Holiday Gift Giving on a Budget

The holiday season is time for family visits, great food, and thoughtful gift-giving, and as such it is always an expensive time of year. In financially tight times the thought of gift-giving can become daunting, bringing with it stress instead of the usual excitement, especially when the family is large.

When my immediate family gathers for the holiday season, we have seventeen people to consider for gifts, and it can get quite overwhelming. In fact, some family members travel a significant distance, leaving them strapped for cash when the time comes to buy presents. So we have developed several strategies to enable people to have the joy of gift giving without breaking the bank.

Recipe Exchange

During some holiday seasons our family does a recipe exchange. Each household provides both a meal recipe and a dessert recipe to each of the other households. If they want, people can choose a different meal and dessert for each household, giving them the chance to give personalized gifts without spending a dime.

Tree Ornaments

A very inexpensive gift is to provide personalized Christmas tree ornaments to each household. An ornament could be a simple ball that the family decorates together, a memento from some significant family event from that year, or even a family photo in a nice frame.

Charitable Donations

During other years our family has chosen to give to charity instead of buying gifts. The holiday organizer (every family has one!) decides on a fitting charity, such as a one-time child support donation or a local food pantry. Each household decides on an amount that fits their personal budget and donates to that charity. No other household needs to know the amount given.

Alternatively, instead of giving money to a charity, the family could work together at one for several hours, doing things like serving food at a pantry, doing laundry or cleaning at a shelter, shoveling snow for a church, etc. The idea is to encourage giving without encouraging selfishness or spending too much money.

Holiday Gift Exchange Game

The adults in our family play a gift exchange game every year. Anyone who wishes to play brings one nice, gender neutral gift (around $20 - $25 value). All the gifts are wrapped with no tags and placed in the middle of the room. Everyone draws a number at random and the game proceeds in the order of the numbers. The first person picks any gift from the pile and holds onto it, but does not open it.

Each person after that can either choose another gift from the pile or "steal" a gift from a prior player. If someone's gift is stolen, it becomes their turn again. A gift can only be stolen three times, at which point is becomes "frozen". Game play ends when the last gift is taken from the pile.

Finally, everyone opens their gift. To make things interesting we include one rotating "gag" gift. Whoever gets it will received a slightly nicer gift than everyone else and then must keep the gag gift until the next year, at which point they purchase a special gift worthy of the prize, wrap the gag gift, and pass it on to whomever gets it next.

This game allows everyone who brings a gift to get a gift, and the game play allows for great fun in the process. It has become one of our favorite family traditions.

Gifts for the Children

Parents usually give one gift to their own children and other adults who wish to can provide gifts as well, though it is never expected. We encourage such giving to be practical, theme driven, and low budget. As an example, one child wanted a particular train set. The parents gave the information to all the families so they would know what to purchase. Each family spent about $10 on a train extension or train car for the set, and when done, the child had a huge track and the parts to use on it.

Other families I know have so many children that giving to each can be too expensive. These families draw names and buy for only one or two children each year, allowing the children to have a reasonable amount of gifts and the adults to buy something nicer than if they were purchasing for all the children.

Summary

These ideas are just a beginning. Each family has its own culture and traditions that should be considered when planning for gift giving. However, as illustrated above, it is not necessary to spend exorbitant sums in order to delight in the joy of giving to others.