My family has decided that the grandkids (so my generation) should do Dirty Santa (White Elephant) this year. Which not only do I HATE (I've never played and not had someone wind up disappointed), but we're also dealing with an age range of 4-36. It includes DH too, so we need 2 gifts for about $20 each. Any ideas?
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I always do scratch off lottery tickets. Everyone loves them.
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Movie tickets?
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In my husband's family it's become an exchange of liquor/wine. And I also hate it. We changed up our Xmas plans when they switched to white elephant and we don't go to the gift exchange part because they just end up fighting about presents and the rules. Each year they argue about what constitutes a "real" present. We did a few years of travel mugs, water bottles, and/or wine accessories. If you're a tea family some nice tea could work. I really prefer secret Santa over white elephant, but that's just because it so does not work for our family.
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Lottery tickets
Candy (we're doing a huge bag of gummy bears for one of ours this year
A cozy blanket -
Or you could do your own baked goods. My sister did a homemade apple pie one year (wrapped a nice pie pan). Or you could do homemade brownies or cookies in a nice tin or on a cute platter.
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Lottery tickets are a no go because some of my family members are extreme conservatives (it's considered gambling). But movie tickets are good, and I do decorated cookies that I sell, so if I can find time that could work too. Thanks for the ideas, keep em coming!
@tofuwad: I'm going to suggest secret Santa next time. They decided without us present, so we got no say.
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@Torchwood: ornaments could be fun! Or a board game like Apples to Apples that the whole age range would enjoy. Craft supplies? Maybe an adult coloring book and a child's coloring book and some colored pencils and crayons as a bundle? Even if the 4 year old picked it, he/she could share with their parents and they could all color! Or a New Year's Eve party pack with poppers, hats, noisemakers, sparkling cider, plastic champagne flutes, etc. A movie night bundle with some fancy popcorn and a family friendly movie or two, plus some Sno Caps?
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Gift card to Target
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gift card or chocolates or hot cocoa?
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I think movie tickets or a restaurant gift card (fast food or coffee or an ice cream place etc.) would work well.
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chocolate
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Ornament, homemade sweets, DVD... Honestly, my policy is to get something I wouldn't mind taking home myself!
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Google Archie McPhee, my go-to for white elephant
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I did colouring book and cheap pencil crayons.
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@Torchwood: is this where you can steal someone's gift? OMG I hate it too! I can't believe people do this and I think it should be outlawed. Sorry to be extreme. I only was forced into one in college and the entire room ended up fighting and upset.
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@Greentea: I think it just depends on the group. We do this almost every year around the holidays with a bunch of our other couple friends. It turns into a huge strategy session of people trying to manipulate to get the gifts they want and last year we were laughing so hard we were crying!
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@Greentea: I agree with you. It never ends with everyone happy.
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Lots of good ideas here. At the recent Yankee Swap I went to, the popular gifts were a smores-making set and fancier bath products.
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I bought a camel back water bottle for $15 and filled it with chocolate covered pretzels rods. I think any age would get use out of that. For our other one I just bought a bunch of yummy stuff at Trader Joe's because no one else has one nearby, for $20 I think I got a coffee sampler, two boxes of chocolate, peppermint chocolate covered pretzels, and trail mix. I figure everyone will enjoy at least one thing from that bunch.
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Adult coloring book?
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