We're doing a white elephant gift exchange with family - no gift purchase can be more than $50 - the gifts get put in the middle of the table (or Xmas tree) (we're going to celebrate Xmas eve this year) and each fam member will get a #, which prioritizes who gets to choose a gift from the collection first ... you can then 'steal' a gift from someone else, only 2 times and that gift is then theirs - it's a huge amount of fun ... and makes one think about the gift purchase and put some fun into it ... I learned this from my previous company who did this every year with all their employees and it really is so much fun, with folks 'dressing' up the white elephants to attract the gift recipient .... so, that equates to one gift per person, as opposed to a gift for every member.
We have however never taken our boys (23 and 27) on a family vacation, so we'll do this next year and this will be our 'real' Xmas gift to ourselves (mom and dad) and kids, but we're fortunate to be able to do this (thanks to the bonus check).
Fortunately our family is small - 5 in total, so this is much easier to do.
Cash all the way - relief - we paid up all our car loans and credit cards and probably have about $300 in total debt - doesn't get better than that. We also tend to buy Xmas gifts during the year instead of waiting until the last minute.
Try the gift exchange, it's a ton of fun - the bigger the crowd, the better ...
Happy Holidays
Des
Credit Scores 770 and over for most family members ... I'm trying for 800.
