Do you buy gifts for everyone? Family, friends?
Do you give edible gifts,or ‘experiences’ rather than actual physical objects? Home made presents?
Or do you have agreements not to exchange gifts at all,or to give them only to children? I know several people who are trying to cut down the number of gifts they exchange, for various reasons (but mostly environmental).
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We are giving actual bought gifts only to the children this year.
The adults in the family have agreed not to give each other gifts.
With friends,we are giving each other only home made food or drink gifts.
At work,we had Secret Santa,so everyone got something (limit was 10 euros per present).
I only buy Christmas presents for the kids in my family nowadays. Buying gifts for everyone is a pain in the ass and is not worth the effort.
Only children (and usually my parents) I actually meet, and almost all my nieces, nephews, and cousins are getting too old I find buying Christmas presents extremely stressful, so minimizing them is my gift to myself.
We never exchanged gifts in my family but because it’s tradition in my sister-in-law’s family, now we do gifts.
My sister and her partner get me something, and something to my parents, I give them each a gift and that’s it. Nothing much
I give gifts to my partner, my mother, my sister (and her partner) and my father and stepmother. We don’t have any children in the family. My partner handles gifts to the children in his family.
I like giving gifts and I like to think that I’m good at it. My personal rule is that I’ll only give books, board games, handmade things (by me or someone else), hobby supplies, food or ethically made or vintage items. I might break those rules if there’s something really necessary that the recipient might need, for example I bought a camera bag for my partner. If I had children to give gifts to I would probably include Lego.
I refuse giving or receiving presents. Christmas and birthdays just the same. Only exception are small children but I don’t know many.
We give gifts to our immediate family and a handful of our closest friends.
We usually ask people if they have a wishlist for anything, sure it isn’t the same as a spontaneous, surprise gift but it definitely cuts down on unnecessary stuff or stuff that won’t get used. If they don’t have a wishlist, we tend to get them books, consumables, experiences or vouchers.
Only with immediate family and the older we get the more often it’s just something we need anyway. Grandmothers always give us money. And then there’s the one best friend for “real surprise gift you may enjoy” exchnge. It was painting form me the last year, adult colorbook with her favorite theme this year, I just discovered she sent me an easel.
I give to close family and godchildren. I try to keep it a bit weird and unpredictable rather than give them what they want.
I usually only give gifts to my close family (mom, dad, brother and his partner) and my best friend. We tend to buy something edible, experiences or something that we actually need. We’ve agreed that everyone buys everyone just one gift maximum. The best gift every year however is the fact that we all gather under the same roof and spend some stress free quality time together.
When my older brother gets children, they will probably get more gifts so there’s that but for now it shall be like this.
I buy gifts for my family and my boyfriend’s family (we buy them together). We do not have huge families.
For some people I do buy edible gifts because I just don’t know what to give them. Typically my aunts, who are very into “useful presents” and since they don’t need anything, it’s very difficult to find something. Also my grandmothers will often be given honey or jam for the same reason. I don’t buy experiences (like smartboxes or whatever) but I might buy tickets for a show.
I really love making presents so I have to admit that I’m not reducing their number, but I don’t mind buying second-hand if it’s good quality.
Nuclear family only. Rest of the family only if we plan on visiting them.
I buy gifts for my closest family I live with every single day, that is my parents and my sister. I have no friends. For people other than my closest family, some Christmas wishes is the best I can do. And the gifts are usually actual physical objects. Nothing home made, because I’m all thumbs, even for arts classes in school my parents had to do homework instead of me because I’m so terrible in this.
In my family currently there are no kids so everybody gets one present. We brainstorm what to get each person, if we have some really good ideas, the lucky one might get more than one, but these days presents are a minor thing for us.
Only edible gifts between adults. Children get toys of course.
Yes I buy gifts I don’t buy to get. I enjoy giving at chirstmas.
I would never give money as a present.
This year I give gifts to my girlfriend, her parents, and my own parents.
Immediate family usually (Sibling, parents, grandparents) but if I know that we’re celebrating with someone else I would make sure I have a gift for everyone that will be present unless there’s just wayyy to many people, but if like there’s some extra few cousings/friends
After spending €600 on Christmas presents, mostly annoyed my mother cares so much about the entire thing.
Me and my father are looking at each other with a “who gives a shit” look but just play along.
Had to buy Christmas presents for gf(obviously) mother, father, 4 grandparents, sister and her boyfriend.
I’m a cheapskate who has everything he ever wants.
Result? A whole bunch of crap for my cat that doesn’t need it either because it’s basically impossible to buy shit for me.
Me and my sister have an amazing birthday present for each other. We allow the other to not buy a present for the other. It’s an amazing gift.
Not very pleased how Christmas is celebrating. I love Christmas, but i can’t stand the pressure from shops, malls etc. It’s all about money. I get stressed, Wich mean I don’t love it as much as I used to. For gifts it’s easier to give money, so they can save or spend like they want.
This year we all agreed not to buy gifts. Best Christmas ever.
Gift shipping is so stressful and annoying, because everyone has everything they need and you just cannot make a sensible and useful gift. So you end up trying to find the least shitty present, which is not very satisfying.
I usually give presents on other occasions, mostly when I come back from travel. Most of the time it’s something small and local and it’s just a nice gesture rather than a meaningful transaction of monetary value.
That’s better. But from now on no more Christmas or birthday presents.
I buy Christmas presents for my parents, my kids, my brother, his SO and their kids. My SO does pretty much the same for her side of the family, but of course presents for both sides are from both of us.
I usually also buy a present for my SO, but this year we agreed to skip the present for each other, and instead use the money for a weekend getaway at a hotel when Covid restrictions allow it again.
I don’t know about others but we don’t really do the gifts thing for Christmas since that’s not really what Christmas is about for us i guess
We don’t do this on Christmas, but we do it on Sinterklaasavond (St. Nicholas Eve) on the fifth of December.
I LOVE gift giving. To the extent I’ll have most of my Christmas gifts at least planned out (if not already done) by October. I enjoy putting a lot of tought into it and searching for the ideal gift for each person. I’m also one of those people who does the most with gift wrapping. So I gift to everyone at our Christmas gathering, plus at our New Year’s gathering (we alternate between my family and my in-laws), plus the kids that aren’t there at either.
This year, most things were handmade and I had a blast doing it.
Conversely, I don’t really care about what I get as a present. I’m just happy that someone thinks of me enough to get me, say, some socks with birds on because they know I like birds and have cold feet.