Christmas Gift Exchange Ideas

Tap to Read ➤ Sujata Iyer

This year, use some unique gift exchange ideas at the Christmas party and get ready to surprise and be surprised.

What's your favorite part about Christmas? Everyone will have a different answer. A working father may say it's the long-awaited holiday. A stay at home mom may say it's the gorgeous decorations she gets to put up all around her home. And the kids will say (no prizes for guessing) it's the gifts!

Well alright, not just the kids, gifts are the favorite part of Christmas for many people. Those prettily wrapped boxes, waiting for their secrets to be revealed; all the kids wondering if they had been 'good' enough to receive what they asked Santa to get them.

One tradition that many people follow is an exchange of Christmas gifts. Here, we'll give you some general ideas on what kind of gifts you can exchange for Christmas.

Fun Christmas Gifts to Exchange

There are tons of gift-exchange ideas that you can explore to have some fun at a Christmas party. The idea behind exchanging gifts is to get into the Christmas spirit of giving and sharing.

So, put a lot of thought into what gift you're going to give someone. What goes around comes around, so if you give a lousy gift, be prepared for the chance that you'll get a lousier one in return. If not this Christmas, maybe the next one. Let us see some exchange ideas here.

Gifts to Exchange with Family

Arranging gift exchanges for families is always a challenge. All the gifts are either already known, because they have been explicitly asked for, or there's some traditional gift that the family share.

This year, set a time aside in the day and have a good time exchanging gifts with one another. A friend of mine suggested this and it is quite fun. A few days before Christmas, decide who will be gifting whom. If it's a boy, he has to buy a gift for a girl, and if it's a girl, then she has to buy one for a boy.

Without asking the person they're supposed to be gifting, they must find out something that the person truly likes and enjoys. Use this information to buy a gift that he or she will like. Using this idea, you teach the children to pay more attention to others' likes and dislikes and they learn to care for others.

Gifts to Exchange with Friends

Friends can either be the easiest to buy gifts for or the toughest. They have a million choices and can shamelessly get upset for not receiving the perfect gift.

So, to make the whole gift exchange part a bit different this year, you an trick them. Give everyone a chit mentioning the gift that they must purchase for another person (secret Santa??). Make sure the gift is neutral, useful to everyone and well within everyone's budget.

To make it more sentimental it can be something to do with the entire gang, like the best photograph of the gang blown up and framed or something on those lines. The trick comes in here.

Everyone will think that they've got something different to purchase. But actually, all the chits will have the exact thing written on it! So everyone will get slightly different versions of the same gift!

Gifts that Kids can Exchange

All kids expect fabulous gifts at Christmas. And the best thing to do with kids, is to have them exchange gifts with one another. So if it's your kid's friends that you're having over for a party, use this idea for exchanging gifts. Decide on a theme for the gifts.

It could be games, toys, books, stationery etc. Anything that kids use. Then set up a budget. A decent budget would be somewhere between $5 - $10 (or even less or more). Each kid must bring to the party, a gift that is based on the theme. Then place all the gifts on a table that is out of sight.

Pile them up in neat rows. Then, blindfold each kid and ask him or her to name the row and the number of gift he or she wants. For instance, she can say 3rd row, 2nd from top. So, you pick out that gift and give it to her. If it's her own gift, then keep it aside, and she gets to pick another in the same fashion.

Gifts to Exchange at the Office

How about doing something different than pulling out a name from a jar this year? How about some homemade gifts? Yes, that's right. Ask every person to get something that they themselves made at home.

It could be a cake, an arts and crafts item, a poem written out on a beautiful paper, a painting, a pot, or even a book of recipes. You can then, on the day of the party, have all the gifts numbered and placed on a table. Write down names of all the people attending the party along with a number, on pieces of paper, and place them in a bowl.

Co-ordinate so that no one's name matches their own gift. Ask each person to pick a chit. So if the person A picks a chit that says C-16, then A will go to the table and pick up the gift numbered 16 and give it to the person C. This way no one knows what they're getting.

Those were some unique ideas to try out this Christmas. Try something new each year and you'll see how fun it is. Put thought into the gift, don't just rush to the store and get a tacky last-minute gift without any meaning. You can save a lot of money on a properly planned gift and the look on the person's face will be the perfect return gift for you!