Originally Posted by WImom:
I've done a gift exchange for the kids before. Parents seemed to like that and the kids enjoyed it too. (Each child gets a name and the parent and child buy the gift.)
I had such bad luck with having a gift exchange with the kids for several years (parents forgetting to bring a gift - some spent waaay more than the $5 limit - a few were obvious $1 from the dollar store gifts)
So I changed to doing a "Golden Book" gift exchange. We don't draw names, just each family is asked to bring one wrapped Golden Book (unisex please) with their child's name on the tag in the "from" space. The Golden Books are only about $2 at the stores, so the parents are happy that it's not too expensive, and the kids are happy because they each get the same thing. I still buy a couple extra in case someone forgets, and if I don't need them they go right into my bookshelves:-)