Upstate NY Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Gift exchanges: what does your family do?
For my side of the family we just buy for the kids- babies to about 21...but I am trying to rally support for a name draw for the adults with a 20-25 limit..
For Dh's family: they buy for everyone- its not too big a group but about 15 ppl total - it usually a $10-20 item with more spent on the 3 (now 4 - with Enzo) kids
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Re: Gift exchanges: what does your family do?
we don't buy for anyone on dh's side. noone buys for us
on my side it's just my sister and her family. We decided to just buy for our parents and my neice and she only buys for my kids. it honestly just got to be spending money and racking our brains for each other to come up with gifts.
We buy for immediate family - brothers, sisters, parents, kids.
Extended family we draw names for adults.
My side - it's just my parents and my brother. We all exchange gifts. Usually my brother and I go in on one nicer gift for my parents and then separately get them small things.
K's side - she buys stuff for everyone! Six sisters, 2 BILs, 11 nieces/nephews, 8 grand(?) nices/nephews, mom, dad, certain aunts, a few gf/bfs etc. It's a bit much IMO. Granted, for the older kids (22-30y/o) she usually does like a $10 gift card. And for some of the younger kids it will just be a goodie bag of candy and stuff, but still. The shipping alone costs us a fortune.
My side has no rules- with 6 kids, 5 spouses, and 8 nieces/nephews we tend to always buy for my 1 sister's kids who we spend the day with (everyone else is out of town.)
The last couple of years I started a tradition of shipping my 4 out of town sibs a gift from one of our trips. Last year it was some yummy Vermont cheese.
I have one brother who is alone in Florida, so I usually also send him a box with homemade goodies and a couple of goofy presents (stocking stuffer type stuff).
On DH's side it's gift card central. So depressing and boring. Ugh.
Two- Holy cow! With a ton of family oot, I feel your pain. I cringe at shipping one small thing per family, much less if I bought for everyone.
My mom's side of the family is huge and my dad's isn't that close so on my side we only exchange with my parents, grandparents and my brother and his GF. And our dogs
It's perfect.
On Jeff's side, it's bad but getting better. For his 2 sisters and their husbands, all 6 names go into a hat and we choose one for our secret santa. It has cut way down on things and stress of buying and us traveling with it all. Been this way for 2 years and everyone's happy. We buy for our niece and nephew and also Jeff's parents. We buy for his aunt and uncle and their kids (why I have no idea since they can be so terrible to us and his siblings) and his other aunt and uncle who are awesome.
On my mom's side, mostly everyone just buys for the kids and maybe something really small for the adults.
On my dad's side just the kids, and then a name draw for one adult.
Can I just mention that I am 28 and married and still considered "one of the kids?" Haha, love it. I have started to buy for others though, which obviously the real kids do not do.
duplicate, sorry.
We buy for DH's mom, my parents, my two siblings, SD that is about it.
DH's siblings all have tons of grandkids and their own stuff going on, so we don't exchange. Its rather nice.
This year we are doing things differently on my side. My parents and grandparents don't want to exchange gifts, but my sisters do. With my one sis and her DH, our gift is just treating us to a nice dinner out and then we reciprocate. My youngest sister is just starting out in her own place, so we will probably get her apartment stuff.
DH's side, we buy for his 2 neices and 2 nephews. We get his sis and her DH and his bro and his DW "couple" gifts (gift certs most likely) and his parents and grandparents individual gifts.
While I am happy for not having to spend much $ this Christmas, I always enjoy shopping selecting the perfect gift so I am a bit bummed about my family.
I know what you mean. Last year my immediate family tried to draw names but spend more on a gift instead. I got my BIL and while I really like him, it was weird not buying for my parents or sisters. I said I wasn't going to do names this year again, I really hated that. I'd rather spend a little less per gift and get everyone something.
Bah! I am now jealous that you all save a ton of money compared to me.... We buy gifts for EVERYONE!
On my side, its gifts for Mom, Dad and Stepmom, Brother, Sister and 2 Nieces. (I spend the most $ on my nieces out of this group)
On DHs Side, its gifts for MIL, FIL and Stepmom, 2 Sisters, 1 Uncle, 1 Aunt and 1 Cousin
Plus the gifts for each other....
Now this might all change next year once we have the LO, but this is how its been for the last few years.
My side: We buy for my parents and Grandma. My sister and I usually exchange gifts but we decided to just exchange between Stella and my niece this year. DH & I also bought gifts for my favorite cousin but will probably nix that this year, too. She's 19 now.
DH's side: We buy for his parents and Grandparents (he has all 4 Grandparents still). He's an only child so no siblings to worry about buying for. DH usually goes all out for his family (and mine, too). He gets very generous around the holidays. But we're going to try to take it easy this year...
On my side we go ape $hit on gifts. Present opening is a several hour long process. I love it, but my sister in law suggested paring down this year so we'll see what happens. We usually buy for everyone - mom, dad, three brothers, their spouses and my 2 nieces (this year adding a nephew.) We also buy for my grandma and my aunts and uncles. It is a lot but I love it.
On DH's side we are much more low key. Usually a gift cert for his sister and her hubby, a gift for his mom and usually a charitable donation in his father's name because his dad is impossible to buy for and loves that we give to charity instead of to him.
On my side - We buy for my parents, my brother/"SIL", both sets of grandparents, a great-uncle (bday/xmas gift & plus he hosts xmas eve too) and my 2 younger cousins.
On Dh side - We buy his parents a gift and then our 2 nieces and 2 nephews.
We also buy gifts for a few friends, my work does a secret santa and Dh likes to bake and put together a goodies package for his siblings and whoever else.