Christmas : Drawing Names

Nanner22

My family has been toying around with the idea of "drawing names" for gifts this year. Basically so that people are able to get 1 really nice gift instead of a bunch of smaller ones (that they may or may not really want).

Not we haven't worked our all the details of it - but for you ladies that do this with your family, how do you do it? Kids only, or everyone including mom and dad, do you set a max and min. amount spent?

I have an idea of what we are going to do, but I'd love to hear how other do it since we're new to it. The people potentially involved in the name drawing include 5 kids (age 20-25) and then our parents.

6fsn

I'm one of 4 kids.  We've been drawing names since we were under 10.  We are all married and still doing it.  The way we do it we'll draw at T-day when we are together.  If we won't be together my mom facilitates.  Only kids and spouses are included in the draw.  Our parents and our kids are separate.  We are not allowed to draw our spouse or ourselves.  The price range is $35-45ish. 

For our parents we will sometimes do a group gift for one or both of them.  Sometimes we just buy separately for them.  We have 7 grandkids total, but just buy for everyone.  My cousins have 17 in the grandkid generation.  They have a name draw amongst them.

huber22

We are in 3 name draws for our families!

My parents and siblings draw names and then buy each other books.

DH's siblings have a $10 limit (most of them are still at home, so DH's parents end up paying for the gift).

My aunts, uncles and cousins we also draw names. There's no set amount, but the gifts are usually around $20-$30. You can't have the name of someone in your family. Adults can get kids and kids can get adults.

joelen&louis

We draw names in our family too and includes both immediate and extended family. Everyone's names are placed in a bowl and drawn out at Thanksgiving and we place a max amount of $25 for the gift. There are only 2 kids (nephew who's 8 yrs old and DS who's 6 mos) in our families so they are the exception and are given gifts from everyone who wants to give one, but it certainly isn't necessary.

TarHeels&Rebels

DH's family does generational.  The parents (ILs and their siblings) exchange names and the "kids" (us and the cousins) exchange names.  MIL's in charge and draws the names in early September so people can pick up something when they see it.  The limit is $40.  We open them on Christmas day night when we're all together for the big dinner.

jennygirlmt

Popping on for entertaining ideas but I'll answer! My parents and siblings (four of us) draw names, and now spouses (two) are included.  We've been doing this for about 20 years.  The limit is $40, we don't set a min but everyone always gets a nice gift. We use the website elfster.com to draw because drawing out of a hat was too difficult since you can't get yourself or your spouse, elfster can manage those expectations. It's a lot of fun, I even got DH's siblings to do one now. Personally I think Christmas is crazy when you have to buy for everyone. This saves money, sanity and the secret is so much fun! Oh, and when we were all home for Christmas eve, we would exchange right before going to midnight mass. It's our favorite moment, sitting around in a circle exchanging this gift :-)

crissy89

My family draws names. Each "adult couple" draws another "adult couple" and then purchases gifts for that couple. The limit is $50/person and kids are not involved. The only people involved are: my parents, aunt & uncle, my grandparents and DH & I. 

This will be my first time "drawing names".  

matt-brandy

My MIL's side of the family does this : she and her siblings/spouses draw amoung themselves  -  we (H and I) are in what they call the cousins group it includes everyone else including some of the cousins kids  - so basically the two year old gets a name...Rules are - can't get your brother/sister/kid/spouse - they also go as far as everyone makes a hint list of what types of things they want, need or like..

Personally I'm not a huge fan of  all the holiday hoop la- but this is a decent way of doing things.. gives you something to do.

jess0410

Here's what we do - I have a large extended family, we are all very close and spend all the big holidays together and for X-mas we do "secret santa".  The extended family draws names and it works really well....otherwise we'd be buying presents for 20 people!!  This includes my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents.  Kids are excluded and they get presents from everyone.  The adults spend around $100 on each other.  Since everyone buys presents for their immediate family, we make sure not to draw someone we would buy for anyway.  An easy way to do this is to use Elfster.com and set draw restrictions.  Prior to taking it online, we used to draw names out of a basket every Thanksgiving.

The only problem we've had is people forgetting who they drew.  This meant someone had to keep a master list, so it took away the "secret" of who picked their name.

Kaywill27

My husband's family is really big.  He has 6 brothers and sisters that are all married. Plus alot of nieces and nephews.  Since my husband is the youngest alot of the nieces and newphews are married with kids.  We play dirty santa on Christmas Eve.  If you want to exchange gifts you just bring a gift.  We usually spend $20 to $30.  It works out really well, and is a lot of fun.

straymo

I lurk over here, but my in-laws draw names every year. We have a person outside the family do the draw so spouses don't get each other. We are all emailed our draw. We have a theme each year and that's the fun part. This year's theme is song titles. Some how the gift has to link to a song (easier than it sounds). Then we'll burn a disc for everyone with all the songs. Past themes have been passions, forces of nature). Really cool to see the interpretation.

tevagirl

jess0410:

Here's what we do - I have a large extended family, we are all very close and spend all the big holidays together and for X-mas we do "secret santa".  The extended family draws names and it works really well....otherwise we'd be buying presents for 20 people!!  This includes my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents.  Kids are excluded and they get presents from everyone. 

We do something similar.  Last year I did the name draw, I asked everyone if they were planning to attend/wanted to be put in the drawing (everyone has the option to opt out if they choose).  I used a name draw website, I can't remember the name I found it via google.  I was great because I could make sure that no one got their spouse, parent/child, or sibling.  Since there are about 20 of us this worked out great!

I sent everyone a message via FB with their recipients name, everyone except 2 of us have a FB, so I just included both names in the message to their spouse.

Then I sent everyone a group message asking for a wish list and stating the limit (G-ma sets the limit usually $20-25).  This worked out great because then everyone could see what their recipient wanted and everyone got something that they wanted.

kjewell

We just do sibling/spouses in the name draw.  We all buy presents for mom and dad.  We set a limit, its usually $25/person.