Christmas Shopping

Welcome to Wondercafe2!

A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!

Register Log in
My son and his spouse are both paramedics, so we work around their shifts.

The one large family gathering that we have we have one family that is 21 of our 30(or so) guests).
Scheduling around them has become harder as the years go on. Not sure what will happen this year as the one date we proposed where we could all be present was deemed not suitable by the larger group.
i'm kinda wondering if it is time to say "we're done", but, also want our grandkids to play wtih my great-nieces, so, we shall see.
 
@JayneWonders
What do you do about gifts at such a large gathering? Do you draw names? Buy for the children only?

Some groups do those gift swaps where everyone brings a generic gift and then steals from each other. Not my cup of tea.
 
Oh, we have so much fun with the gift swap. It is where gifts all go into centre. It is a $25 limit.

It is funny what is the most popular gift from year to year. Years ago my son did a candy box that got stolen multiple times. A couple of Christmases ago it was pot.

People are good at stealing a gift that doesn't suit someone.

Kids under 14? Are not in the swap. The last few years the kids wanted to get into the swap early.

I buy for all kids not in swap. Santa comes too
 
JayneWonders said:
Oh, we have so much fun with the gift swap. It is where gifts all go into centre. It is a $25 limit.

It is funny what is the most popular gift from year to year. Years ago my son did a candy box that got stolen multiple times. A couple of Christmases ago it was pot.
Click to expand...
Ahh, you enjoy the gift stealing antics. Not my thing at all but I know many people consider it hilarious fun.
 
Oh, it's a game. There are fun things. People generally end up with something they can use. Wine, food, another flashlight.

What don't you like about it?
 
JayneWonders said:
Oh, it's a game. There are fun things. People generally end up with something they can use. Wine, food, another flashlight.

What don't you like about it?
Click to expand...
Well I think it often makes people feel bad for a variety of reasons. And no one can really let on they feel bad or they look like a bad sport.
 
Itay not be suitable for all crowds.

I always felt worse when I had to buy a gift for a specific person. Twenty or so years ago,my family did $75 for a person whose name you drew.. so much stress. Often wasn't a right gift bought by not so close relatives.

This was $10 back then. I so much preferred it. No stress. If someone didn't like it they traded, hah, or brought it next year!

So much depends on the group
 
One year at a family gathering we did an Environment Friendly Swap. No gifts were to be bought new - so we had items people had around the house and yard that they no longer wanted. Some things were unwanted gifts from other people. Some were useful things they had no further use for.
 
Re: the Yankee gift swap (Why is it called that?) Here are 3 examples that made me feel bad.

1. The gift I brought was two handmade stained glass Christmas tree ornaments (crafted by Mr Paradox.) They were treated like a gag gift and got passed around as funny earrings.

2. The gift I ended up with was a box of chocolates. Useless to me as a diabetic.

3. I opened a gift I liked and would have enjoyed keeping. Of course it got stolen and call me a bad sport, but I didn't find this fun.

Also, It doesn't feel great when you bring something you think is nice and no one wants it.

Yes, it might depend on the crowd. Also the parameters of the game need to be clear, I think.
 
JayneWonders said:
I always felt worse when I had to buy a gift for a specific person. Twenty or so years ago,my family did $75 for a person whose name you drew.. so much stress. Often wasn't a right gift bought by not so close relatives.
Click to expand...
We tried drawing names a few times. I liked it but some family members found it to be stressful.
 
It's sad that the ornaments weren't appreciated. I might have asked later if we could trade.
I'd have just opened the chocolates for others to eat.
I would have strategized to steal the pretty gift back, or just laughed knowing it is a game

Overall, I love watching folks and being surprised by what the hot gift is each year
 
One year at a company Christmas gathering, I opened my gift to find partially used lotions and shampoos. Gross.

The gift I brought was much appreciated, lots of Canadian goodies and some Canadian beer.

Yes, my "won" gift was s**t. Yet, I had lots of laughs and we had fun. It was cheaper than going to a restaurant.

