A new Christmas tradition

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 expire. So it's really a present for the company, not the loved one.

Also, living in a rich western country we have all we need. Probably more than we need. So what is the point of driving around town purchasing near identical gift cards to swap with each other?

In the final year of "the draw" my aunt (who knows me rather well) made half of my gift a donation to a developing country overseas. Well done by her. That gift will bring much more joy than many gifts that go unused.

It was these kind of thoughts that led my uncle to suggest a new Christmas tradition.

What we do now

Here's what we do now - in my uncle's words:

This is what I thought about gifts... making a donation rather than purchasing a gift. My suggestion is...

• We each choose a charity that has some significance to us.
  
• We each individually (or as a couple if you prefer) make a donation to your chosen charity, of any amount that you choose.
  
• On Saturday night, we take time during dinner to each tell the group what charity we chose and why we chose it... we don’t share the amount of our donation.

I think it's fantastic. Apart from being much less materialistic, it helps out those who are really in need - which is surely more what Christmas is about.

- - - - -

Post-Christmas update:

So how did it go? Refreshing, uplifting and meaningful.

The extended family gathered for a restaurant dinner on Christmas Eve. Between courses we took turns to tell about the cause we donated to, and why it was important to us.

Particularly on Christmas Eve - after all the commercialism of the pre-Christmas period - it was uplifting to hear the range of causes that we had collectively helped. They included the Big Issue, Guide Dogs, cancer foundations (in memory of relatives we have lost), animal welfare, Ozharvest, several mental health organisations, TEAR Australia and AIME.

It was also interesting to hear of the volunteering that some relatives do that I wouldn't have otherwise known about. Overall, it was far more meaningful and much better value for money than previous present-swaps.