Family Get Together Ideas
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Family Get Together Ideas
I am trying to come up with an idea for my family Christmas party this year. We usually all get each other gifts spending $20-30 a piece. But this year everybody except dh and I are in financial difficulties so nobody wants to do our traditional gift exchange. That's not a problem. I suggested drawing names but that was ok'd until about a week ago when another financial hardship hit. Everybody still wants to get together for a Christmas meal though. I'm not allowed to get gifts except for the little ones, but I want to do something and not sure what to make it fun.
This is kinda the scenario. There are 15 of us--13 of which are 18 to 77 years old and 2 are less than 5. We would normally spend an hour after dinner opening presents which we won't be doing. I want to have something to fill that hour and still give everybody something to take home as sort of a memento. It can't be too expensive (around $5 maybe) because I'm not supposed to be getting gifts. I don't want to make anybody feel ill at ease about the money issue. I just want to have fun and maybe start a new tradition. It's just casual, nothing fancy occasion. I want something that is more about the thought than the money.
Anybody have any ideas?
The white elephant game...you'll have fun, no one will think of it as gifts and well...everyone will have a ton of fun. We always do. This is what we would do at office Christmas parties.
What about board games or charades. You could buy some frames at the dollar store and take pics of the group and put them in the frames...Either polaroid or digital and get them printed later- or send one of the older kids out to print them real quick!
Or a memeory page book. Have everyone write their favorite Christmas memory and make a scrapbook- this could be added to every year.
Not sure if the game we play is called the White Elephant game, but if it is, then that is exactly what I was thinking! Such fun, and little money has to be spent.
Do you know what this is Imamommy? My game is where everyone draws a number and all of the gifts are numbered. Then you start with number one, and that person gets the gift and opens it. Then person number 2 gets gift number 2. Before opening it, he can choose to keep the gift or trade it for gift number one which is already opened. If he keeps it, he opens it. If he doesn't, he trades it to the other person, and they open it. Then number three's turn. He takes gift number 3 and before opening it decides on whether he wants to keep it or trade it for one of the opened gifts. The game keeps going till you get to the end. The basic idea, is the person holding the unopened gift can either choose to keep it or trade it for an opened gift. That means if person number six trades unopened gift to person number two, then that person can still choose whether to keep the gift or trade it for an opened gift. It can be traded until someone decides to open it. Then play moves on to the next person.
I hope this makes sense! And it is tons of fun. Gifts should be lots of different things for all ages: bubble bath, nail polish, mixed nuts, box of chocolates, a cheap toy, a stuffed animal, a tape measure. Just different things so there is something that everyone will want to trade for. It's so much fun!!! The gift isn't even what really matters, it is just the fun of doing it. You just need to make sure you have one gift per person who will play. Our family has each person bring a gift if they want to participate worth $5 or less.
I agree with the white elephant would be fun and they can wrap something from home.
I am in charge of games for Thanksgiving and there is about the same number of us. So far we are playing Jeopardy (I have the system at my work). We will probably do Bingo for the kids, with silly little dollar store prizes. I will bring some group store bought games but you can make your own just as easy. My cousin did "the amazing race" at their last family gathering with the couples having to complete physical challenges in a race (the men had to be the "camels" and pull their wives behind them on a blanket across the finish line to get their next clue). I would rather play some fun games and sing silly songs then open presents any day.
I think I've played the game but they called in Dirty Santa. I guess cause you can take somebody else's gift.
I love the idea but I think I'm gonna get enough $5 or less gifts to cover everybody and age appropriate for dd and great-niece to make it simple. That way everybody just brings a dish and then we play and have fun. And I know that all the gifts are decent, worth taking home gifts. My brother might bring something dumb if his wife didn't intercept it. I've already picked up a few things today at Dollar General and Big Lots. Cute stuff.
DD wants to make a hand wreath where you trace everybody's hand and glue it to a circle to make a wreath.
I think it will be fun. Any other ideas would still be appreciated.
Here's another idea.My bestfriend's son just got married,and his bride's aunt made them this.She took pictures of both of them,from birth to the present,added music to it and made a cd for them.She also made copies for other family members.You could round up special family pictures(Christmas,birthdays,birth's,etc)and show after dinner,and surprise them with their own copy.But I don't know much about how to do these things,so I don't know what programs that you would need to get.The country song by Alan Jackson"Remember When"is a great song to start out with.
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