I've decided to start my Christmas shopping much earlier than usual this year; I want everything sorted as soon as possible. That's one thing, I'm pretty sure I can do that ok.
But. In recent years there seems a trend in my extended family (dad's side mostly) of buying for everyone. I don't mind buying tins of biscuits or whatever for aunties & uncles but my adult cousins all started buying for me and each other and it's getting a bit much. There's seven of us, plus a couple of them have long term partners, and I just can't deal with it! We don't spend much, but even a fiver a person really adds up. I need to put a stop to it (for me at least, everyone else can do what they want).
This year I have DD as well, so I was thinking of taking an approach of making it about her, not much money as on mat leave, etc. But I don't want to get into a pattern of them buying for her and me still feeling like I have to buy back for them IYSWIM.
How would you approach this? It's tricky because I barely see them (as in, two or three times a year), so the only way of contacting them really is via Facebook. I tried a few years ago to send a message saying I wasn't buying for anyone, so don't buy for me, and it worked that year but then the next year we were back to square one... 