Christmas

There has been a bit of a campaign run by my sister and I to do away with the free for all gift exchange at Christmas. She tried several years ago and failed. A couple of years ago I added my backing. Last year everyone was mildly agreeable except one uncle who was completely against it. He's like the anti-Scrooge or something.

So my mum and sister and I went out to eat the other day and Christmas came up in the course of conversation. My mother was apparently so tired of receiving small useless gifts and candles and soaps and lotions that she was calling everyone and completely opting out of Christmas! When I heard this, I was all ready to jump on the bandwagon and started figuring out whose numbers I didn't have or if a letter or email would work better.

Well, I ended up hanging with my sister again the next day, and she informed me that she had talked to my grandmother (Hostess of Holidays) and flat out decreed that only kids would get presents from all.

The adults will be exchanging names. We'll pick names on Thanksgiving this year and thereafter each Christmas. There is to be a $20 minimum and no maximum. Included with the names will be three things you want or stores you like to shop at.

She was going to do a spreadsheet as backup in case people lost their names and only she would know who had who. Well, I one upped that. I had long been planning that if I could implement this gift exchange I would write a program to allow for an anonymous system.

It will be a simple web based app that allows people to "login" and see their giftee and the person's wishlist. You can also update your own wishlist. In future to allow for year round wish lists, I may add a way to 'buy' something from the gift list to prevent duplicates.

The high tech solution isn't strictly necessary, but I know that someone will forget who they had, and this neatly solves that and makes it very convenient. Besides....it sounds fun, quick, and easy.