https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 14 May 2026 17:29:09 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2658101 Mon, 28 Nov 2016 14:43:51 +0000 Mrsbells 2658101@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would suggest secret santa for the adults and then group gifs for kids who live together. Also they dont have to be expensive gifts </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2658056 Mon, 28 Nov 2016 14:05:30 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2658056@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I try to make it a point not to visit my family on Christmas since I don't want to exchange gifts. One year my mom went along with being okay not exchanging gifts and still had a little something wrapped. K-Cups. She was annoyed I wasn't more grateful.</p> <p>With DH we have only spent one Christmas with his fam (three adult women) and I bought gifts for them. They had gifts for us too. I ended up regifting everything except for a Starbucks GC. </p> <p>IDK I am not a fan of holiday gift-giving although I love games and a White Elephant exchange sounds fun! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2657962 Mon, 28 Nov 2016 12:36:22 +0000 maddyz 2657962@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My mom comes from a big family and we are close with all our cousins and no one gives Christmas presents, or birthday presents. My parents haven't given me a present since I left for college.</p> <p>Dh has a small family and everyone expects to be sent something, even the grown ups (we have the only two grand kids). I make photo magnets or something like that for everyone and include my parents and grandmothers but not my siblings. They don't want magnets...</p> <p>We are still figuring out what Christmas means for our family... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2657873 Mon, 28 Nov 2016 10:56:31 +0000 cat620 2657873@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>For all the adults, we do a Secret Santa and draw names in early November, so each person only has one adult to buy a gift for. For the kids, everyone is supposed to buy them a present, but not everyone does. Mainly it's the single guys that don't. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2655629 Tue, 22 Nov 2016 06:34:12 +0000 ValentineMommy 2655629@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have 6 cousins, but only see 3 at the holidays. Of those 3, I only gift to 1 (the only female), who is basically the sister I never had. The other 2 (men) don't care. I also only gift to the female cousins kids, because they're my godchildren.</p> <p>On my husbands side, he has so many cousins/cousins kids....they don't exchange.</p> <p>I think if I had a huge family I would organize an exchange where you have a different person you gift to every year or something. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2655607 Tue, 22 Nov 2016 00:13:19 +0000 Mrs. Sketchbook 2655607@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have like, six cousins to buy for in addition to our siblings parents, and grandparents, and aunts. I'm so over it! This year each kid younger than three is getting an elephant and piggie book and all grandkids over three are getting a ten dollar gift card for a local ice cream place. We just spend entirely too much at Christmas mostly on gifts to CYA. This year I am taking from the family budget so I can spend more on our helpers: daycare workers, son's physical therapist, etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2655599 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 23:06:02 +0000 daniellemybelle 2655599@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH's family has 6 kids including him and now 9 grandchildren including LO. Due to divorce and so forth, there are not a lot of spouses-in-law but with his parents, that's a lot of people to shop for!</p> <p>We have done gifts for everyone in the past but last year and this year we just did gifts for the kids (~$25 budget) and I usually just have something very small and token for his siblings to open. I think I always end up doing a framed family picture of us, ha. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2655588 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 22:11:53 +0000 MaryM 2655588@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think for nieces and nephews, you have to do all or none. I have 13, and do $5-10 gifts or family gifts (games, puzzles, etc)</p> <p>For the adults on my side, gifts aren't a given. We once said we'd only do stuff for the kids, but finally people realized that I was buying for so many kids and DH and I weren't getting anything. </p> <p>Some years we give gifts to adults, some years we don't really and only give to mom and the kids</p> <p>I'm closer to one family of kids than the other, but that's not the kids fault (it's the adults I don't see as much) so I don't hold it against the kids </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2655342 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 14:42:56 +0000 Ajsmommy 2655342@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our situation is confusing...</p> <p>For DH's immediate family we buy for all, MIL/FIL/SIL/SIL. And they all buy for us DH/Me/DD. For his extended family on one side we do white elephant (participation not required). On the other side there are no gifts exchanged, although his aunt's uncles did give DD gifts last year (we went to the get together)</p> <p>For my immediate family we also buy for all (Mom/gram/brother/nephew). I am closer to my aunt's/uncle's and cousins than DH is so I buy them all small/combined gifts. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2655338 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 14:34:42 +0000 caterw 2655338@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LCTBQE: Ugh my mom is obsessed with "something to open" also. Her gift to us this year is a family Disney trip for early 2017 so it is HIGHLY unnecessary that she gets a gift for them as well. