The wrong and ( too) early Christmas exitement thread

ElizabethB said:
Our family is huge. Gift giving became a burden. For years the siblings drew names and gifted the nieces and nephew. Now the Nieces and their Spouses have asked to be included in the name drawing. A gift in the range of $50 for your secret recipient. We do small gifts, maybe ornaments from Hobby Lobby at 50% off or, in my case, food - brownies or cookies or mini holiday bread loaves. We spoil the great nieces and nephews outrageously. They get sooo much STUFF. I give them money. My youngest Niece and my eldest Great Nephew are 16. I give them money to use at their discretion. The younger Great Nieces and Nephews are given money for their education account. My eldest Great Niece is 9 so she may get money to spend at her discretion. The things these children like or want are all tech stuff that is beyond my budget.
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TastyReuben said:
Once all the nieces and nephews arrived and it was obvious the childbearing was over, my wife's family moved to that model, but it lasted just a few years.

One family member kind of put herself in charge of the whole thing, and began changing the rules and dictating terms, then other family members decided to buck that, and it just sort of fell apart.

I can't remember exactly, but I think someone wanted to move to a "just buy gifts for the 'kids'," even though the "kids" were 25-35 years old, and someone else (quite likely me) ended up balking at that. It wasn't that I wanted a gift for myself, but I do get a little churlish when someone tells me Christmas is "mainly just for the kids," so it's very possible I was the one who finally excused himself, causing the whole pyramid to crumble, but I'm not exactly sure. Sounds like me, though. 😬
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TVC's family is rather large so the agreement is we buy for his 3 brothers and his eldest brother's 4 grown up kids (usually wine or chocolate), they buy for us (again wine or chocolate). That is where it stops with agreement all around. There are just far too many to go further.
My family is quite small, dad gets gifts, my brother's 2 girls get money, his son gets toys as he is under 10, my brother always used to get a gift from us.
 
Mother is 89. She has always felt obliged to gift all of her children, their spouses, grandchildren and great grand children. Last Year we we included her in our name draw. So she gives one gift between her children, grandchildren and their spouses. She can spoil the great grand children as much as she wants. I think it was a relief for her. She is suffering from early stage dementia. She is also on a fixed income. Dad took care of her. The house and her car are paid for. She has his Social Security income plus investment income. Her home and her security are taken care of. We, her children, decided that the stress and expense of gifting all of us was too much. We thought she would argue. Surprisingly she was relieved. It is unfortunate that gift giving can become a burden instead of a joy.
 
One thing I hated about the name draws...everyone would just tell everyone else what to get, like if I drew my BIL's name, his wife would say, "Get him this shirt, this size, this pattern, from this store."

I hated that. Why don't I just send him the money and he can do it? I used to take pride in picking out a gift, since besides MrsT, it was really only gift I had to buy.
 
TastyReuben said:
One thing I hated about the name draws...everyone would just tell everyone else what to get, like if I drew my BIL's name, his wife would say, "Get him this shirt, this size, this pattern, from this store."

I hated that. Why don't I just send him the money and he can do it? I used to take pride in picking out a gift, since besides MrsT, it was really only gift I had to buy.
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We got around that by requiring a thoughtful gift. The Guys are more difficult. We all know their hobbies, passions so they may get gift cards. The ladies are easier to to buy a personal gift. For the last two years I gifted my recipient with two "Dunk Pork Roast" sliced, vacuum sealed with vacuum sealed gravy frozen and ready for their freezer. I loved giving the gift and they loved receiving the gift.
 
An awkward transition but our local haunt bar & whisky distillery Teerenpeli (= Grouse's game; means "flirtation" in Finnish) just won the IWSC 1st price/gold medal 2020 in "Worldwide whiskey producer" category (24:34 ->). Not bad for a tiny Nordic distillery.
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I guess we'll have to buy a bottle for Christmas.
 
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