Anyone have good Christmas exchange ideas?

I'm specifically looking for the rules to the Christmas exchange where you go in order and the first person picks a wrapped gift, opens it for everyone to see; then the second person selects a wrapped gift under the tree, opens it for everyone to see; then the first person can decide to keep their original gift or trade it for whatever the second person got. It goes like this until everyone gets a gift, but I do believe that it ends when the first person gets the final choice to trade again?

I'm not clear on the rules, so if anyone has played this Christmas gift exchange, I'd appreciate it if you'd share it with us.

Oh! I almost forgot. What makes a good generic gift for under $25.00?

which, I think, is what you're looking for:

http://whiteelephant.typepad.com/

In past years, I've had good luck with Pier 1 stuff - a nice big candle and candle holder. Generally I can get both for around $20-25. It's a decent unisex gift as best I can tell.

Good luck and have fun!

probably wouldn't buy for themselves like a gift card to the local cineplex or Starbucks. Those are always popular.

Bag of coffee and a bag of tea and 2 cups?

Fruit basket.

Bottles of wine.

Bottles of Champaign.

Wine opener set?

Bottle of wine and wine glasses.

Godiva Chocolates (YUM!)

Gift card from a GAS STATION (good gift these days!)

Gift card from a local mall.

Candles always work.

I just ordered Aromatherapy Diffusers for my husband's office girls. They're REALLY cool and come in all kinds of scents. They're pretty bottles with fragrance oils and they come with reeds you stick in the bottle and they absorb the fragrance and slowly emit it into a room. I LOVE them and they were under $25.00.

From the dollar store. It is hysterical. Do I want the oversized magnifying glass or last year's calendar. Hmmmm...

I think the way we did it was everybody drew numbers. Then everybody had a turn, they opened their gift and could decide to keep it or pass it off on somebody else. No you get the magnifying glass, no you. It was alot of fun.

But I got overruled.

We've done this as a Chinese gift exchange with under $10 items. (Note - don't know why it's called that, I never asked). Anyway, everyone brings a generic gift. Draw names and everyone gets a number assigned, then #1 picks. #2 person can "take" what #1 picked or pick another gift under the tree. If he "takes" #1's gift, #1 picks another gift under the tree.

This continues with each subsequent person and each has the right to take any gift that has previously been opened. A rule was added at our house in '03 that once someone had picked and lost their gift twice, whatever gift they chose (the 3rd one) was safe from being taken by anyone else.

Rules were subsequently changed on the fly in '04 when my 6 year old niece (having lost her good gifts twice during the exchange) began crying at the end of the gift exchange because she ended up with 2 cans of Contadina whole pealed tomatoes, spices, dry pasta and a recipe for spaghetti. My Uncle Richard made a command decision and determined that he should be allowed to give her back the Blockbuster gift certificate he took from her and take the spaghetti stuff instead. Everyone's happy...Christmas (the gift part anyway) is for kids.

We have now incorporated the Chinese gift exchange into a new variation for '06. This week all attendees were sent the pre-Christmas itinerary. Each person has been assigned a different letter of the alphabet. I bring a $20 limit gift and it must be something that relates in some way to the letter "J". Jewelry, jockey shorts, jalapeno cornbread, Joni Mitchell CD...whatever. How I get to the letter "J" is also flexible, for instance, if I wanted to re-gift the Coffee Maker I got last year which is still unopened, I could simply write a "J" on it and it would qualify. I for one am not happy about this arrangement but am willing to abide by it to keep the peace. My sister is a second grade school teacher and this idea has "her" written all over it.

Hope some of this helps. I'll update you on how the alphabet exchange works. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays (<--PC greeting for '06)

Thanks for sharing your family Christmas gift exchange experiences.

You draw numbers on slips of paper out of a hat - one for each participant. Lowest number picks first on up the line - Then number 1 gets to choose from all the others to end the swap.

Yankee swap
Chinese Gift Exchange
White Elephant exchange party.