Do you have a system of exchanging gifts?

hi corry friend^^;; my family doesn't celebrate Christmas but i join my friends, colleagues, or even classmates when i was in school. i like the first idea that we draw each others name though keeping it secret is kinda tough because some may ask someone close to that person what he/she likes so they can guess who had their names hahaha.. we also set the amount limit or range of our gifts so that everyone can receive fair gift cost or better if it's higher in my 4 best friends case whom i celebrate Christmas with, we just buy 3 gifts, one for each and so we can receive 3 gifts too. there is no price limit but we know how and what each other wants. when i was in school, we did some theme cheap exchange gifts for 10 days before the real exchange gift day. for example in day1, give something that is cute(maybe cellphone accessories with cute designs) and day2, give something that is sweet(like candies, chocolates,etc) and so on until day 10. the price is less than $1. exchange gift is pretty fun though i haven't experienced the second concept you've mentioned but i heard it happened in my younger sister's class(she's just 10 years old) hhmmm seems you are ready for the upcoming holiday

Dear Corrycrystal, Your topic of discussion really put me in holiday mood. I feel it is Christmas soon I too prefer the former method because I prefer to buy something that is more practical and have 'personal touch'. Then, it will be more meaningful, and it won't be wasted. I also prefer to receive something that is appropriate and suits me. Exchange gifts is fun, how I wish I am workinf in your company and be one of your colleague!

with my hubbys family (there are 20 of us) we play a dice game. we all buy gifts from the dollar store or that sort of thing and wrap them and they all go into a big pile in the centre. we all sit around them and have several pairs of dice going around. the timer is set. if you get doubles, you can pick a prize out of the middle, half way through when all the prizes are gone, we can open them, then we carry on and roll the dice again. if doubles happen, you can steal. this is done til the timer goes off and you can keep what you have.

I think I prefer the first one because I prefer knowing who I am going to buy for. That is the way my husband family exchanges gifts because the family is very large. We used to do something similar at work except it had to be a secret, we used to call it Christmas Cringle and by the look of some of the presents, it’s just as well it was all secret because some of the gifts were quite offensive sometimes! At home I ask everyone to make a Christmas list and go from there...

I prefer to know who I am buying the gift for, because you can make it more personal that way. If you are just buying a gift and not knowing who is going to get it...you end up buying a generic gift, especially if you have men and woman in your office. If I know who I am buying for then I can get them something that they like. I would rather get no gift at all then get a oresent that I do not like or will never use.