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Every year, people ask us for theme ideas for my annual family swap. First I mentioned this tradition in a A podcast episode In 2016 and now, almost ten years later, we are putting the full, updated list on the Blog to Reference Blog Post. So if you or your family are feeling stuck or overwhelmed with your holiday shopping list, see why adding context with a plan!
How Our Gift Exchange Works
For as long as I can remember, my extended family has organized gift exchanges to reduce our shared holiday shopping burden. Instead of buying gifts for every single cousin, aunt, uncle (there were 22 of us growing up!) we’ll just randomly pull one name out of a hat.
The only rules were:
- It cannot be the same person you were a year ago
- Cannot be an immediate family member (sibling, parent)
We have built cultures around this exchange. On Christmas morning, we took a special moment to go around the room and watch each person cut a “gift exchange.” After Christmas dinner, we would roll up little strips of paper and draw words for the following year. I can describe it as a big part of my Christmas memories.
We have changed the exchange by exchange over the years. Since many cousins got married and had children, we allowed the list to go to family groups (Ex: Me + Sherry + Our Children = 1 Unit). And as my immediate family grew, we began alternating two between our children and our partners and one between our children and our cousins. All of these gift exchanges help reduce the stress and cost of holiday shopping, and allow people to focus on fewer, more meaningful and special gifts.
Why Holiday Gift Themes Help
Sometimes, we add a theme to our Christmas gift giving. I don’t remember why anyone suggested it, but it was another fun and useful part of our culture. Plus, it’s led to some fun and creative gifts over the years!
They start out simple (Ex: Food and drinks) but get quirkier later (Ex: What’s that smell?) as we try not to repeat the topic. Whatever you choose, I would argue that the theme makes gifts more enjoyable for both Giver and Receiver – especially in trades where you may not know the person very well (think places of work, your home, your neighbor, your cousin, that cousin you don’t see often, etc.).
Gift themes are like writing fast. They can narrow your focus, spark an idea, or direct you to a specific shopping destination rather than “find something big uncle. ”
Of course, everyone still wants to give and do good things. But we find that in context, we care less about finding things that match our interests, and mostly enjoy things that are smart, thoughtful or interesting things of context. So our whole family finds gift shopping easier, less stressful, and more fun…that’s why we don’t do one year without total time!
20 Holiday Exchange topic Ideas
Here are two decades worth of Christmas Themes my family has used – including some examples of how the concept is interpreted. Some of the beliefs ended up being very interesting (#19 for example). Feel free to use or adapt any of them that you think would be a hit with your family.
- They say cheese: Gifts related to pictures or cheese were the main focus – we found a The Commonwealth Board of Constituents To our cousins who live in Wisconsin. Many other items such as frames, polaroid cameras – and mouth-related items such as gum (cheese = smile) were in the mix.
- Junk travel: Things or souvenirs that people took while traveling or on holidays that year was the subject of this article – many decorations found mugs, decorations, or other storage (a box full of cards from all the kingdom, etc).
- Grandma’s year: In honor of my great grandmother’s birthday, we chose gifts that reminded us of her, such as Shuffler’s default card that he was his. Favorite snacks, or things in his favorite colors were changed.
- Hello hot stuff: Hot or sugary foods, things related to fire (candles, firepit candles), or things to keep warm (socks, blankets, etc.). This was great because it had a wide range of explanations.
- The biggest exception: Activities or games that you can use outside or things related to spending time in nature (a mix of hiking trails, Pags Paks books, and baby heads – they get a big kick out of them).
- Back in the day: Old school stuff like Retro-Style Board Game Even a nod to family history and traditions were the things that ended up being exchanged this year. This was fun.
- On the street: Gifts that were perfect for a road trip or travel, like Automotive Service Manuals For kids, favorite car favorites, cool atlases or a book of trail hikes one can go on, etc.
- Out of this world: Space, gifts related to foreign times (send us a sample of freeze dried candy and other “astronaut food” to our cousins).
- Magic & Mystery: Gifts like “Mystery Snack Box“For delicious international food or this Burnery Mystery Puzzle they were right in this matter.
- It was a good game: Gifts related to sports such as Memorilia from a favorite team or actual games to play together, tickets to a local event, etc.
- Feeling green: Eco-related gifts, or items that were originally green in color. This was a surprisingly broad category that we all enjoyed.
- Peace and quiet: Gifts around relaxation and calm (candles, masks, spa gift cards) or things to keep kids busy give parents a moment or two.
- On state lines: Local gifts from the gifter’s city. This was great because you could post something your area is known for, or a local treatment or something.
- Out of the box: Unusual items, any item you take out of the box to complete (such as puzzles, a board gameetc), and things that are too big to fit in the box at all – like “Finding” a wild animal.
- Book it: Practical books, reading related things, or things related to booking “trips, etc.
- What is this smell? Gifts with unique scents (candles, trinkets, food, dream tags, etc.) or gag gifts like a fart machine.
- Small Business finds: Items or gift cards that support a small business in your city, the recipient’s city, or a small business they love online.
- Small pursuit: Anything that falls under the traditional categories in the pursuit of trivia (Geography, entertainment, history, etc.We are divided
- A goat: Things that you think are “the greatest of all time” in their category, or that can be explained by other goat acconynm definitions (like: get out and go). There were also some gifts with real animals, like the hilarious “to shout at the goat“Put us between us.
- Safe & Sound: Security related stuff (we got this turn on the collage To my cousin who has a new dog) or who makes noise (someone took out their gift with pop rock candy). Someone gave us a Worst Case scenario The Survival Book, which was a lot of fun to read on our next road trip.
How We Choose Our Gift Themes
There’s no art or science to picking our themes – it’s just one-on-one or email – and we vote or agree on what the family likes. These days we tend to stick with the original idea because now we all know what makes a good theme for our group, and we can think broadly to fit into any category
What makes a good theme? Something with many possible interpretations – including the unexpected! That’s why we try to use a clever word or phrase, not a descriptive category – like choosing “feeling green” over a context like “eco-friendly.” This little spin encourages, but doesn’t require, people to name when shopping. “Feeling green” still covers friendly gifts, but also things that are green in color or things that will make your stomach sink (like your stomach Beanboozed Jelly Beans).
So when you come up with a new theme, I suggest thinking of a simple category – colorful things, food and drinks, things related to history – and give you a fun topic. For example, name your colorful items “over the rainbow.” This opens the door to ideas related to the witch of OZ / evil, things found in the sky or space, or things with golden colors, “Lucky” and Lovely rings, etc.).
Here are some examples:
- “Food and drink” can lead you to “What’s cookin ‘lookin’?”
- “Related to history” can lead to “time travel”
- “Music” can lead you to “Sound & Clear”
- “Going” can lead you to “pack your bags!”
- “Toys & Games” can lead you to “press play”
Lots of Holiday Vacation Ideas
We’ve had a case of shooting a great gift idea in the article over the years! So if you need a few basic gift ideas to get you started, be sure to check out all of our holiday gift guides:
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