The trick is to keep the price low enough that everyone can readily have fun
Coz really, it isn't about the gift.

It's about being together, seeing creativity, having a laugh
 
JayneWonders said:
It's sad that the ornaments weren't appreciated. I might have asked later if we could trade.
I'd have just opened the chocolates for others to eat.
Click to expand...
Yes of course others were able to enjoy the chocolates. I think I took them home for my family
JayneWonders said:
I would have strategized to steal the pretty gift back, or just laughed knowing it is a game
Click to expand...
Of course it's just a game. But you are providing a good example of how people sometimes get judged if they don't find it amusing. I couldn't strategize to get it back because it reached its limit of three times to be stolen.
JayneWonders said:
Overall, I love watching folks and being surprised by what the hot gift is each year
Click to expand...
I have participated in two of these and don't understand what you mean by hot gift. Both times I played there was a limit on the number of times a gift could be stolen.

Not my cup of tea as I said earlier.
 
JayneWonders said:
One year at a company Christmas gathering, I opened my gift to find partially used lotions and shampoos. Gross.

The gift I brought was much appreciated, lots of Canadian goodies and some Canadian beer.

Yes, my "won" gift was s**t. Yet, I had lots of laughs and we had fun. It was cheaper than going to a restaurant.

The trick is to keep the price low enough that everyone can readily have fun
Coz really, it isn't about the gift.

It's about being together, seeing creativity, having a laugh
Click to expand...
Yes it's great for those who enjoy it.
 
Paradox3, I'm not judging your feelings.

I was suggesting ways that the game can be approached.

Its too bad that those experiences were hurtful for you.

Glad someone in your family enjoyed the chocolates.
 
At the last job I held before retirement, the tradition was to make a charitable donation as a team. This was long established before I arrived and it was a replacement for gift exchanges/ Secret Santa. Good solution I thought but they still went out to a restaurant for a Christmas lunch.
 
Yeah, at work we do a collection for a local children's gift drive, though I don't know who will do it this year since the woman who was running it is off work on longterm disability, and then usually a catered office luncheon the week before the holidays (since a lot of people tend to be on vac the week of). Oh, and an office/cubicle decorating competition. We don't do exchanges any more. Too many people these days. I think all told, our head office is up to about 40 including our equipment repair and gas distribution units.

We used to have two company-wide Christmas parties, one a fancy dress dinner-dance for the adults and the other a "Visit from Santa" party for the kids. The former fell victim to a major loss in revenue due to a change in government funding and also the fundamental problem of us getting too danged big. It is difficult for people from Sudbury and Ottawa to come down here or even to the GTA just for a one-night event. The kids party was similarly running into problems of geography. So the adult party was replaced with providing funding to managers to put on local events and the kids party is now a "letter from Santa" that goes out with a gift card. Kids must be 12 and under and children or grandchildren of employees.

I used to be more involved with planning and providing IT support to the kids' event but kind of eased out after Little M got too old. Now I don't even help with the data collection and have one of my developers providing that kind of IT support.
 
Last edited:
You know that reminds me.

Years ago someone in our work department discovered a local children's ltc facility, Sunbeam lodge, could use gifts for children, specifically ones that made sound.

What fun it was to buy the gifts. My kids helped pick ours out.

They were delivered and the staff and children were thrilled
 
In my last job, my team went out for a lunch and there was also a department wide evening event which the docs paid for.

A couple of hospital wide events took place as well.

So many things got scaled back during Covid. Have Christmas work parties returned to the same extent? Does anyone know?
 
More about those Yankee gift swaps.

They kind of remind me of those table activities you sometimes see at wedding receptions and retirement parties.

They can be great fun if folks get in the spirit of it and there is a willing organizer at each table. OTOH some people feel pressured and uncomfortable and it can be hard to say no.

I remember a retirement party where one of the tables (not mine) flat out refused to participate. The activity which was meant to be fun and make everyone laugh. It was an awkward moment, that's for sure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top