We do 4 gifts each: something they want, need, wear, read and because I have a hard time keeping to that sometimes, we add in a couple extra gifts too.
My girls also do "secret sister". They each draw the name of one of the other girls and with a $20 price limit purchase something for that one sister. Now that they are older and they all have jobs, they use extra money and purchase at least something for each of their sisters also. Then they are given a budget to shop for me and my husband also. It started as 1 gift from 2 of the girls for my husband and the other 2 girls picked out something for me. But this year, they all combined and purchased the gifts all together.
We usually do a Secret Sister shopping trip one weekend before Christmas where we are all supposed to finish our Christmas shopping (or sometimes it's been starting it). But I'm not sure what they have planned for this year. I believe most of them are finished with their shopping!
When the girls were younger, we had a hard time with Birthday parties. We live farther away from most of their friends, so noone ever came to any parties we threw. So we started doing a different "thing" each year. Out to dinner (the girl picks the restaurant), an Event (we have done- the zoo, a movie, a concert, a sports event, water park, etc). Also, when they turned 16, each girl chose a dream vacation for that year. We went to the UP of MI, on a Disney Cruise, a WDW Halloween vacation, and a trip to CA/Disneyland. We have a birthday 3 days before Christmas, so for us, coming up with a Birthday idea and Christmas can go hand in hand.
Last edited by aussiegirl; 12-08-2023 at 02:57 PM.
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