Finances & Money

Link Love: 14 Gifting Ideas

I’ve been holding onto this link for a little too long because it’s a wealth of great ideas and took me a bit of time to get through. Hot on the tails of my own story of trying to limit gift-giving with our siblings, Penny Nickel at Money and Values has 14 different ideas for exchanging gifts this (and any) holiday season.

Obviously we tried #1 (Make no-gift agreements) and failed with one sibling, but next year I’m going to propose #2 (drawing names).

Under the “Give non-purchased stuff” category, I’m afraid that not everyone thinks that giving is about trying to find the right gift. Rather, they think that it’s about how much you spend or that it’s all shiny and new in the box. For instance, we had a few coloring books in the house and we decided to give them to my nieces last year. Turns out that Stacie had colored a couple pages and the kids saw them and pointed them out to my sister. This year, my mom reminded me of that and thus began a little argument.

So, gauge your gift recipients well. You might be surprised at their response. You never know when someone is “traditional” and when they might be flexible in their gift exchanging.