It used to be that families had no
rules about gift buying. Everyone bought for everyone else, and
gifts were exchanged when the family all got together somewhere
during the Christmas season.
These days, it's more common for people to draw a name out of a
hat or get assigned a person to buy for. Or the family creates a
type of "white elephant" exchange instead of having family
members buy for individuals in particular. So, what many
families need is a fun way to exchange the gifts, whether they
be for a specific person or whether they are 'white elephant"
type gifts.
If the family members drew names, there are several fun things
you can do. The gifts can be hidden and clues given as to the
location of the gifts. So, if you arrive at grandma's house with
your gift for Aunt Martha, you might tuck her gift into a
kitchen cabinet. Then you'd create a series of clue as to here
it is. You might say, "Cinnamon lurks here" or "it's the hub of
the home, but not always the home of the hub".
The clues can be silly or deadly serious. They can be designed
so someone will know where to find their present in just
minutes, or designed so that it takes a series of clues to get
someone right to their gift. If the group is small or the house
particularly large, and the participants have the time you can
always create a hunt where more than one tip is left and one tip
leads to another, which leads to another until the gift is
finally found.
Why should the kids have all the fun? Create some fun gift
exchange ideas for adults. Whether the family is doing a name
draw and exchanging regular gifts or not, you can have some good
family fun with a white elephant gift exchange. How about a
themed white elephant gift exchange? If the family is into
fishing, you could create that as a theme. Everyone must bring a
gift related to fishing (this could be anything from sporting
goods items, to a singing bass that goes on the wall). It could
be a hand held electronic fishing game or a board game with
fishing as a theme.
In that same vein, you could create a "cooking" white elephant
exchange or a camping themed gift exchange. Again, it's more
about what will please members of the family than anything. Then
create some fun games for the exchange itself. Perhaps everyone
draws a number and gets to pick their gifts from the pile in the
middle based on their number. Perhaps you begin the game that
way, but then also people to 'steal' someone else's gift if they
choose.
You can require that the gift recipient shakes a gift, studies a
gift and makes a good, educated guess as to its contents before
opening it. If they are right, they can "steal" someone else's
gift, but if they are wrong, they keep theirs. Add to the
silliness factor by playing a card game and dictating that
people can't get their gift and open it until they win a hand in
the card game (ideally something fairly quick like poker or
rummy).
The idea behind any family gift exchange should be enjoying each
other's company and enjoying the Christmas spirit. As long as
it's fun and engaging, there's no reason why the adults in the
family can't have some fun games for exchanging gifts just the
kids might.