Buying Christmas Gifts for 6 Nieces and nephews...on a Real Tight Budget!

Hi T.:
Our family is HUGE!! We usually have the family xmas party at my home,because it holds everyone,and we're centralized.Each year We have aprox. 35 to 40 family members. There is no way, for each and everyone of them to buy a gift for all present. We'd all be in the poor house, and besides, It would take days for everyone to unwrap the gifts! lol We began pulling names from a hat years ago,and whewww. It sure makes things a whole lot easier on everyone. You can concentrate on that one gift,and the rest of the evening is spent eating, watching videos of christmases past, and singing xmas carols.We always have special things for the kids,like coloring contests, The last couple years, we had everyone show up in their pjs,and slippers and this year,we're going to do the same,but I want to have those who wish to, sit around the fire and read a short story about their favorite xmas as a kid.Everyone always has a wonderful time,and the big plus, is that they aren't going to be (paying for xmas for the next 9 months!! The first time I suggested the gift exchange, I was a little nervous about how they all would handle it. Everyone I asked , thanked me,for taking the financial pressures off of them. There is a price war going on for toys right now, between wall-mart...target and kb toys. Check those out,I heard they were doing it this year because of the big crunch. I wish you the best. J.

Buy the Play Doh 24 pack of colors and break it up into batches for each kid, and also buy one of those huge things of 100 cookie cutters and break those into batches for each kid. This will cost you about $5 per kid and I GUARANTEE you they will like it, and will use it. Also, I find that for boys over age 2 Hotwheels are always a hit, and they are $1 each. You could throw in a Hotwheel for the boys and a coloring book for the girls and you'd be set for only $6 each.

Hi T. , What I am going to do for the kids on my list, is I am going to go to the 99 cent store and purchance some little christmas tins, put the kids names on them with a paint pen, and bake cookies and out cookies in them, my mom did that one year for her grandchildren and my kids are now 25, 21, and 19 and they still have thir tins from grandma. J. L.

My brother and his wife were in the process of losing their house last christmas, both come from large families and we told them dont buy presants, but of course they did. They made everyone a little goody bag of candy and little party favors, but the kids loved it and they spent about 20 dollars on 7 kids!

One of the best gifts my girls got was a subscription to Your Big Backyard. It's a kids' magazine about animals by the same people that put out Ranger Rick, but written for a slightly younger audience. The best part about a magazine is that it comes each month and the kids are so excited when it arrives. Maybe you could get each family one subscription, instead of buying something for each child. Subcriptions are about $20 per year.

what about making gifts? it can be cheaper, fun and probably more appreciated? Child sized fleece tie blankets would be nice! or tye dyed tshirts. Last year I found a SET of 6 books on sale for a good price. I took them out of the box and wrapped them for six kids - probably half the price if I'd bought them individually. Even look on ebay under "lots" and you'll find people selling cases of things really cheap that you could split up.

Hmmm.... I think we are in the same boat, and my friend as well who has a lot of relatives and 3 kids of her own, plus in-laws kids. It's too much and stress for anyone's budget.
And everyone has their immediate debt to deal with, mortages, car payments, rent etc.

What my friend has done is... do a grab bag... the traditional drawing of names. And that has solved it for them.

I have personally told my closest friends, that we can no longer buy Christmas gifts this year... and everyone is very understanding as they too, have the same problem. We are reserving "gifting" this year only for our own 2 kids, Aunty and Grandma. And 1 other close friend. We have to do this, out of necessity. There is just no other way around it, for us. We will probably not even do our Photo x-mas card this year either.

I don't think, that anyone can "expect" Christmas gifts for their kids this year from "everyone" as they usually do... as the current economy and job losses and family budgets just do not allow for "perks" or luxuries this time around. I would think most people would be understanding of that.

Personally, I would not want to float by adding up more debt on credit cards or add to the bills for x-mas gifts this year... and then have to deal with the aftermath later.

If anything, try shopping on E-Bay, there are lots of good deals there. That is what I have done for my kids this year.
Also, I am only buying things that I KNOW they will use... not toys or dollar toys that will end up just thrown away or bored with after 2 minutes

All the best, I know it's not easy... we all want to buy gifts for the kids...but sometimes can't. And as a SAHM... I have to defer to my Husband as well.. .all though he trusts me completely with our purse strings.

take care,
Susan

T.,
My Mom had 5 brothers and 5 sisters. This meant a TON of cousins. Early on they decided to have "drawings" for all of us. It meant that each parent only bought gifts dependant on how many kids they had and they let us kids join in the shopping...it was a BLAST!! We were pretty organized, with a Pres/VP/Treasurer/Sec'y that handled many of our gatherings (our family reunions were crazy busy)... we would write each kid's name on a paper and pull them...then told each parent which names were drawn. We had a price limit (all agreed upon) and it was wonderful. The only problem came when one family was sick with the flu and some little ones didn't have their presents. Luckily, one of my aunts was always worried about that and she had "extra gifts" in her car. When the family was so large with cousins and second and third cousins we tried the "buy a generic gift" and each child would bring one gift and put them in a pile. Yes, this worked but wasn't half as fun as seeing the kids "helping" picking out a gift for their cousin.

I also belong to FreeCycle, CheapCycle, and ForSalePalmSprings, etc. They are great resources! Just a thought! Smile! Good Luck!!

Hi T.,

My husband's family has 13 kids (including our two ) at the family Christmas party. As the numbers started increasing we decided to draw names for the kids. My husband and I draw two names since we have two kids. His brother draws three to match his own three and so on. We establish a budget ahead of time.

I am happy with this arrangement and the kids seem to be to. I also used to worry about what to get. Even $10 for thirteen kids is a lot of money, but a $10 gift is not great.

Also, the kids get excited about who they are shopping for. It is less stress for everyone and lots of fun!

My niece was the one who suggested this as her husband's family started it years before. Everyone loved the idea.

I am sure that your family has similary monetary concerns as you do. Maybe this is a good solution for you. I hope so.

C.

What about a nice bubble making machine? Kids of just about any elementary and below age love to chase bubbles. The kids would probably really get a kick out of doing it together. The three month old would still be a little young to enjoy it, but before long would probably giggle at the silly bubbles too!

Just a random idea that crossed my mind. Best of luck to you!