Every year, people ask us for theme ideas from my family’s annual Christmas gift exchange. We first mentioned this tradition on a podcast episode in 2016 and now, nearly a decade later, we’re putting the full, updated list in an easy-to-reference blog post. So if you or your family are feeling stuck or overwhelmed by your holiday shopping list, see why introducing a theme might do the trick!
How Our Gift Exchange Works
For as long as I can remember, my extended family has organized a gift exchange to lighten our collective holiday shopping load. Instead of buying gifts for EVERY SINGLE cousin, aunt, & uncle (there were 22 of us growing up!) we would draw a JUST ONE name at random from a hat.
The only rules are:
- It can’t be the same person you had last year
- It can’t be an immediate family member (sibling, parent)
We built traditions around this exchange. On Christmas morning, we’d take a special moment to go around the room and watch each person unwrap their “exchange gift.” After Christmas dinner, we’d fold up little strips of paper and draw names for the next year. I’d describe it as a huge part of my core Christmas memories.
We’ve adapted the exchange over the years too. As more cousins got married and had kids, we condensed the list from individuals to family groups (ex: me + Sherry + our kids = 1 unit). And as my immediate family grew, we instituted secondary exchanges between my siblings & our spouses and another between our kids & their cousins. All of these gift exchanges help reduce the stress & cost of holiday shopping, and allow people to focus on fewer, more meaningful and specialized gifts.
Why Holiday Gift Themes Help
At some point, we added a theme to our Christmas gift exchange. I don’t remember why or who suggested it, but it’s been another fun and helpful part of our tradition. Plus, it has lead to some interesting and creative gifts over the years too!
They started off simple (ex: Food & Drink) but have gotten quirkier over time (ex: What’s That Smell?) since we try not to repeat a theme. Whatever you choose, I’d argue a theme makes gifting more fun for both the giver and recipient – especially in exchanges where you might not know the person super well (think workplaces, neighborhoods, that cousin you don’t see very often, etc).
Gift themes are like a writing prompt. They can narrow your focus, spark an idea, or point you in a more specific shopping direction than “find something Great Aunt Barb might like.”
Sure, everyone still wants to give and get things that are well-liked. But we find that with a theme, we care less about getting stuff that matches our personal interests, and mostly enjoy things that are a clever, thoughtful, or interesting interpretation of the theme. So our whole family finds that it makes gift shopping easier, less stressful, and more fun… which is why we haven’t done a single year without a theme ever since!
20 Holiday Gift Exchange Theme Ideas
Here are two decades worth of Christmas gift themes that my family has used – including some examples of how the idea was interpreted. Some of the trickier ones ended up being the most fun (#19 for example). Feel free to use or adapt any of them that you think would be a hit with your family.
- Say Cheese: Photo or cheese-related gifts were the main focus – we got a state-shaped cheese board for our cousins who live in Wisconsin. Many other things like frames, polaroid cameras – and even mouth related stuff like novelty gum (saying cheese = smiling) was in the mix.
- Travel Junk: Items or souvenirs that people picked up while on trips or vacations that year was the subject of this theme – so many people got fun mugs, ornaments, or other keepsakes (a box full of postcards from every state, etc).
- The Year of Granny: To honor my great grandmother’s 90th birthday, we chose gifts that reminded us of her, like an the automatic card shuffler that she owned. Lots of her favorite snack, or items in her favorite colors were exchanged.
- Hey Hot Stuff: Hot or spicy foods, fire-related items (candles, firepit supplies), or things to keep your warm (socks, blankets, etc). This was fun because it had a wide interpretation.
- The Great Outdoors: Activities or games to use outside or items related to spending time in nature (trail mix for hiking, National Parks books, and headlamps for the kids – who got a giant kick out of them).
- Back In The Day: Old school items like a retro-style board game or a nod to family history & traditions were items that ended up being exchanged this year. This was a fun one.
