Each year our family grows and grows.  Christmas is very chaotic.  At our family Christmas gatherings, there are grandparents (3), adult children (5) &  spouses (3) , grandchildren (21) and 2 great grandchildren.  The grandparents (my parents) feel the need to buy gifts for all.  My father's wife has a large family as well, and buy for everyone on her side to.  Times are hard, and I am trying to come up with some ideas on how we can all save money - especially my parents!  We've tried doing family gifts in the past, as well as drawing  names - but, that just didn't seem to work well for us.

What do some of you from large families do?  This year we were thinking the grandparents only buy for only the kids aged 16 and under.  Everyone else would buy a grab bag for an adult grab bag.  This would eliminate our parents buying for all the adults, but the adults are having a hard time "not" buying for the grandparents.  Of course, the grandparents say if they don't buy a gift for someone, that someone can not buy one for them either! 

Any ideas / suggestions would be greatlly appreciated!! 

Thank you!

We have tried all different kinds of things...One year we all brought a generic gift of a $10.00 value and then had a goofy game to exchange-it was a blast.  I always buy my parent a subscription to their local newspaper-they love it and I feel it a useful gift.  I've also given my siblings homemade items-Christmas tree skirts, canned jams, photo albums, theme baskets of things such as envelopes/stamps/pens etc., a magazine subscription etc.

Good luck-it's often hard not to buy-I feel things should be useful and practical.

our family does my Bils and Sils my Dh and I  draw names

niece nephew  my kids that generations draw names

the little kids draw names  

( we a big family)  this has worked for 20 + years for us .. 

I just finished the last of the Christmas stockings for everyone my SIL has finished the tree topper for the kids rooms my DH tagged three trees for possibe the best tree ever.                                                                                                                      

Like Gigi I make a lot of homemade stuff to give to people and will include something nice from the dollar store for friends, teachers, neighbors, bus drivers, mail & trashmen/women, counselors, pastor & secertaries. My parents, sister &dc's will get the same gift bags but with something a little more to their tastes. DM will be getting a couple old movies on dvd's, dsis & 1 dc will be getting homemade cheese curds, I'm still keeping my eyes open for a gift for the other dc and for df.

For those inside the house other than their annual homemade pj's on Christmas eve I figure out how much I've got total then divde it equally amoung them to find my spending limit, usually about $30 or $40 pp (5 dks, dh, &a family gift). I start 7/25 (Christmas in July) keeping my eyes open and checking out the clearance racks, plus the dollar store near me has an annual 10% off day shortly after Thanksgiving so I grab somethings for them then. I've had some good luck with getting stuff on ebay but you have to start in July and make sure that the seller has an excellent rating.

 I have one sister and 6 brothers with their spouses and 16 nieces/nephews, plus their children. We quit exchanging gifts long ago. First we tried drawing names but it was too hard to find something for someone we weren't around that much (family has been spread across the US at times). For awhile the kids drew among themselves, but had the same problem.

When Daddy died, Mom couldn't always go to shop for gifts any more (she didn't drive) and since there were so many grandkids, she started sending each of them a card with a little money in it, but soon couldn't afford that, so she quit sending gifts at all. We all kept giving her gifts for Christmas just because she was Mom and we felt as if she deserved it. It was at each person's discretion, though, there was no family decision or mandate. 

I know it's easy to fall into the "gift for gift" mentality rather than simply giving. Maybe you could talk to your parents and tell them how you feel - that you want to give them something because they're your parents and you love and respect them and that you're not giving to receive.  

 Thank you all for your ideas.  I am going to print this off and bring the ideas along with me to a family gathering we are having on Saturday.

 I wish I would have posted this months ago so I could have gotten a jump on things!

 Thank you all again.

the season is sneaking up  any new ideas

We are having a Homemade Christmas .. there alot of sewing , crochet , knitting , and wood working ... I see alot of my gifts in jar , and my big book of recipes have been borrowed and used ..   

Anyone try the aloe vera infused socks from walmart?

The nurses at work are recommending them to our clients and I was thinking they would make great stocking stuffers.

They say they are good for 25 washes but I am sceptical about anything new LOL