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family/page/2#post-2655334 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 14:27:29 +0000 caterw 2655334@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My mom is one of seven and all of her siblings have kids except one! They all get their mom (my grandmother) a present, and then they rotate who gets which sibling every year so they only buy for one adult per year. Spouses would be included in the rotating gift years and I'm pretty sure they had a spending limit also. The aunts and uncles would get a small gift for each kid, but only until we turned 18. Usually it would be like a $15-20 gift card, a book, or an article of clothing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655324 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:50:25 +0000 Mommy Finger 2655324@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>For the kids, we all draw the amount of names that you have kids. So since I have 2 boys, I draw 2 names. And then we have a dollar limit to keep it fair. </p> <p>For the adults, we all buy for my parents and they buy for all of us but we now do a white elephant exchange that's all of the adults and have so much fun. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655312 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:29:59 +0000 hellobeeboston 2655312@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we do it two different ways - my family buys for everyone, but i'm hoping that will change in a few years. on my in-laws side we pick names and buy one big gift for one person.</p> <p>both sides of the family buys for all of the kids, which is nice, but a little overwhelming. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655311 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:29:54 +0000 oliviaoblivia 2655311@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We do a Yankee swap on my side and no gifts on DH's side. There are 18 nieces and nephews and 15(soon 16) great nieces and nephews.<br /> We can't afford to do that many gifts and everyone is fairly well off and don't really need for anything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655309 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:25:46 +0000 littleblessings 2655309@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Mine and SOs family together is huge. We do one gift per household. It's usually a game of some sort that everyone in the house can play. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655302 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:21:41 +0000 Mrs. Cereal 2655302@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We do gifts for the kids (2 nephews) and then my siblings and their SO's all get together and we each spend $25.00 on a nice gift (last year I did a salt slab for the grill) and then we do a nice white elephant exchange. It was waaaaay cheaper than in the past and everyone got a gift and was happy. Easy peasy. If we had more nephews or nieces, I would probably just get them each a small gift rather than multiple gifts. </p> <p>These are such tricky situations because you never want to leave anyone out or have anyone's feeling get hurt. Probably worth it to have a conversation to decide what direction family member want to go in. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655296 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:16:03 +0000 snowjewelz 2655296@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have a small family (parents, sister, now sister's bf) so we do small gifts for each other... Nothing extravagant. With his side which has way more people, we only do for kids. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655286 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:09:09 +0000 catomd00 2655286@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We gift only to kids and DHs parents because they watch our kids 3x/week. I'm definitely closer to some Neices and nephews more than others, but I don't feel right not gifting for all of them. It's hard though because I barely know some of them and what they are into. But, they're still our nieces and nephews. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655241 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 11:47:49 +0000 skinnycow 2655241@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My husband is one of five and we only gift to the nieces/nephews and his parents. I"m the only sibling with a child on my side of the family so everyone gets a gift. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655225 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 11:09:27 +0000 JenGirl 2655225@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We do a gift exchange and I love it. Everyone gets to buy a gift for 1 person and everyone gets to receive 1 gift. Keeps the fun and traditional part of gift giving without a huge expense of time and money to buy for everyone. And limits the amount of unwanted gifts! </p> <p>Personally, I don't like the idea of cherry picking specific nieces/nephews because it can cause friction in the family. What I would do, instead, is do no presents at Christmas and then do presents for the nieces/nephews that you're close with on their birthday or just give random gifts at other times of the year. That way it's less obvious that you're singling them out. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655218 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:58:55 +0000 LCTBQE 2655218@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Smurfette: maybe I just need to get familiar with what kind of toys kids would like--I'm a bit clueless, but now that I have one I guess I'll start to figure it out! adults who have everything are tough, that's why I'm kind of like, why are we even doing this?