Please can you help me to "name" my family "secret santa"?

[ginghamgiraffe]

Apologies in advance for the all the overuse of "inverted commas", I'm aware that my post probably sounds a bit like Ross from Friends!

So for the past 6 or 7 years the adults in my immediate family (parents, sis, bro and SIL and BIL, DH and I) have all done a "secret" santa where we drew names and bought a present each.

I would like to remove the secret element of this - and make it that we take it in turns to buy for each other and that everyone knows who's buying for whom.

The original reason for making it a secret santa was that we were buying things "for the sake of it" and we felt it was excessive. This way, we put all our energy into buying for one person and the "responsibility" of buying on behalf of the whole family means that you are really thoughtful about it.

But the secrecy means that you lose some of the "fun" part of Xmas shopping (imo), which is where you see something that would be perfect for eg Dad but you're buying for SIL this year and so Dad misses out on that present.

What would you call a secret santa that isn't secret?!

If you've read this far thanks and grateful for any thoughts on this.

I don't get it . I'm being thick, aren't I? You will still only be buying for one person, say your sil, so if you were to see the perfect present for Dad you still wouldn't be buying it.

Or do you mean, if you saw the perfect present for Dad you would buy it and everyone else would choose from who was left - which sounds complicated and fraught with difficulties....

A 'gift exchange'? sorry thats a bit boring
'the notso secret santa'
Do you mean that if you see something perfect for your dad and you know your SIl is buying for him this year then you can tell her?

Ooh thanks for replying
You're not being thick, I'm not being v clear sorry!

If I saw the perfect gift for Dad, if we all knew who was buying for whom, then I could call up my bro (who (is* buying for Dad) and say "omg you have to buy X for Dad I saw it in y shop and it's perfect for him!" and then Dad wouldn't miss out.

Bro could also say to me "Oh I am buying my DW a new magimix for Xmas" and then as SIL(his DW) is the person I'm buying for, I could buy magimix accessories and an apron or something and everything would work nicely.

At the moment, we can't really talk about what we're buying as we're not meant to know who's buying for each person. It makes it a lot less fun in some ways.
I want to take the secrecy away (but then it's not called a Secret Santa)

Does that make sense?

You don't need to know who is buying for whom, just email the whole group (other than the intended recipient obviously) with the idea and the buyer can choose whether or not to use it.

That makes sense to me, but I may have misunderstood.