Spinoff to Holiday gift thread (long)

Which family members are you getting gifts for, and how much are you planning to spend on each? Do your family and DH's family do holidays differently?

I'm Jewish and as we got older (and everyone went off to college, grad school, etc) we all stopped doing gift exchanges for our extended family. Just immediate family really, and it's not really a big deal.

Christmas in DH's family is a big deal, where people drive in from all over the country to his grandparents house, they do lots of gifts, and have lots of little traditions. ex: 'speed gifts' where you spend ~ $1 and get the same thing for everyone and everyone opens it at the same time.

I'm a little overwhelmed by how many people we'll have to get gifts for, and I also feel like if we're giving gifts to his extended family members maybe we should do more for my family too?

I also want to start holiday shopping a little early, but I have no idea how much to budget for each person's gift.... like parents? siblings? grandparents? cousins? etc

I was thinking our speed gifts this year could be a wedding picture in a dollar store frame but other than that (which has a set budget built in) i dont know where to start!

Christmas is rough for us.

On my side we buy for:
siblings, nieces,nephews, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

The limit for the kids is $50 and the limit for the adult COUPLE is $20 - I make those limits myself, there are no actual 'rules'

On his side we buy for:
grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, nieces and nephews - no cousins.

The limit for the children is $200 and the limit for each adult COUPLE is $100. They are CRAZY. His aunts have spent $50 on just me ALONE with brand name stuff. . . whereas my family is much more likely to give an ornament or something small.

Our families decided to stop buying for everyone. We now do Hannukah Harry (Secret santa for the jews). Pick a name from the hat and buy for one person. So much better.

I'm sure we'll get presents for the neices/nephews.

we both celebrate xmas but we started celbrating the holiday at our home and everyone is more then welcome to come


we buy for

my sister
my sil
his brother
both parents
my grandparents
his aunt and uncle
and our 2 nephews and 2 neices


we dont really have a limit of what we spend, but whatever the amount is we try to spend the same on both set of parents and the same on the neices and nephew

Christmas is nuts for us!

For my family we buy for:

mom, dad, bro, sis, 3 aunts, 3 uncles, 10 cousins and 2 cousin's kids. plus a few others that join us for christmas eve...it's about 30-35 ppl. I keep cousins and cousin's kids (except my two godsons to about $25-30 each) My godsons...about $75-100. My sis and bro- $50-100 each, My parents...at least $100 each. aunts/uncles usually a couple gift..about $30 each.

Dh's Family:
stepmom, dad, 2 stepbros, 3 aunts, 1 grandma, 2 uncles, 1 cousin- then wine for his stepmoms sister and mom.
Stepmom & dad about $100 each, stepbros $75ish each. Aunts/uncles/cousin, etc...$25 each.

Plus, I exchange will my closest friends...between $40-$75 (depending on the relationship)

Did I mention..I don't have a job right now!!!!!!!!

And of course Dh...We're crazy and last year we spent upwards of $500 on each other!

Wow! this is going to be so overwhelming! I think DH and I need to make a spreadsheet of everyone we will have to buy gifts for, an estimated amount for their gift, and any ideas.

Then hopefully I can start shopping around and thinking about ideas.

My friends and I dont normally exchange gifts, but I think I am going to do something for them this year. Some kind of cute picture frame (either a 1-photo, 2-photo, or multi-photo frame) that I may or may not decorate, and then will put wedding pictures in it (I have individual shots of me with all of my bridesmaids, and some other good shots). Cheap but shows we care.

It's so hard to decide what to spend on people.... like DH's brothers who still didnt give us a wedding gift? How much do we spend on them for xmas?

If we give his cousins gifts, do we then give my cousins? But we dont normally exchange gifts with my cousins....