Are you struggling to juggle all the gifts you need to purchase this Christmas? Streamline your gift-giving this year as we figure out how to handle extended family Christmas gifts!
Extended family Christmas gifts can be overwhelming. Especially when you’re dealing with a larger family. Of course, you want to show your love to your people and keep the festive vibes going at your Christmas celebration, but you’re also tired of swapping gift cards with your brother or struggling to think of something to get your Great Aunt. The time, mental load, and expense of coming up with unique gifts for every member of your extended family can just be too much.
If you’re feeling stressed out by extended family Christmas gifts this year (which I’m guessing you are because you clicked on this post), it’s time to make a plan and relieve the pressure a bit. You can still give extended family Christmas gifts in a way that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out.
Budget
I’m going to go through some great options for how to deal with extended family Christmas gifts, but first it’s important to decide on a budget. It’s really easy to go crazy and overextend yourself at Christmas time. Decide on a realistic budget that won’t break the bank but that will give you latitude to give the kind of gift you’d like to give. If you choose one of the ideas for extended family Christmas gifts below, you won’t have to give everyone a 99 ¢ spoon. Everyone’s finances and family structures are different, so I won’t give you a specific number for the budget. Just be thoughtful about it.
How to Handle Extended Family Christmas Gifts
Kids only
Perhaps the most straightforward way to handle extended family Christmas gifts is to forego gifts for the adults in the family and buy only for the kids. Of course, this presumes that you are part of a family that has an abundance of children. If only one couple has kids in the extended family, this certainly isn’t the way to go.
This tactic avoids the pitfall we found ourselves in before having kids – swapping gift cards or buying each other appliances. If the adults in the family can just buy themselves what they want or need, focus on the kiddos who really get the most joy from the magic that is gifting on Christmas.
Secret Santa
If the kids in your extended family are few and far between or they’re older and no longer have the same expectations of Christmas gifts that little kids have, consider a Secret Santa set-up for your extended family Christmas gifts. Each person’s name goes in a hat (or an electronic version of a hat), and members of the family draw a name until everyone is matched with someone as his or her Santa. We all know how Secret Santa works.
The great thing about doing a Secret Santa is that it ensures that everyone gets a gift. And it’s only one gift per person, so the gift opening phase of the celebration doesn’t drag on forever. It’s also not at all overwhelming if each person has to plan and purchase a gift for only one member of the extended family. Sure, you may have a little trouble figuring out what to get your 16-year-old nephew, but at least you can pour all your extended family gift energy into that one problem.
White elephant
Another great option for extended family Christmas gifts is the classic white elephant gift exchange. This is another set-up that requires each person to buy only one gift and ensures that each person goes home with one gift. All this gift method requires is that each person buy one gift of general applicability. Then you put it under the tree and prepare for war.
A white elephant gift exchange can be really fun, but you should understand what you’re getting yourself into. First, I’ve found that white elephant exchanges typically work best when you have a group of contemporaries. That way, the applicability of the gifts that are brought is more universal. It’s hard to buy a gift that would work equally well for your grandpa and your 7-year-old cousin. Second, only do a white elephant if you have time for it. If you’re trying to shoehorn your extended family Christmas celebration between Christmas pageants and caroling excursions, you won’t finish the game.
Edible gifts
If you want to give everyone in your extended family a Christmas gift, you might want to consider edible gifts. The classic edible gift of the Christmas season is cookies, of course, but you don’t have to limit yourself! Feel free to cook/bake and offer anything that is easy to store and transport as an edible Christmas gift.
If you want to go the cookie route, I highly recommend going to the dollar store or big box store and picking up some affordable metal tins that are festively decorated. This takes care of the gifting vessel and the wrapping! You can then line the tin with wax paper and fill it up with a single cookie variety or an assortment. Some of my favorite cookies to gift at Christmas are chocolate crinkles, brown butter sugar cookies, and Snickerdoodles. All these cookies are crowd-pleasing, can be frozen for later, and are absolutely delicious!
Please remember to keep the dietary needs of your extended family members in mind when you are choosing edible gifts, though. Make sure you’re steering clear of nuts if your nephew has a nut allergy and plan a flour-free treat for your gluten-free sister-in-law. It’s easy to wreck someone’s holiday if you gift them an edible gift they can’t eat.
Same small item
If you want everyone in your extended family to get a gift from you, but you don’t have the time or the confidence in the kitchen to make them something edible, consider choosing one small item and gifting it to everyone. Gifting the same small item to everyone in your extended family is a great use of The Lazy Genius’ decide once principle. You make one decision, pull the trigger, and you’re done. If you go this route, make sure you pick something that actually works for every member of your extended family. Something like gloves or pens or socks are great options.
Experience
What better gift for your extended family than time spent together? I love the idea of an experience as your gift to your extended family. You probably don’t get to spend a ton of time with your extended family, so the gift of time together is the perfect gift.
What kind of experience you choose to gift your extended family is entirely up to you. You can buy tickets for an event, host a game night, or just go play in a park for an afternoon with some snacks. If you gift an experience to your extended family for Christmas, what do you do all together?
Family gift
A family gift is a great way to strike the right extended family Christmas gift note at the holidays. This entails buying one family-friendly gift for each nuclear family in your extended family. A family gift should be something that their whole family can do together. A game, a movie night basket, or s’mores making supplies would be a great gift for each family to open at your Christmas celebration.
If you want to really make your extended family Christmas gifts last, a subscription box would also make a great family gift. They make subscription boxes for just about everything these days, so you can definitely find a subscription box that fits your family. Some notable subscriptions include Wildgrain, subscription box that serves up bread products, and Jeni’s Pint Club, which delivers pints of gourmet ice cream to their doorstep. I think most people can get behind bread and ice cream.
Photos
Lastly, photos make great extended family Christmas gifts! Print off photos of grandma with all the grandkids or dad with all the kids or whatever, go to T.J. Maxx and grab some beautiful, well-priced frames, and wrap them. In this day and age when we take all the pictures but we never see them again, photo gifts are really great options.
Other posts
Need more gift inspiration? Check out these posts that might be helpful:
I hope this has helped you figure out your plan for extended family Christmas gifts this year. Tell us, what did you decide? It’s so helpful to hear how other people handle this tricky situation! Let us know in the comments down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.