That's pretty much my feeling. I end up with a bunch of stuff I don't want, don't need. I'd rather people just saved the money and told me "Merry Christmas" or whatever and we had a nice meal together.

LOL... me too. I don't need any more ticky-tacky or little "gifts" that I have to find a home for. It's just a pain and a waste of money. The one "exchange" I don't mind all that much is a Christmas ornament exchange. You can always put another ornament on your tree....

AND, I feel the same way about secret pal swaps on the board. I get mostly things I don't want or need, so I don't participate. I need less junk in my home, not more.

As we get older, do we really need "gifts"? Don't we go and buy what we want when we want it? Don't we have enough stuff?

Yes this year I like the ornaments that can be made for friends and close family. They can be put on a tree, or even in a window or anywhere.

I opt out whenever possible (my old work one was compulsory, which seemed to me to go against the point...).

As others have said it is usually a complete waste of money resulting in the participants ending up with a small (or not so small) item that they have no use for.

I can see the logic behind it, but I believe that it's a case of the idea very often sounds better than the reality!

Dislike the gift exchanges. Even ornaments, as we do not celebrate the season. The few guild exchanges I tried, I spent hours on the handmade gift ( guild rules) only to receive something slapped together just before the meeting. Not even donation worthy. Guild opted for a food donation or for several years we collected personal care items for the homeless. Turn out was much better and we all felt better knowing we were helping someone else.

I don't like them.

I do like them on here tho because sometimes I get stuff that I've never heard of! And then once I know what they are and start using them, I wonder how I did without it!

Exactly! You said it well.

So well put.... esp. the last bit. I will not take part in anything where I am TOLD I have to buy a gift. That, to me, is not a gift. A gift is when you give something willingly, from the heart, that you know someone will like. You should not be agonizing over, "Oh, I don't know what to get her, I don't know what she will like..."

I think a great alternative to a group giving each other gifts, is to adopt a needy family and give THEM what they NEED.

My quilting group does what I think is neat at Christmas time. We all make one or two items and have a silent auction for them. We buy tickets 3 for a dollar or what ever price we pick to use. We put bags by each item and put our tickets in bag we hope to win.Its fun trying to win and at the end all money goes to our local food pantry. At the end we all come home with something as well as helping some familes have a nice Christmaas meal.

Some gift exchanges I like, some I don't. White elephant exchanges can be fun if well run. WOW bringing the same gift for everyone in your guild could get quite expensive and time consuming. I'm not sure I would want 25 gifts myself. I have enough stuff. My guild used to do a gift exchange every year where you brought a $10 - $15 quilt related gift.If you brought a gift you got a gift. We did different methods of distributing them. A couple of years ago I suggested that we all probably have way too much stuff. Why don't we do something charitable instead. I was really surprised at how well this went over. One year we had a panty party for a homeless shelter. A lot of shelters desperately need underwear. We all brought underwear and showed them off at the meeting. Things got a little bit silly as we showed them off. Then we packed them up and took them the shelter. They were thrilled. Last year we had a baby shower theme. There is a local center that helps women who can't afford it get what they need for their baby. Anything from diapers to baby beds. We all brought baby items and showed them off at the meeting. This is a lot more fun that what we used to do. We haven't chosen a charity for this year.