Give me ideas. So many people to buy for!

[TheWorstWeek]

Growing up there was only ever my parents and my five siblings. Now we are grown and have our own families the amount of people I have to buy Christmas presents for is getting crazy. Like, we are talking 30+.

Obviously, my own children have a separate budget but I try to keep all nieces and nephews to about £10-15 each. There is 8 of them now so even that adds up quickly and there's still 20ish adults to buy for!

We've got a couple of big purchases to make in this last quarter of the year so I'm looking for some ideas of what to get the grownups in our life without costing us an arm and a leg. Any frugal and thoughtful ideas?

@TheWorstWeek I just want to say i totally empathise with the long list. I have tried to cut mine down but can't get it any smaller than it is so the budget just has to come down accordingly

You say people give you a list of things they want and use so why do you need ideas?

It's a bit confusing.

@Dreamerinme love the bulb idea!! Definitely adding that to my list for future :)

@pestothepenguin typically I do but this year I was looking for ideas on how to make it a bit easier on myself. I'm not going to get my family tat that they won't use but the idea of hamper style gifts or cinema vouchers have been really helpful.

Sure. My point was just about your casual/ perhaps unconscious sexism.

in this case it’s a conscious choice to make the point.

Clearly depending if they drink/what they are into:
-Scratchcard
-Sloe gin (just need sugar, aldi/lidl gin and pick the sloes for free)
-Flavoured vodka. Just stick a vanilla stick, chilli pod or werthers original in vodka
-Indoor plant. I like the amaryllis idea.
-Seeds for next year
-Mini herb pot for the windowsill. If you take cuttings now, the plants will be big enough by Christmas to fill a pot. Cheap pots at charity shops/marketplace.
-Spring bulbs
-Jigsaw
-Garden bird bath or feeder (aldi/lidl often have them)

About 10 years ago I simply told everyone we were not doing presents for anyone other than our child and not to buy us anything.

No one took us seriously and we had the usual pile of unwanted gifts descend on us. We gave thanks and smiles and absolutely nothing else. Not one gift.

They got the message. A decade on, I don’t even send cards :) It’s great.

@Lesina how I wish I'd done that 30 years ago!
I hate Christmas with a passion only because of the gift thing. It's not even the cost, if I could just throw money at it that would be great. It's buying gifts for adults I only see at Christmas. All the children are now adults as well.
I absolutely refuse to buy vouchers for anyone as I know my DC never use them. When they were little I would always buy the vouchers off them but now they are adults. I know of many experience gifts they simply never use, money wasted.

I have done the same gift for everyone thing but I've run out of ideas.

On top of this I now have DCs partners who I actually really want to treat but have no idea what to buy.

I do think themed gift ideas is a good one - like the recipe book for each adult idea. Apart from anything else, it reduces the number of shops you need to go into. Being able to go into a big Waterstones or local indie book shop and get half your gifts bought in one half hour trip is useful.

also recycle ideas from each side of the family - so if you bought something that was a hit with someone in DHs family last year, is there someone in your family you could buy the same thing for.

we’ve reduced right down the number we need to buy for but it’s still tricky.

Oh and we have the joy of lots of most of the older generation in both our families have either late October or November birthdays, so need to think of two things relatively close to each other, we can’t buy early for Christmas as invariably someone else have bought the Christmas gift I’ve found for my dad as a birthday gift for him and I end up have to return and think of something new.

I too suggested Secret Santa and there is always one person who loves getting 30 presents who says no.

So I progressively put less effort in and this whittled it down over a few years. Also as the years went on people were more willing to admit they had everything they needed and/or were difficult to buy for.

Started with all couples getting one gift between them. Then gifts got more generic. Now have a system that involves very little mental energy and a much lower budget.

@elderflowerspritzer

Bet you're fun at parties .

Relationship doodle map. The women also does pregnancy journeys and baby mile stone maps
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CustomDoodleMap

£10 Costa voucher for all the adults.

DH and I chose library books for each other when we were skint!

Nice bottle of prosecco or wine for each adult, lots of supermarkets do big discounts if buying 6 or more x

Once us kids reached 18 we didn't get individual presents. Younger ones got a nominal one like a selection box.

Now we have more or less lost our family ties, cousins are all adults etc we don't have much to buy. I'd stop doing adult presents and either do family presents or just something small for the children.

We don’t buy presents for adults in our family (except for our own children and our parents). We just buy for the children. Now nieces and nephews are grown up we have stopped buying for them but buy presents for their children. (I should add that I have an enormous family and 9 siblings!)

A few years ago I gave myself (and others) the gift of not giving.
Now I only buy for my kids and a little something for their Nan and Grandad.
That's it.
It's amazing, last year I went a step further and said no Christmas cards to anyone.
Maybe I'm just an old scrooge. I don't care 😂. Christmas is so much less stress now.
Oh and I told family and friends of this so they didn't buy us anything.

I’m a big fan of the decide once idea. I pick a theme every year and everyone gets the same or a variation of the same. I’ve done booze and chocolate, cinema vouchers for their local cinemas and snacks, board games, plants, nice water bottles, restaurant vouchers, nice notebooks and pens .

My fave was those classic books with nice covers, I picked boobs I knew were special to them and I included a gift receipt so worse case scenario it was like a fancy book voucher but best case it was quite a thoughtful gift.

I have no problem with giving couple gifts.

I’m actually a bit stuck for this year but I know for sure I’m only looking for one good idea!