- On The Road: Gifts that were good for road trips or travel, like car activity books for kids, favorite car snacks, a cool atlas or book of trail hikes someone could road trip to, etc.
- Out of This World: Space, alien, or sky-related gifts (we sent a sampling of freeze-dried candy and other “astronaut food” to our cousins).
- Magic & Mystery: Gifts like “mystery snack box” with fun international snacks or this murder mystery puzzle were good for this theme.
- Be A Good Sport: Sports-related gifts like memorabilia from a favorite team or actual games to play together, tickets to a local event, etc.
- Feeling Green: Eco-related gifts, or things that were literally the color green. This was a surprisingly wide category that we all enjoyed.
- Peace & Quiet: Gifts around relaxation & calm (candles, books, sleep masks, spa gift cards) or even things to keep kids busy to give parents a spare moment or two.
- Across State Lines: Local gifts from the town of the gifter. This was fun because you could send something your area was known for, or some local treat or item.
- Outside The Box: Things that are unusual, any item that you take out of a box to complete (like puzzles, board games, etc), and items that are too big to fit in a box at all – like “adopting” a wild animal.
- Book It: Literal books, reading related items, or things related to “booking” a ticket, trip, etc.
- What’s That Smell? Gifts with distinctive scents (candles, soaps, foods, scented markers, etc) or gag gifts like a fart machine.
- Small Business Finds: Items or gift cards that support a small business in your town, the town of the recipient, or a favorite small business online.
- Trivial Pursuit: Anything falling under the traditional categories in Trivia Pursuit (Geography, Entertainment, History, etc.)
- G.O.A.T.: Things you think are the “greatest of all time” in their category, or that can be explained by other interpretations of the G.O.A.T. acronynm (like: Go Out And Travel). There were also some gifts featuring the actual animal, like the hilarious “screaming goat” we included in ours.
- Safe & Sound: Items related to safety (we got this light up collar for my cousin with a new dog) or that make noise (someone rounded out their gift with some Pop Rocks candy). Someone gifted us a Worst Cast Scenario survival book, which was pretty entertaining to read on our next road trip.
How We Pick Our Gift Themes
There’s no art or science to picking our themes – someone just pitches one in person or via email – and then we vote or casually agree on a favorite as a family. These days we usually just go with the first idea because by now we all know what makes a good theme for our group, and can think in a wide way to make a lot of things fit into any category we land on.
What makes a theme good? Something that has multiple potential interpretations – including unexpected ones! This is why we try to use a clever name or phrase, not just a descriptive category – like choosing “Feeling Green” over a theme like “Eco-Friendly.” This small spin encourages, but doesn’t require, people to be creative when shopping. “Feeling Green” still covers eco-friendly gifts, but also things that are green in color or even things that will have your stomach churning (like those gross out Beanboozled jelly beans).
So if you’re coming up with a new theme, I’d suggest thinking of simple category – colorful things, food & drink, things related to history – and then giving it a fun title. For example, give your colorful things theme a name like “Over The Rainbow.” This opens the door to ideas related to The Wizard of Oz/Wicked, things found in the sky or space, or maybe even things at the end of a rainbow (gold-colored gifts, “lucky” charm bracelets, etc).
Here are some more examples:
- “Food & drink” could lead you to “What’s Cookin’ Good Lookin’?”
- “History-related” could lead you to “Time Travel”
- “Music” could lead you to “Loud & Clear”
- “Travel” could lead you to “Pack Your Bags!”
- “Toys & Games” could lead you to “Press Play”
More Holiday Gift Ideas
We’ve definitely been guilty of shoehorning a great gift idea into a theme some years! So if you need a few general gift ideas to get you started, be sure to check all of our holiday gift guides:
- 2025 Holiday Gift Ideas
- 2024 Holiday Gift Guides
- 2023 Holiday Gift Guides
- 2022 Holiday Gift Guides
- 2021 Holiday Gift Guides
- 2020 Holiday Gift Guides
- 2019 Holiday Gift Guides
- 2018 Holiday Gift Guides
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