Blogmas 2020 Day 7
Raise your hand if you’ve been victimized by an awful holiday gift swap? You can’t see, but my hand is raised high. As someone who loves giving and receiving gifts, I always go all out when a gift exchange is involved. Others? Not so much. So I’ve put together a little guide to make your holiday gift exchange less sucky and more lucky!
Choose the Right Group
Provided this isn’t a part of an office holiday party, you can choose who you invite to participate in your gift exchange. Make sure you choose people who are actually interested- there’s nothing worse than giving a great gift and then receiving a half-hearted one in return!
Set a Budget
I cannot stress this enough. To ensure equity in the gift exchange, everyone must be willing to spend an equal amount of money. For best results, I suggest setting a spending minimum and maximum. This way, no one gets cheated!
Choose the Type of Exchange To Host
There are several different types of exchanges you can host. Here’s a few of the most popular ones that will work for various group sizes-
Small Group- For smaller groups (I’d say 5 or less) you can consider each person buying a gift for everyone in the group. This is the type of exchange my family and I do every year, and it works like a charm.
Mid-Sized Group- For groups of 5-10 people, I’d suggest the classic Secret Santa gift exchange. (Before beginning, make sure there’s an even number of participants so everyone receives a gift). Secret Santa is simply drawing names from a hat and purchasing a surprise gift for the person who’s name you’ve drawn. Now, this can be a little difficult if you are not close with everyone in the group. But no worries, I’ve got a solution for that! Use the site Elfster, which allows everyone to make a wish list that is sent directly to your personal Secret Santa! Elfster is totally free and takes all the guesswork out of Secret Santa. The site will even assign the name for you!(P.S. this is not sponsored, I just highly recommend).
Large Group- White Elephant is a really fun gift exchange game that’s ideal for 10 or more people. Everyone buys a gift within the budget, and brings them wrapped discreetly. You then take turns picking a mystery gift for yourself from the pile! You can even choose to swap gifts with someone if they get something you’d like more! One thing to note about White Elephant is that the budget is typically set low and the gifts can be gag gifts if you wish. I’d advise that you set an all or nothing rule beforehand to decide if you’ll do gag or genuine gifts.
Plan the Actual Exchange
Exchanging gifts should be an activity in itself! While it’s advised to avoid large gatherings for now, you can always plan a COVID-safe gift exchange gathering with your small group and make a night out of it! You might consider adding the gift exchange to the movie night I wrote about in Blogmas Day 2!
Holiday gift exchanges don’t have to suck, it just takes a little planning and creativity! Try some of my tips and let me know how they worked for you!
Jollily,
