During Christmas time if you have a large family or if everyone seems to be low on $$, have a gift swap drawing. This way you don't have to buy for everyone, just one person.
Here's how it works: Each person's name is placed into a bowl or hat, and everyone draws a name. The names can be kept a secret or not.
What you can also do is to let the women buy for women and the men for men, or couples for couples, etc. You can also set a price limit for the cost of the gift.

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Alex & the spider monkey

My sister in law's dh side of the family do this, they include a few gift ideas on their name card before putting it in the hat. I wish our family would do that, but being just married into the family I find it uncomfortable to suggest it and my hints haven't been received.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

We do this for three of my xmas gatherings. Thank goodness. I save a lot of money. We always use the max of $20 too.

This was a tradition started on my Mom's side of the family over 20 years ago. And last year the tradition of organizing it all came to me. It totally saves money and is a good way to keep everyone updated at least once a year on what and where the rest of the family is. It is a huge responsibility for the person organizing it, but I am totally happy to do it.

We also do a smaller version with some of DH's relatives that live near us.

Sandra