Christmas presents for cousins

[Jigglykween]

Hi,
my husband is from a large family, 7 siblings each of which have their own families, between 2 - 4 children in each one. We have 2 kids, 12 and 16 yrs old. Each year for Christmas we buy gifts for all kids in family but as many are now teens its getting harder and more expensive to buy for and to be honest quite a stress as well as an unneccessary expense, we have a lot of outgoings this year so trying to cut back where possible. I suggested to my husband we tell his family we only buy for godchildren (4 between us, we usually spend about £50 per godchild anyway) and let them know we dont expect gifts for our 2. We dont usually see them til after Christmas anyway so quite often exchange gifts in the new year. So it wont be like we are breaking a lovely family tradition or gift exchange etc. Anyway getting to my point how would you word this as we will put up in the family group chat and dont want it to come across as unfriendly, just stating what our plan is. I tried once many years ago when only 3 of us had children and they agreed but then got my kids presents and I got theirs none! Also to clarify we do receive gifts from all but I wonder if they feel the same, hopefully they do, and will be glad of this new arrangement. Any opinions welcome?

I think you would be very sensible to cut back, but I don't think buying for some, and not others is the way forward, unless you say that you will stop when each one gets to a certain age.
That would have to be the age the oldest is, or older.
So, if your 16 yr old is the oldest, tell everyone to make this the last year to get them presents, and, once everyone else has had their 16th birthday, that is the last year for them to.

Or make it 'once they've had their 18th', no more presents.
But if you have nieces and nephews who are already 20, then make it 21.

Or, alternatively, put a £10 / £12 / £15 limit on it and ask for lists.

Are the god children some of the nieces & nephews or different children altogether?

We cut down a couple of years ago. What we do is each family gets one other families name and we buy that family a sharing family present.

So each family gets a present from their cousins, just not from all of their cousins.

We get things like a really nice board game, tickets to a day out near them, movie night hamper etc..... when we set up the list of whose giving to who we also add some suggestions for what our families would like.

Yes, the godchildren are nieces/nephews, I think I'm just going to say we're not going to do any presents this year at all, please dont buy ours any gifts, then give the parents of our godchildren some money in a card for them to do as they wish, but not say it to the wider family.

In my family we've started doing secret Santa. We put all of our siblings names in a hat, and whoever's name you pull out - you buy their children presents. We put a £60 limit on it so if the sibling has 3 kids, you spend £20 on each. Then we all meet up before Christmas and someone has all the presents in a sack and gives them out. It's great fun and saves a lot of money!

Just put a fiver Costa card each in their Xmas card.