As I'm sitting here surrounded by wrapping paper, ribbons, colorful bags and tape I'm thinking

[Arkansas Granny]

next year everyone gets a gift card.
🎅🎄🎁

[rurallib]

1. I would be thinking "Did I wrap the cat?"

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Uh oh. Is one of your packages moving?

[radical noodle]

3. I don't mind the wrapping too much

but it's the idea that in about 20 seconds it will all become trash on the floor. When I was a kid, my maternal grandfather always gave me either $10 or a gift certificate for a local department store for $10 (and in the 50s, $10 was a big deal to a little girl). He did it because he wasn't really in my life and had no clue what to actually get me, but I loved the idea of going "downtown" and spending it.

Now gift cards have become so routine that it's no longer the fun it once was for me.

[Sherman A1]

4. Be careful with the Gift Card Idea

so many retailers and restaurants are on shaky financial ground that cash might be a better option. Hate to give a company money for a gift card only to see them going out of business before it can be redeemed by the recipients.

[csziggy]

5. Gift bags are your friends!

I keep a supply of gift bags - many are Publix re-usable shopping bags. Around Christmas they stock ones that are decorated for the holidays (they are have ones with themes for other times of the year) and my husband always picks up a few for larger items. For smaller things, we have smaller paper gift bags and pre-decorated boxes (think shirt box sizes). We have a bunch of wrapping paper upstairs in the attic that is about thirty years old from the time before we stopped wrapping presents.

Another solution is for the family to draw names or have a gift exchange - a "dirty Santa" exchange can be a lot of fun: http://www.dirtysantarules.com/

In that kind of exchange, only the adults participate - each family can decide the rules - and it can cut the number of presents to a minimum. This is what my husband's family does, since with his siblings and their spouses, plus the now grown children and their spouses, they can have twenty or thirty people for gifting.

For the next generation, I was getting book store gift cards. This year I got prepaid Visas and will give to the parents with the stipulation they are to be used to buy books. Of course, I can't control this, but I will NOT buy toys for their ever increasing piles of crap the kids all have. Plus, if any of the parents need to use the cards for essentials, that is OK, too.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. I'm a big fan of gift bags. It's just the sheer volume that is intimidating.

We have a rather large extended family and we're having our Christmas get together tomorrow at my daughters house. Everything I have wrapped (bagged) will have to be lugged out and loaded up, then it all gets unloaded and carried into her place. At least there will be some strong backs on the other end to do the carrying into the house.

[csziggy]

7. Yeah - that's why my husband's family does the gift exchange

Each person only has to get one present to give. None of us really need more stuff so only having one gift to take home is great.

The Dirty Santa makes it fun, too.

When we drew names, I never once got a present I could use. Perfume - which I am allergic to; clothes that didn't fit my size or my lifestyle, and so on. Especially as the family got bigger, we seldom see some family members so we have no idea what they might want or need and it's the same for them.

Plus, a BIG factor is less consumerism. We all spend less and get less. That is a major win for us all.

The gift game makes it more entertaining and you can trade around stuff you don't want or need.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. I can see that happening when the little ones get older.

We went 18 years without a baby being born in the family then we added 8 of them in less than 4 years time, so we still have a bunch of young'ns. Our family gatherings now span 4 generations, which is great. We never had family close when I was growing up.

Maybe I need to complain less and enjoy more. 😊

[csziggy]

9. Yes, enjoy them while they are little!

My husband's family had pretty much the same thing, no kids at all for a decade or two. Now there are eight great nephews. It frustrated my mother in law no end since she really wanted a great granddaughter and had so many great grandsons.

I'm just no good with kids. I used to know kids' book because of my librarian training, but I've been out of it too long now and had too many years I simply could not get to a store to pick out books. But our nieces and nephews with kids love taking them into a bookstore to select their own books, so that works, too.

Have a good holiday and enjoy all your relatives.

[LeftInTX]

10. We play this game with silly gifts. It's fun.

This year I found a Davey Crockett coonskin cap. Hubby is putting a bunch of beef jerky in his.

[csziggy]

11. Mostly we give serious gifts

A lot of the next generation are setting up households so we pick things they might need. This year I found a spice jar rack with "a life time supply of spices" and added a measuring cup/spoon set. My husband got an electric screwdriver with a set of bits - he uses his a lot so thought any household could use one.

I like the idea of fun gifts - maybe we'll evolve to that!