Christmas Ideas
Better gifts, less stress, and more time actually enjoying Christmas.
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Secret Santa questions that actually help you buy better gifts
Most gift questionnaires produce answers nobody can use. These are the questions that produce a specific, buyable gift — and the ones to stop asking.
Six ways to run a family gift exchange
Secret Santa is one option out of several. Here are six formats, what each one is actually good at, and which size of family it suits.
How Secret Santa works
The whole idea in plain terms: who draws, what a spending limit is for, how to handle a group that is not all in one room, and the rules worth agreeing before you start.
Everything
Secret Santa questions that actually help you buy better gifts
Most gift questionnaires produce answers nobody can use. These are the questions that produce a specific, buyable gift — and the ones to stop asking.
Secret SantaSix ways to run a family gift exchange
Secret Santa is one option out of several. Here are six formats, what each one is actually good at, and which size of family it suits.
Family ChristmasHow Secret Santa works
The whole idea in plain terms: who draws, what a spending limit is for, how to handle a group that is not all in one room, and the rules worth agreeing before you start.
Secret SantaChristmas gifts for grandparents who have everything
By this stage of life most people have the objects they need. What they usually do not have is more of their family — which is what the best gifts here are made of.
Gift guidesChristmas gifts for teenagers who say they want nothing
Teenagers are hard to buy for because they have specific taste and no interest in explaining it. Here is how to get it right without guessing.
Gift guidesWhite Elephant Rules, Explained Properly
How the game actually works, the steal limit that stops it running for an hour, and when Secret Santa is the better choice.
Family ChristmasHow to Draw Names for Christmas
The hat works until it does not. What goes wrong, and the four rules a hat cannot follow.
Secret SantaChristmas Gifts for Your Wife
Why the obvious categories disappoint, what to do instead, and how to use the one advantage you have that nobody else does.
Gift guidesChristmas Gifts for Your Husband
For the man who says he does not want anything, and means it slightly less than he thinks.
Gift guidesChristmas Gifts for Coworkers
What to buy somebody you like but do not know well, on a budget somebody else set, without making it strange.
Gift guidesFamily Christmas traditions worth starting this year
A tradition is just a thing you did twice on purpose. Fifteen that cost little, work with a wide age range, and survive a family getting bigger.
Family ChristmasChristmas gift exchange games for families
White elephant, dice, stealing, the one with the wrapped mystery box. Seven games, with the rules written plainly and what each one is actually good at.
Family ChristmasStocking stuffers under $15 that are not filler
A stocking is a series of very small decisions. Here is how to make them count, by age, without spending the afternoon in a discount aisle.
Gift guidesChristmas gifts for mom that are not another candle
She will say she does not need anything and she will mean it slightly less than dad does. A guide to noticing what she actually uses.
Gift guidesA Christmas planning timeline that actually works
What to do in October, November and December so that the last week is about the people rather than the logistics.
Christmas planningHow to do Christmas for a big family without dreading January
The cost of a large family Christmas is mostly structural, not extravagant. Change the structure and the number changes with it.
Christmas planningChristmas traditions that work in a blended family
Two sets of traditions, split households, children moving between homes on the day. What helps, in practice, from families who have worked it out.
Family ChristmasDrawing names when couples and exclusions are involved
Couples who should not draw each other, siblings who share a room, a parent who cannot buy for their own child. How to set the rules — and why too many rules makes a draw impossible.
Secret SantaSecret Santa gift ideas when you barely know the person
You drew a name and you know three facts about them. That is more than enough, if you spend it in the right place.
Secret SantaSecret Santa rules that work for a large family
A draw among six friends is easy. A draw across four households, three generations and a dozen children is a different problem — and it needs a few more rules.
Secret SantaWhat to give a teacher at Christmas
Teachers receive a great deal of the same thing. Here is what is actually useful, and why the note matters more than the gift.
Gift guidesChristmas gifts under $25 that do not feel like it
A small budget is not the constraint people think it is. The trick is to buy a good version of a small thing rather than a poor version of a big one.
Gift guidesChristmas gifts for dad when he says he does not need anything
He means it, which is exactly why it is hard. A guide to the gifts that get used rather than shelved.
Gift guides
Draw names with your family
Free to set up. Everyone spins a wheel to find who they’re buying for.
Start your gift swap