Reduce the number of extra gifts. Some people offer holiday gifts to people they don’t know very well, such as their neighbors or their children’s instructors. If you have a lot of “extra” persons on your list, consider bypassing their gifts this year. Instead, simply send them a greeting card or a note to let them know you’re thinking about them. They’ll probably appreciate it just as much as a random present from a stranger.
Do a Gift Exchange
If you have 15 persons in your household and each one buys a gift for the other 14, you’ll have more than 200 gifts beneath the tree. Unwrapping them all one by one takes the majority of the day. No one has time to focus on anyone present or properly thank the giver in a rush to get through the pile. By the time you’re done, the floor is littered with paper, and everyone is too tired to enjoy their new gifts.
You can make this moment less chaotic by deciding on a family gift exchange. This is also known as a round-robin or secret Santa trade. It’s also relatively simple to put into action.
Gather the family and place all of your names in a hat. It’s an excellent time to do it around Thanksgiving. If you cannot gather the entire family, you can conduct your drawing online using a free service such as SecretSanta.com or Elfster.
Take turns pulling names from the hat. The individual whose name you choose is the only one for whom you must shop. Choose again if you drew your name.
You can all add a few hints on your slip along with your names to make choosing gifts easier. You can, for example, identify authors whose books you enjoy or clothes colors or sizes that you desire.
Purchase your gift, wrap it, and bring it to your holiday gathering. You may add to the excitement by leaving your names off the skills, leaving it up to the recipients to determine who contributed each gift.
A gift exchange provides several advantages. Because you just have one gift to buy, you may devote more time to it. Instead of going through a lengthy list, you can concentrate on finding just one great estate for a single person.
You also only have one present to open so that you can take your time with it. That’s far more satisfying than tearing through a mountain of gifts without noticing any of them. And no one is hurt because their presence was overlooked in the shuffle with barely a word of acknowledgment.
Buy Secondhand
It is simple to set a maximum price limit for presents. Finding wonderful gifts while staying within your budget, on the other hand, can be challenging.
Shopping secondhand is one method to stretch your shopping budget. Many common gifts, such as clothing, jewelry, and books, are significantly less expensive when purchased used. Secondhand presents are also environmentally friendly because they are reused to reduce waste.
When Secondhand Gifts Are OK
Secondhand gifts put off some individuals. Any present they didn’t buy new appears cheap to them. However, this is not the case for everyone. According to a Los Angeles Times columnist, when he asked two colleagues about secondhand gifts, one thought they were alright, while the other thought they were “very tacky.”