<br /> @bushelandapeck: right, that's why I'd like to figure it out now, so we don't get in the pattern of everyone feeling obligated because of what we did last year. seeing everyone sounds harder for sure.<br /> @dc yoga bee: ugh, my mom does the clearance thing too because she's obsessed with the idea that we have "something to open"--last year I gave away literally everything to goodwill, it didn't even cross the threshold of our apartment. this year I am asking my parents for a donation to Planned Parenthood. family gift basket is a super nice idea, hope it catches on over there! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655216 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:57:53 +0000 schubr03 2655216@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We usually buy for parents/grandparents on each side and have bought for our siblings (though I'm hoping to get rid of this soon!). On my dad's side, there is a HUGE family. He is one of 12 siblings and I have 30 first cousins on that side. So we always do three different exchanged (kids, adult women, and adult men). Each year we do it a little differently, some years we pick names, others we do a white elephant, others we do a gag gift. It just depends on who plans it. Kids also receive gifts from godparents (we are all catholic and all have godparents on that side). On my mom's side we only have one first cousin, so we usually bought for him too. He's astranged now, so no one buys for him really. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655213 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:53:25 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2655213@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LCTBQE: that would save all the secular folks a ton of money every season! :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655212 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:51:25 +0000 Smurfette 2655212@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LCTBQE: It isn't a lot of effort. I would rather buy for 9 more kids, they are fun, verses adults. I mean my grandma needs nothing, so hard coming up with something that isn't cheesy. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655208 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:47:15 +0000 dc yoga bee 2655208@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We each come from a family of four, and even we want to stop. My in-laws give us xmas list with $100 items on it. For the adults! And then they give us $2 mugs. Everyone is an adult. We'd be happy not exchanging as they do it begrudgingly, and find the cheapest stuff on clearance they know doesn't fit! Next year, we don't plan to see them on holidays and plan to send a family gift basket with nice wine, and other things they can enjoy as a family. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655203 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:42:56 +0000 bushelandapeck 2655203@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LCTBQE: It's so hard. I would love to cut back but I don't see how we could do it, since we've been giving gifts to all the kids for so long. We do limit how much we spend per child and that helps some. We see all of these individuals for Christmas which also makes it hard to decide to scale back on gifts. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655201 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:41:43 +0000 LCTBQE 2655201@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thank you for the ideas/responses, everyone! I'm going to keep gifting the my-side nephews and float the name-draw idea for my husband's side. If that doesn't fly, think I'll just quietly send small gifts to the couple of kids we're close with. </p> <p>@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: @ShootingStar: seems to me that it's such an out of control commercial holiday-- I think I might be the only atheist who agrees with the "let's keep the Christ in Christmas" bumper stickers :) </p> <p>@Smurfette: that sounds nice but like so much effort! maybe part of my reluctance is just laziness. love that your own aunt/uncle gifts have graduated from you to your kids, seems really sensible. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655200 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:41:30 +0000 FaithFertility 2655200@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My family needs to have this chat! We always give to everyone but now as we are older/married/kids/BIL/SIL<br /> It's getting to be a lot!!!!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655196 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:34:40 +0000 Smurfette 2655196@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My family is big. We still exchange gifts with my siblings. I think drawing names is a good idea but my sister doesn't want to. Then my parents and grandma. We buy for our nephews, plus 9 cousin's kids that we buy for. Smaller stuff but it still adds up. We also do a small gift exchange with my cousins, we draw names and DH and I each have a gift to buy. My aunts and uncles bought me/us gifts till we had a child, then our gifts stopped and they just buy for LO instead. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/christmas-presents-for-everyone-in-your-family#post-2655184 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:24:10 +0000 LCTBQE 2655184@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Microscope: this is a really nice idea for siblings/adults!<br /> @Mamaof2: yeah, I was thinking a board game might be good as a group gift if people on husband's side don't like the niece/nephew name draw idea. </p> <p>@josina: @bushelandapeck: wow, so you two go all out! I think part of my confusion here is that the baby boom has really just happened in the past couple of years, and I think everyone *did* get presents for the kids when there were just 2 or 3--now that there are 10+ it's overwhelming, but hard to stop gifting the oldest kids who have come to expect a present. </p>