Christmas Ramblings *very long...sorry!*

I have a massive family, including 4 kids of my own.

I start buying presents in January, and put a bit of money away each week.

For food, I save on an Asda card, and buy Iceland stamps throughout the year. The Christmas food bill isn't as scary then.

I go OTT with buying for my kids (around £1500 last year), and I spend about £60 on each of my parents. Roughly £20 for everyone else. Although buying in the January sales means I get some awesome stuff, for less, so I don't need to spend as much, but it still looks they have something decent.

We tend to only buy for parents / grand parents and then buy for kids (usually £20) usually they prefer the box anyways! You stop being a kid at 18 or when you have your own kid

Our family is very small now, but when it was bigger I used to start shopping around August to make sure that I could afford everything. Now all we buy for is my parents, a great Aunt, a couple of close friends and my godchildren. I wish grandparents were still around to buy for.

Ours isn't that big, we buy for:

My Parents

H's Mum & Step-Dad in the US (usually just gift vouchers)

H's older sister, BIL and niece & nephew

H's younger sister & BIL

Our dogs ?

However, both H's sister were born between Christmas & New Year, so we need to find gifts for their Christmas present and also something for their Birthday, which adds to the expense. I have no grandparents left now, and H isn't in contact with his two grandmothers.

I try to buy in sales & after Christmas when stuff's cheaper.

We only buy for immediate family and best friends. Do you have to buy everyone at work a pressie?! Thats 35 pounds you could save if you could persuade them to do a secret santa instead.

We had the same situation and it started getting ridiculous. My mum is one of 5 and although they're not all there all Christmas, they'll usually pop in and do presents at some point. Each is married and almost all have kids. Then there's my Dad's sister, her husband and two kids who always come for the whole of Christmas. There's me, and my brother, and our partners.

So you can imagine, with each person buying a present for each other person, it got MAD. So a couple of years ago we put our collective feet down! We now do a Secret Santa with a £30 limit. The kids still get presents though. It has made Christmas a lot better as we now have more time to enjoy our presents, they are better presents as we each make a list of things we genuinely want, and we have more time to enjoy being with each other.

Last year we bought something small my parents, my 2 sisters, my grandparents, my niece and nephew and OH's 3 nephews - OH had a pact with his parents and siblings that they wouldn't buy for each other. This year i think i'm going to just buy for my niece and nephew as we're saving for the wedding and then next year i'll go back to buying for the rest of the family too.... my one sister (the one with the children) hasn't bought for me for a few years as she can't afford it, she always tells me she doesn't expect a present but i normally get one anyway.

I only buy presents for my niece, nephew and OH, all the other adults have agreed not to bother with presents as none of us ever need anything we don't already have. (that said all our birthdays are between November and February and we do buy a little something for our birthdays)

Last year i baked cookies, gingerbread chocolate brownies and flapjacks everyone loved them, it saved a few pennies and the effort was appreciated maybe you could bake or make something?

Yep. Unfortunately!! I have suggested a secret Santa a few times but they've done it this way for a long time and they won't change their ways for anyone!

For everyone who suggested a family secret Santa. It's a brilliant idea there is just too many of us on too many sides to do it I think. They have all their Hs families too so I think it would be a nightmare trying that. Will drop hints when the PIL are next over though!!

Also I love baking and was actually all set up two years ago to make everyone different things, had recipes, knew what I was getting etc then I was struck down by the mother of all flus. I was off work for two weeks and was horrendously Ill all of Christmas. It's my favourite time too!! I was too scared to plan anything last year incase i got ill again!! Might try it this year again though!!

Thanks for all your ideas too!! And ER I thought I was organised, you put me to shame!!

We had quite a lengthy list of people but have just cut it down and have cut the cost of what we spend:

Mum and Dad £25 each

OH's Mum £20

OH's Dad and Step Mum £20 each

OH's Step Bro £15

Oh's Nan and Grandad (i havent got any) £5 each

3 of my nephews £15 each

H's Newborn Nephew £15

Our God Daughter £10

We have cut my Bro and SIL and OH's bro and SIL out as both have kids so we just buy for them.

Thats the max we spend on everyone, if we can get something in a sale or cheaper we will do. We usually have an idea about what we want to get everybody throughout the year, or sometimes we see something that we think somebody will like. Alot of the time we spend half the amount for everybody but in reality its still worth the amount we want to spend if that makes sence

x

We buy for close family so both sets of parents, H's Nan, 2 sisters one brother, 4 nieces, 2 nephews between us. Plus my BIL and SIL. Havent bothered with Aunties, Uncles, Cousins since I was little and my Mum bought my presents for me!

