The dreaded gift swap
 

My DH family Christmas get together is large. 40 people plus. Thankfully we do an adult gift exchange. One male gift and one female gift. We play that gift swap game...rob your neighbor. I, frankly, hate bothering with this. I prefer to hang out and visit with everyone vs wasting time on this. It is voluntary to participate but i really don't care if we pay this game. Am i a scrooge?? It is not a budget concern....i am bored with it.

Sandy

sometimes in life, we have to do boring things to show that we are participants in the lives of our friends, family, and coworkers. i'm sorry to hear that you are bored with the game. to spice it up, how about putting in a gift that is more controversial and see how many times it gets 'stolen'. that's what i'd do. we used to play that game in our knitting club. one year, i got an 'obviously' regifted child's yarn kit. my best friend was more upset over it than i was. i just really enjoyed watching the others playing the game.

Hmmmm....maybe I will make a "rubber" plant to exchange. I remember one that was passed around oh so many years ago ! Great idea to shake things up!

Sandy

Maybe you should bring that up at the party this year. Maybe there are others who are bored with it too. I know we used to do this as every party we went to and I got really tired of trying to think of gift ideas that I thought someone else would like and I was always coming home with junk. Some people put no thought in it and just bought something for the price limit. My husbands work had a $20 limit. That a lot of money to put out for 2 people and come home with something to donate to Goodwill. It seemed the only thing that got passed around was the booze. Sounds like you have a lot of people and that time could be better spent on another game. Maybe you could come up with another came that would get people talking about the past or something like that.

We played this game when I worked and there was usually one gag gift that made it's way around. One time it was a picture of the boss! At the end a "real" gift was given to the one who ended up with the gag gift.

I don't blame you. I hate these kinds of things and can't believe others enjoy it that much either. I'm very glad we have never done this.

I don't care for these things, either. I don't see why you can't just bow out. I think the thing is to not bring something or take anything so you don't mess up the numbers.

We play this game each year however it is not a "gift" swap. We have a Christmas ornament swap.

My family does the gag gift exchange. It's lots of fun. One year I got a matching set of cheetah print accessories.......high heel stilettos, a purse and hat.........LOL
I saved it for a few years and "passed " it on to my Sister in Law.