Once upon a time, Christmas presents were relatively easy. A few Bodyshop bath pearls (what on earth was in those things? I shudder to think) for your best friends and your sisters, and then you club together with your siblings to get your parents something. Everything was relatively cheap, you could get it all in half an hour on a Saturday afternoon, and everyone was delighted on Christmas morning.
But then you grow up, and Christmas gifts get more complicated. Things get more expensive. Siblings get serious partners, who must be given a gift too. People have kids, who must also receive a gift (of course they're getting a gift, what are you, Scrooge?). And you end up traipsing around the shops - and the internet - with a Christmas list that fills an entire notebook and costs as much as a small car. I don't want to sound too Grinchy, but it really is exhausing. I wrote recently about making gifts, but that's even more time consuming.
So what do you do? Well, in many families you organise a Kris Kringle. That's what happens with my in-laws, and it makes everything much easier (unless you get my father in law, a lovely retired army officer whose favourite activities are installing new floors and building extensions with his bare hands. My mother in law once said the best present for him would be to just break something around the house and let him fix it).
But in my own immediate family, it still means presents for all. Which means this year I'll be hunting for gifts for three sisters, three brothers in law, five nephews (my sister-in-laws' two kids are not included in the Kris Kringle, obviously), one in-law who I got in the Kris Kringle, one beloved aunt who always has Christmas dinner with us, two parents and a husband. And I have to admit that the thought almost makes me want to cry. It's not that I don't want to get them presents, it's that there are SO MANY OF THEM.
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But the thing is, when my mother suggested going for the Kris Kringle route this year, we all shrieked "Nooo!" Because much as we might hate the shopping part, clearly a part of us still cares about that moment when we're all surrounded by wrapping paper and books and lovely new things, eagerly awaiting the look on a sibling's face when they open their gift. Or maybe we're all just greedy and we want to get loads of presents ourselves. Bit of both, probably.
So what does your family do? Is it a present frenzy or a sensible Kris Kringle? And if it's the latter, who do you dread getting (and who are praying didn't pick your name out of the hat)?
