ARTICLES > Playing the Christmas Game
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Playing the Christmas Game
When your family comes together to celebrate Christmas everyone brings one present to a predetermined maximum value ($10 or $15). They are all placed under the tree. Everyone is given a random number up to the number of people who are present. The person with number one gets to take any present they want and opens it. The person with number two gets to either take a present or, if they like the present number one opened, they can take that off them. If they take number one’s present, number one must take a present from the gift pile. And so on it goes. The fun comes as there are more presents opened and gifts are taken from others. By the way, it works best if you make the rule that a gift can only change hands twice. Game Two: If your family is small then Game One may not be viable. A way to cut the Christmas stress for a smaller family is to make a draw early in the year where every family member draws one other family member’s name “out of the hat.” They buy a gift for that person up to a predetermined value. So, on Christmas Day, everyone gets one gift. The gift can be given anonymously. Game Three: Another fun thing to do is for every person to come along to Christmas day with one present which they have purchased for themselves up to a predetermined value. It can be a lot of fun to see what a person will buy for themselves. And, everyone gets something they actually want! A couple of other ideas: ► Other families relieve pre-Christmas stress and the potential of going into debt by buying gifts for younger children within the family only. ► It can be fun to make the rule, Homemade gifts only! ► I know a family that buy all their gifts on Boxing Day morning and meet for dinner that night. The sales on Boxing Day mean big savings can be made. To read our Resource Centre article, Cleaning up Christmas Debt - click here. |
When FORTIfi representatives visit clients and potential clients we often take a profile of their personal finances. One of the questions asked is, “How much do you spend on gifts and presents?” The answers vary but one thing is noticeable – people are not spending as much on Christmas gifts as they once did. Many people have foregone the tradition of swapping gifts with all and sundry and have devised various ways of saving both money, and the stress of working out what to buy for everyone.