Me and H buy for each other and me and my bestie get a little £15/ £20 something.

Our family is quite big. We just buy for the kids of the family and for parents (We have nothing to do with Other Half's mum as she has disowned us so no problem there). We'll all have get togethers and parties around Christmas time as opposed to buying everyone gifts, however If I see something that is utterly perfect for my brother or his wife i'll get it them. We're a pretty laid back family when It comes to things so no-one really takes much offence to only the kids getting gifts.

Gosh I wish I only had your level of purchasing!

I have Mom and Stepdad, Dad and Stepmum, Brother, his GF and LO, 2x Stepsisters plus 2x Boyfriends, 1x Stepbrother. Mom, brother and niece usually have around £50 each with everyone else £20ish.

Then i've my Husband, his Mom & Dad and his 2 sisters and their 2 little ones. I'd guess H usually has about £500, the rest have always had £50 each (however H is in the army and when he is away, out of guilt, they usually have a lot more).

We then have my Grandparents and H's Nan who both insist on token gifts only.

I've then a god-daughter, and always buy for my 3 best friends (one of whom is my cousin). Then I always buy for moms brothers - 3 of the 5 are single so they usually have £60 between them via a boots 3 for 2 plus a box/tin of chocs for the 2 married couples as there are no kids involved.

This year, i'm due to have our first LO on 4 Jan - I plan to buy for my nieces/nephew/god daugher and our parents - and insist no one buys back for us, fingers crossed that works.!

I come from a massive family, both my parents are 1 of 6 children and they have loads of their own children and grandchildren now.

My dad's family are quite disorganised so everyone gets rubbish wee presents from everyone, I know it's the thought that counts but how many Lynx sets do they think young boys need?

With my mum's family all my aunts and grown up cousins get together for a secret santa night the week before Christmas. We set a £20 budget and all gather at someone's house for drinks and a takeaway. It's a really lovely night, everyone gets a great present and doesn't cost too much. The grown up boys all go out for a curry and actually don't bother with presents, just put money in a kitty to buy some pints. For the young children everyone just puts in a small amount of money which is divided between the children and given as a gift voucher or present if someone has the time. I know this sort of thing needs a couple of people to organise properly the first time around but it works really well for us and we now do it every year with minimum organisation required because everyone just knows how it works. My brothers and I always just chip in together for our parents present.

OH's family is really small so we just give gifts to everyone or chip in together if there's something big we want to get for one person.

We do a secret santa for my mum's side and my dad's side and then we buy presents for the immediate family. When we were saving for the wedding last year the entire family took a vote (without me) that we wouldn't do presents full stop. However the youngest person in the family is 18 and I think if there were kids, everyone would buy for them. Secret santa only applies for the adults. If I'm very strapped for cash I have made cookies and cakes and things for friends before.

I've got 5 brothers and sisters all with partners except my little sister, my mum and dad and a niece and nephew on my side

My H has got a brother and two sisters and partners, mum, dad, stepdad, and 6 nieces and nephews.

We also buy for H's aunt, uncle, three cousins and partners and their 4 children

The way we do it, ebacsue otherwise we'd end up spending a fortune is that we buy for nieces and nephews and my little sister bcause she is only 14 then the rest of us adults do a £20 secret santa between us.

On H's side we buy for parents and then the children, we came to an agreement just to stop buying for the adults

Then we normally do a little hamper or something for H's aunt and uncle etc

If we didn't do it like this we would spend a fortune and to be honest I love doing the secret santa with my family, it's good fun.

Never done this before, but am totally converted and will make sure i do this January - thanks ?

We (read I) normally buy for Mum, Dad, Nan and Uncle and I normally buy the presents then split the total in half and my brother gives t=me the money. My mum did tell him this year he'll have to buy his own presents as i'll be married (he is 31!). Then we have OH, his dad, his sister and BIL and his brother, so not that much. On my side we tend to only spend £30 on each person spilt between me and my brother (so £15 each) and me and my brother spend £20 on each other! On OH's side they spend more and tend to spend at least £50 on each other.

I have a large family as well and I stopped getting individual gifts a few years ago, its just too much. I still try to do something personal for each family member, but in a different way. I always use this great site, Tinyprints because of their lovely Christmas cards, which you should take a look at if you are starting to plan. I try to write a really personal note in each card for each family member. I'll try to put in a good photo from the year or the previous Christmas. I think most people are understanding about gifts and everyone appreciates a thoughtful message over an impersonal gift for the sake of giving a gift.