[mrsred]

We do a fun gift exchange. For beginning you could keep the limit low, like a gift under $10 - $15. I have a big family so the women bring a woman's gift and the men a man's gift. With a smaller group everyone can just bring a non-gender specific gift. (kid's are not a part of this, everyone gives gifts to the kids). Anyway, all the gifts go into the center of the room, no name tags, and then we draw numbers. The person with number one goes first, and opens which ever gift they choose. Then #2 gets to decide if he wants to steal what #1 opened or choose a new gift. #3 has choice of either opened gifts or new gift. Etc, etc. If a gift gets stolen, the person that lost the gift immediately gets to choose a new gift. They can steal any gift except the gift that was just taken from them. We play that you cannot steal a gift back from the person that stole it from you. But if A opened it, B stole it from A, C stole it from B, then if A would be able to steal it from C. Does that make sense? After everyone has gotten a gift it goes back to number one. Now that all the gifts are opened she can steal what ever she wants. The person she stole from gets what ever gift she is giving up.
It sounds complicated but it really isn't. It can get to be very funny, with stealing going on. The first year my husband spent with my family, over 20 years ago, he stole a windshield scraper from my dad. For the next ten years, what ever dh had opened Dad would steal it, whether he wanted it or not!
I have heard of some families getting upset over this game, but I think they have higher limits. We are up to 20 25 now, but even at that, there is nothing worth fighting about.