mas will be at our house. At least with our 9.9 acres, a tree and decorations will be just work to make. If I don't get more work soon, $10 may be a trial because I'm having a rough time paying bills. Thanks and take care.

that is quite an innovative idea.i must admit that i have never done drawing names.yours is quite a good idea,so much of hard work goes into it. but if you need to send it through,i do not think cakes can be sent long distance.

as you said you only buy for your own family and grandkids, but some families buy for each other brothers, sisters, kids, nieces, nephews, grandparents, aunts uncles etc and so they pick from a hat for the adults and of course buy for their own immediate families. Yes I did that one year too. I got my uncle, and my cousin got me,

i know people that do that as well. in my hubbys family, there are 22 of us and we dont draw names, we dont buy presents for kids over 16 and this seems to be a good idea. most of my inlaws make way more money than we do! we do, however buy about 10-15 items from the dollar store and wrap them up and have a dice game. (there is a time limit; you roll the dice and get doubles you can grab a present, then half way through you unwrap them, then if you roll doubles, you can steal a present from someone else before the timer goes off - its a great time and lots of fun!)

Hey hey My dads side has a huge christmas party and we have a gift bag grab bag ya know , but the things is there are like so many kids . I always used to buy for everyone and now i just cant afford that . I am just giving my little cousins money or free zoo passes my fiance has from a friend . There will be no bag this year if there is i cant be in it . I am just gonna buy one gift for everyone that i am closest to . I cant be as nice with gifts this year and i used to go overboard !

We don't draw names in my family neither. Even when money is tight, like now. I still some how manage to do Christmas. I have a big list too, sometimes it just takes imagination. Some how it all works out and everyone is happy with what they get. I will also be baking some goodies for Christmas.

Money is so tight this year that we are all just buying for our own households and enjoying the pleasure of one another's company. I like to make gifts too and baked goods and preserves are always a big hit. But I think that the drawing names thing would be a good idea for my kids this year. I think I will run the idea past them and see what they think of it. Instead of buying for everyone of them they can just draw a name and only have one sibling to buy for. I don't know if they could stick to it, but I'll ask them. It might save them enough money to be able to but a gift for their' best friends - which always seems to be a big deal! LOL!

We did the picking names thing a while back. My one sister kinda started it - wihtout knowing that it was her that got it going. First let me tell you, there are 5 of us kids, most are usually married, so that's 9 or so people right there. All of our children together made 10 more. So, for me, a single mom of 2 I would feel obligated to buy about 15 gifts. Well, I didn't have the money to buy my own kids really good stuff, so it was hard for me to buy everyone else something. Many years I made the kids something - pillows, afghans, stockings... But most times it seemed like I was going to the dollar store to get something stupid that no one wanted but I could almost afford, just so they'd have a gift. Well, one year, my sister made a big stink about how much money she had to spend on gifts for her boyfriends kids (who treated her like crap) that she didn't have any money left over to buy for her neices and nephews. Well, this really pissed us off because we all tried very hard to make sure we bought for all the kids. So, we decided to pick names for all the neices and nephews. They actually loved it! I don't know that we put a dollar limit on it, although I'm sure we did. It was so much easier on everyone knowing that they didn't have to buy 8 or 9 other gifts and they could buy for a couple and make it something worth-while. We did that until about half of them were in their 20's then it got to be too much of a hassle. At the same time we started that, we decided to not buy gifts for our siblings unless we happened to see something that we absolutely had to get for that person. Some years I get really cool things, but most years I get nothing from my family. And some years I will not buy a thing for them, but some years I buy for all of them. It just depends on what we come across. Now that our neices and nephews are adults, they do the same for each other. With my step-mother, last year we did the "white elephant" gift exchange. It was a blast!!! Before that my step-mother would make sure she bought us all something (totally useless that went right into the Goodwill pile). I like it better this way and we'll continue to do it.

e used to draw names for Christmas gift buying but had to stop doing that. The economic times were too hard and we had to make sure to buy for our immediate family. We did set a price limit though.

when my children were little and we had a huge family . Aunts uncles cousins and all we drew names but all the children got gifts from everyone. I think it stopped because people stated complaining about their gifts. It is hard to buy for someone you dont know what they like. So teh gift giving with family is no more.

We did it at work, tho I gave little gifts for those people in our data entry unit. I think my favorite gift I gave was the spa kit, probably cost more than the limit, but I made most of the stuff, even painted the mug the stuff was stuffed into! It wasn't on my giftee's list of what she wanted, but she LOVED it anyway! My family is so small, that gifts for all of us isn't a big deal. There's mom, my bro, his girlfriend, my sister, her girl friend and my neice. I also give some things to a few friends.

We tried drawing names one year but everyone bought for the name they drew and everyone else so now we just buy for everyone and we have no set limit on the gifts,we just spend what we can afford.I draw names at work and the limit there is $25.You have a great night.

It was disussed this year, that instead of buying for the kids all of the aunts and uncles would pick a name out of a hat and only buy for that child. But we decided instead that it would be better if we just all promised on only spend a certain amount on each chid. The amount is about $20 cheaper then we usually spend, so we are cutting the cost in half. Don't know the kids are going to feel about this, but times are hard, and I think once you go to pulling names it becomes a tradition, and I hope that things will return to normal again and we will be able to spend at Christmas like we normally do. For the adults we don't pull names but we do play a game. Each grown up brings an already wrapped gift of a certain value, then we play a game and everyone ends up with one of the gifts.

I could not imagine ever doing anything like that because of the potential outcome. I can understand the difficulty for some people when it comes to purchasing gifts, but drawing names is certainly not the answer. If someone does not receive a present it may not be important to them, especially if they are aware that finances are low. however, to not receive a gift while another does is wrong, I feel it would be better to buy none than buy for some only.

My apologies my friend, this is one discussion that seem to have eluded me, so forgive me! Ah the secret santa as it's affectionately known as or a bran tub. Usually an amount is agreed before the presents are bought, for example at my last job £10 was specified so you had a budget to keep to and everyone else, which makes it a much fairer way of doing it. We normally only do this at work and never for the family, it does get expensive doesn't it. Thats why making things is far preferable and I think more appreciative. Happy New Year!

I think its a brilliant idea, we have been doing it for years now...The children always get something, that dosnt even come into it..But the adults draw names and everyone loves the idea...That way there is less stress too, you only have to buy for one person with a set amount to spend....Love it !!

We never chose to buy gifts even when there was our aunts and uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. I hated picking a name out of a hat, and even if we could not buy what we would, I would think that buying a pocketbook, or a scarf for each was much better then just buying a set of dishware for someone and nothing for anyone else. We usually buy now for our sons and their family, but not for the other in-law unless we are going to see them for Christmas and my husband will give them cash. Me? I can only afford so much, so I will either give them a gift card or something nice for each.

we dont pick names with hubbys family (there are 22 of us). we only buy for the young kids under 16. there are 5 girls that are under 16 (one is mine, so that makes only 4 girls)last year, i made them each a scrap book. it didnt cost that much as most of the stuff (paper and whatnot) i bought at the dollar store and used for all 4 of them.

Drawing names is a tradition for my Mom's side of the family. Anyone over 18 years old is in the drawing. We pick one name and have a $30 spending limit. The children all get gifts from everyone and since we have so many children in the family, I could not imagine each adult receiveing a gift from everyone and waiting for ALL of the adults to open their presents too. We'd probably be there until next Christmas :) I think drawing names whether money is tight or not is a gret idea and you can save money.