It's the thought that counts...

Some friends and I have an informal agreement not to go overboard in giving each other christmas gifts. In fact we have jokingly set each other the 'Poundland Challenge' to find inexpensive, though thoughtful presents.

Do you have a similar agreement? It is, after all, the thought that counts!

I rarely exchange presents with friends.

When I worked, I would exchange gifts with co-workers and with my staff. With my staff, we always drew names out of a hat, so we had only one gift to purchase - therefore it tended to be on the large side. Years ago , in college, I would exchange with my roommates and we would have price limits.

I only buy presents for my immediate family so I try to make the most of my budget. I always buy what I know will make them happy but I don't go overboard.

With the rising food and gasoline prices off the charts these days, a wonderful and most useful Christmas gift for family members are "Gift Cards" to Gasoline Stations or to Supermarkets. They are thoughtful and appreciated gifts.:christmastree:

I have never made such agreement with any of my friend but still rarely I share any gift with my friends on Christmas. But yes, with my older friends whom I normally don't get time to meet to them I send some gifts on Christmas. I share gifts like Christmas figurines and collectables. Christmas in July

When my daughters were younger, I was a Girl Scout leader for their troops. Every year we would exchange an ornament as a gift. Price limit was $5. Girls would bring the wrapped ornament to the party and a number would be affixed to each one. The girls would then draw numbers out of a hat and that would be their ornament. They loved it and I hope it gave them an appreciation for decorating.

My non immediate family has a Secret Santa thing where everyone buys a generic gift within a certain price limit. On Christmas day all the gifts are given a number, everyone picks a number out of a hat and that's your gift. Of course, we have the "Dirty Santa" part of it included, where if you pick a gift and you like someones better then you can steal it from them in exchange for the one you just picked.

We always say we aren't going to go overboard in my family, but every year my parents get the kids and grandkids something extraordinary. They treat us too well for being adults.

I was actually apart of an interesting "Secret Santa" at a previous job. Everyone would buy a gift (we were all men so it wasn't too hard to choose something) then we would bring them to an impromptu Christmas Party at the bar. The boss in those days was a real scrooge, he would give us half the day off and we would have our own party lol. Anyways, we would all take a number 1 through 12 (there was 12 of us) and select one of the gifts at random to open.

#1 would select his gift and open it.
#2 would select his gift and open it HOWEVER if #2 liked #1's gift better he could swap it.
#3 would select, open, and could swap with #1 or #2 if he wanted


It continued like this until all the gifts were open. There was a bottle of Jack Daniels Whiskey which changed hands about 6 times lol.