[Quiet Man Cometh]

Christmas can get tricky with relatives. I suppose I'm lucky in that my family is big enough that there's always someone around who each person gets along with so while we all make appearances, we all grin and bear it when it comes to being around people we don't like.

On the gift end, we used to all get each other presents but it's been a while since the family has been too large to make it financially comfortable. Presents tend to be something people don't like to talk about, I think, because no one wants to feel cheap or look like they are being scroogy, but as of a couple years ago my cousin who is married with two kids has decided that she just isn't going to indescriminately buy gifts anymore and sent a family e-mail around saying flat out to let her know if anyone wanted to exchange gifts and overall not to get her anything.

That has caught on and has helped a lot with some of the christmas tenstion as now people don't feel obligated to get gifts and they don't worry about not having a gift for someone if they get one unexpectedly. Now each of us just announces who we get gifts for (often it will be things like "only the kids" or "only my immediate family/household." I only bought small gifts for my mother and siblings. My dad doesn't care about getting stuff and would rather I spend money on something more productive.