But wait... there's less!

I saw this poster on a train after a previous Christmas: While you may have an unwanted gift or two, they may be great gifts - just for someone else. Consider re-gifting to someone you think will appreciate it. 1 in 4 Aussies do this . Or sell it online. The Gumtree website experiences a 30% jump in posts just after Christmas. For some gifts, giving them to charity is also an option. It's unfortunate that many gifts are a waste of the giver's time / money. But it would be more of a waste to throw them out - and have them end up in landfill - or to have them gather dust at home (which is kind of the same thing).

What do you do when the extended family gets together for Christmas. Does everyone buy everyone presents? Do you just get presents for the kids? We did the Christmas Draw. Christmas Draw When a family gets large, buying everyone a gift gets expensive. To be frank, the amount of thought that goes into each gift shrinks. Enter the Christmas Draw. Each person drew a relative's name from a hat. All gifts were from "The Family" so you didn't know who got it for you. Everyone had a meaningful gift to open but it wasn't super-materialistic or super-expensive. But what to get? Over the years, it became trickier. Especially if you only saw your niece / uncle / cousin once or twice a year. Gift cards became increasingly popular when the buyer had no ideas. One Christmas at least 3 people opened a gift card for a particular hardware chain. At least one person both gave and received one of these. Stats show that 30% of these cards are never used - they're lost or expir...