Christmas Gift Exchange

In our family, we started a new family tradition a few years ago.

When I was growing up, we used to draw names for Christmas gifts. We would each have a sibling or parents name, and we would pick a night and we would all go down to a store. I think it was called Grand Central, and later the name was changed to Fred Meyer. It was similar to today's Wal-mart. We would divide up into two groups, with Mom and Dad each being in charge of one of the groups, and we would go through the store finding gifts for each other. I remember many times when we would see the other group, and we would rush to run away from them so they wouldn't see the gifts we were buying. Everything was covered with coats in the cart anyway, but we would still run. Many times there were complications and we couldn't split up the groups so we divided all the givers and receivers, and so Dad would devise a game plan so we could pass some kids off from one parent to another so we could all get our gifts in one night. We would all go home, and mom and dad would help us wrap our presents and put them under the tree. My parents never put out the gifts that they had bought for us until Christmas Eve. In our house, Santa was a very minor part of Christmas. Our stockings were filled by "Santa," but we always knew the rest of the gifts were from our parents, they would just wait until Christmas Eve to put them out. Now that I have my own kids, I see how smart they were. The presents that we bought for each other were usually the only presents that made it under the tree until Christmas. I can't remember if the tradition of drawing names stopped for a while, but I know that we drew names after I got married.

After I got married we began drawing names for Christmas presents, and I think we tried many different things until we finally decided that each sibling/couple would buy for another sibling/couple, and each child would buy for another child. We exchange our family gifts at our family Christmas party. We did this for several years but soon some of our families became large, and some only had a couple of kids. A few years ago, as we were getting ready to draw names, some of the siblings asked to not be included because it was a little hard on the budget, and many others agreed that finding the money for the gift exchange added to the stress of the holidays. We all hated to have this fun tradition be a strain to anyone and so we started the tradition that the gifts all had to be homemade, and there had to be a $5 limit on kid gifts, and a $10 limit on couple/sibling gifts. I have to tell you that at the beginning, I was terrified. I am not a crafty person, and I am not that creative. When I have an idea, it is usually a pretty good one, but coming up with those good ideas is very hard for me. I was worried that the kids would be getting a 2 year olds crayon drawing, and they would think Christmas was lame. I do have to say though, that I really love this tradition now.

This is my Dad at 21. Isn't he handsome!!

This year we drew my sister, Mimi's, name. Mimi loved watching our home movies when we were growing up, and I had been wanting to burn our home movies onto DVD for her for a very long time. We bought the software a while ago, and I finally sat down and figured out how to work it. It wasn't very smooth, and we had a lot of trial and error before we got something I was happy with, but I was really happy when we were done. It was so overwhelming, but so great to spend that much time with our movies. I found many that I had never seen before. All of my grandparents have died, and so it was great to go back and watch all the movies of them. My favorite movie that I downloaded was a pretty long clip of all of us girls (there are 6 of us) and my brother playing baseball in the back yard with my dad. While we were playing, my Grandparents came out and started playing with us. I just sat there and cried as I watched it. It was wonderful to completely immerse myself in the movies. I had to watch each clip several times to get it ready to put on the DVD. It felt like I was watching a familiar movie. One where you know the ending, and you know the character development of each person. I watched the movies from the last year before my Grandma died, and I felt the panic as I watched it, and I saw us all having fun, but not savoring every last moment with her. I learned to love myself like I love one of my kids. I wanted to be able to talk to that little girl, and reassure her, and tell her she was a pretty neat kid. I loved putting the DVDs together for my sister, knowing she would love watching them, as much as I loved putting them together. I really loved putting something of myself into them. I know that I could have gone to the store, and picked out a present that my sister probably would have loved, but it felt great to give her something that came from me.


Mimi also had drawn my name. Mimi is an incredible gardener. She loves to make things grow, and her cute little yard is amazing. A few months ago, I read on her blog about her indoor herb garden she was growing, and I thought about how I needed to have her help me. I have wanted an herb garden for forever, and I even have a little spot in my backyard where I plan to put one when we get our yard in next year. Mimi had these cute pots she had planted her herbs in. Well that was my present. She was so excited when she talked about her herbs in her blog. I asked her if she had any left, and she told me that she had some seeds, and so she could start a new herb garden. She transplanted some of the herbs, but she ran out of pots. She even gave me all the cute little pots!! I love my herb garden. I am sure that I would have loved an herb garden that I started on my own, if the herbs lived, but I love this one so much more because it has part of Mimi in it.

My kids each LOVED their gifts too. Allen got a collection of Perler beads that glow in the dark, and some candy. He carried his Perler beads around all night last night, and then got them out first thing this morning. Michael got a very cozy pair of pajamas that he put on right away. Makenzie got a pink, heart shaped rice bag that she microwaved several times last night, and had to take to bed tonight, and Morgan got a blanket that is kind of a mix between a blanket and a scarf. It is perfect to keep him warm, but not trip him as he runs around the house. He loves it and has to sleep with it.

I have gone on long enough, but I was just thinking how much I love our new tradition, and how it hasn't turned out anything like I thought it would. I thought at best, it would be a way to save money, but it has really been a life changing experience for me. It sounds so cliche, but it is really true.