Grab gift ideas

[meglynn]

Hi everyone!
Its that time of year again when we have to start thinking about christmas gifts! yikes! A few years ago my family started doing a grab instead of buying everyone gifts. What we do is everyone buys a gift that cost about $20. We then pick numbers out of a hat and everyone gets a turn to pick a prize. They then have the chance to trade with anyone who has previously picked or decide to keep the prize. The problem is is that I struggle every year coming up with an awesome idea for a gift. Last year my sister bought a live lobster and put if in a gift bag. It was very funny to see the look on the persons face who opened it. Do you have a creative idea I could buy for a gift for this??? Thank you in advanced because I know you are all so creative!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

 

[K-T]

It's no live lobster but...

My family plays this game too. One year I put in a hand-held tetris video game. I was surprised at how popular it was, I had adults fighting over who got it?! Another popular one I did was a starbucks mug w/ a gift card in it.

 

[NDteacher]

20 questions game

Last Chrismtas one of the kids got a 20 questions hand held game. The adults had more fun with it than the kids. You think of a word (my uncle did space shuttle) and then it asks you questions and you have to press yes, no, or undetermined. It is AMAZING... the machine guesses the right word 99% of the time. It is a fun game for kids and adults. I saw them last week on sale at Kohl's for $8.00. They also had sports people, and entertainment versions.

 

[Rubyslippers]

We did this at a work party. Some of the gifts included:

a gift certificate to Bath and Body Works (mine)
Christmas decorations
lottery tickets
a cheese block shaped like a tree (yuck!)
Avon samples

 

[SusanTeach]

gift

We did that one year with our church group and we put in a pair of silky boxer shorts with Christmas designs on them - they were so popular! I think it was more the laugh out of it than anything. Ours was only $10., but I guess you could make it a "his and hers" set!

Another time, for the youth group, we did a box of popcorn (the kind Block Buster sells that looks like a tub of popcorn, but isn't popped yet) and had a video rental gift card in it. You could do something similar and make it movie theatre gift cards and a box of Sno-caps candy.

 

[roo]

ideas

One of my friends made a really cute beach kit for escaping winter blahs. (You could easily do this for $20 if you find some deals.) She got a bright colored tote bag, cheap flip flops, a beach towel, recorded some beach music (she had recorded some Jimmy Buffett songs), had a little baggie of sand and shells, and a plastic margarita glass (might have had 2, I can't recall), with a little umbrella and a bottle of something fun to drink (she had margarita mix, but you could do iced tea or anything). There were directions on how to set up the "beach" one item at a time. It was really cute!
I've also done a recipe for something like chocolate chip cookies, a box of the ingredients, and a batch of cookies to snack on.
One year I went to the local warehouse store and bought some unusual items, including a big tub of fortune cookies, which was very popular.